“Soccer is Just a Game”: 5 Reasons This Perspective Makes You a Better Coach

Soccer is just a game.

Forgetting that central point is to everyone’s detriment.

For me as a player, the game went from something I enjoyed playing to a narrative I had to protect. It became image and ego-focused and turned a game I loved playing into a means to some greater end. It turned a game into a grind, and the game grinded me down.

Same is true of coaches.

We start coaching because we love the game, but soon after, we lose our way. The game, much like it can do to us as a player, transforms into something else that lacks perspective. It’s not too long before our players take that perspective much like we all did as players years ago.

Always remembering “soccer is just a game” can be an empowering lens to not just play but lead our people, but our culture can see it as weakness.

Here are 5 reasons why remembering it’s just a game can make you a much better coach.

1. It Will Fill Us With Joy

To play the infinite game, we must enjoy the process.

Remembering that we get to coach a game that we love promotes gratitude. And that gratitude can foster a joy that keeps us iterating through the inevitable ups and downs.

2. It Allows Us To See The Entire Picture

When we separate our ego from the process, it allows us to see more of what is actually going on.

The biggest problem of leadership is that we can make everything about us, which creates a very narrow and detrimental view of the game. In order to serve our people, we must see the big picture, which is only possible when we humble ourselves by remembering it’s not about us, and it’s just a game.

3. It Reminds Us That Both Winning AND Losing Are Inevitable 

Any game that we hope to transform into an infinite one, has a finite component.

So winning and losing are inevitable outcomes. When we remember it’s just a game, we protect ourselves from ever getting too emotionally bogged down by something that is an inescapable consequence of playing the game.

4. It Empowers Us To Do The Next Right Thing

Knowing that it's merely a game can motivate us to remove emotions from the situation and simply focus on doing the next right thing.

Leadership is many things, but it is built around being a lighthouse–a constant navigational focal point for your people. By remembering it’s a game, you remember it’s not about you–it’s about modeling and leading the people you serve.

5. It Keeps Us In The Game Long-Term

When you grasp that it's merely a game, you gain a deeper understanding that the most worthwhile games we engage in are infinite in nature.

This goes for all the games we are fortunate to play outside of soccer: marriage, parenting, learning and the like. The person with the longest time horizon always wins, so when we realize it’s less about what we’ve done, and all about the next iteration, we can always grow toward our potential.

Final Words

"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up." -Pablo Picaso

This is the job.

As a coach, your job is to help your players remain artists in your own way.

Culture will push your players the opposite direction. It will tell them that there are more important things to value and define the false mechanisms that produce achievement and success. But the number one determinant of who becomes “successful” is the one who is able to stay in the game the longest.

And this is the great irony:

By remembering soccer is just a game, you create the conditions to win everything…

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