Technical training is, of course, essential for improving at football. But through my own playing career in Japan, Spain, Australia, and New Zealand, and now coaching kids at Glocal Football, I’ve noticed something that comes before technique: players who truly improve tend to share the same two traits.
Those traits are the ability to think for themselves, and a mentality that keeps taking on challenges.
Move from one country to another, and training environments and coaching styles can be surprisingly different. But what’s interesting is that no matter which country you look at, the players who grow the fastest always come back to these same two things. Today I want to share my own experience and dig into both.
1. Players Who Can Think for Themselves
Thinking for yourself means being able to work out — and act on — what you and your team need to do to win, using your own judgment.
When I was playing in Japan, I often saw kids under strict coaches turn into “players who wait for instructions.” To be fair, this doesn’t get you yelled at. It can even look like being a “good, obedient kid.” But once a player gets used to waiting to be told what to do, real growth stalls. And what’s genuinely worrying is what happens when the environment changes — the moment they end up with a coach who doesn’t spell everything out, they suddenly can’t do anything on their own.
In New Zealand, I rarely see this kind of “waiting for instructions” mentality. Rather than issuing instructions at every turn, coaches here seem to deliberately create moments where kids are left to think for themselves.
This is something parents can be mindful of at home too. Instead of asking after a match, “Why didn’t you shoot there?” — try asking, “What other options do you think you had in that moment?” Give your child a chance to think rather than handing them the answer. That small shift, repeated over time, is what gradually turns a child into a player who can think independently.
2. A Mentality That Keeps Taking On Challenges
The second trait is whether a player can step up and try again, actively, right after making a mistake.
When you make a mistake, harsh reactions can come flying in — from teammates, from coaches, and at the professional level, from the crowd. Whether a player can keep taking risks without fear in that kind of environment is, I think, a real turning point for their development.
In my own experience, mistakes in New Zealand are far more often met with a simple “bad luck” than they are in Japan, which makes it a much easier environment to take risks in. That’s a genuinely good thing. At the same time, though, I think the real question is whether a player can hold onto that same mentality not just in a forgiving environment, but under pressure, on the big stage. That’s where the real difference shows up.
Every fast-improving player I’ve coached has shared this mentality. Not shrinking back for fear of another mistake, but holding firm to the attitude of “if that same situation comes up again, I’ll take it on again.”
Different Countries, Same Destination
Japan and New Zealand are worlds apart when it comes to coaching culture and the relationship between players and coaches. And yet, when you look closely at the players who actually improve, they all arrive at the same two things: the ability to think for yourself, and a mentality that keeps taking on challenges. I suspect this is one of those truths that holds regardless of country or culture.
A Note to Parents
Technical coaching is the coach’s job, but these two traits — especially the ability to think for yourself — are shaped enormously by how things go at home. Asking questions instead of giving answers. That small, repeated habit can make a real difference in how quickly your child grows.
At Glocal Football, building “players who can think” is something we care about above almost everything else. The way we work toward that is through the “WHY” question.
Naturally, we ask “why did that happen?” after a mistake. But what actually matters even more is asking “why did that work?” after a play that goes well. If you don’t just chalk success up to luck and move on, but can explain the reason behind it in your own words, that success stops being a one-off and becomes something you can draw on again. A player who can do this learns from both their mistakes and their successes.
That said, if you suddenly ask a young player, “So what should you have done instead?” — they often can’t come up with an answer. It’s a bit like telling someone to cook a new dish without first giving them any ingredients. Without something to think about, there’s nothing to think about in the first place.
That’s why at Glocal Football, we teach “individual tactics” — the fundamentals of football — as the raw material for thinking. Individual tactics are essentially a set of “drawers” a player can pull from: what to base your decisions on when you have the ball, when a teammate has it, and when the opponent has it. Only once a player has these drawers to draw from can they actually come up with their own answer to the “why” question.
Technique, the raw material for thinking, and the questions that draw that thinking out — when all three come together, a child truly grows into a player who can think for themselves. Come check out a Glocal Football session sometime — we’d love to have you.
