2024-09-26, 11:25 AM - Word count:
(This post was last modified: 2024-09-26, 01:52 PM by kenvald. Edited 1 time in total.)
"Pass it on to John". That's what his coach always said as Bengt was growing up. He played for his local team through his younger years well into the juniors, before he received the attention from some the Swedish soccer teams in the higher tier leagues. And throughout most of his learning years he played with the same coach, and the coach's son. John.
"Pass it on to John" was the key strategy that was repeated over and over again. As a life-long midfielder Bengt was usually responsible for controlling the field possession and enabling counter attacks. But whenever he would attempt to play it slow or simple in an attempt to let the play progress safely the coach yelled at him.
"Pass it on to John" was all he heard for almost a decade on the field. And after a few years of this Bengt decided that if you want John to have the ball, John will get the ball. With his newfound carelessness Bengt started sending longer, harder, and riskier passes towards John every time he had the chance. Let John get yelled at instead whenever he failed to receive the passes, he thought. But by switching to this play style Bengt improved his power and precision when it came to all kinds of advanced passes, little by little. And before they knew it his half-field passes started hitting the mark almost every time. What started as a kind of malicious compliance evolved Bengt over time into a special kind of player.
Bengt is now looking for his next John.
"Pass it on to John" was the key strategy that was repeated over and over again. As a life-long midfielder Bengt was usually responsible for controlling the field possession and enabling counter attacks. But whenever he would attempt to play it slow or simple in an attempt to let the play progress safely the coach yelled at him.
"Pass it on to John" was all he heard for almost a decade on the field. And after a few years of this Bengt decided that if you want John to have the ball, John will get the ball. With his newfound carelessness Bengt started sending longer, harder, and riskier passes towards John every time he had the chance. Let John get yelled at instead whenever he failed to receive the passes, he thought. But by switching to this play style Bengt improved his power and precision when it came to all kinds of advanced passes, little by little. And before they knew it his half-field passes started hitting the mark almost every time. What started as a kind of malicious compliance evolved Bengt over time into a special kind of player.
Bengt is now looking for his next John.
