 In this video I'm going to give you three quick fixes that will help you play better instantly without practicing the next time you step on the field. But you have to be honest with yourself and you have to actually apply these things. So you may be doing some of these things wrong, you may be doing some of these things right. But whatever your situation is you need to understand that you cannot be defensive about your weaknesses. If you are the type of player who says no, I'm perfect. There's nothing wrong with me. It's your fault. It's my teammate's fault. It's my coach's fault. Then you will never improve. So be honest with yourself, analyze yourself and do not get defensive about your weaknesses. Admit your weaknesses especially to yourself because then you can approve upon them. If you don't know about me, I used to be a huge underachiever. But through obsessive self-improvement, I found my success. Earned a college scholarship, played for my national football team, a YouTube channel with over 100 million views. I've helped players worldwide and I'd love to help you improve faster and achieve more. Okay, so three quick ideas that I want you to think about the next time you play. And these are quick fixes that you can use to improve right away. So number one, stay switched on. What I mean by that is during the game when you're playing so many of us, we just get lazy with our thinking, lazy with our movement, and we find ourselves out of position. So let's say that you're this player on the red team and your guy has the ball here. Okay, a lot of us, especially as we get tired, the game goes on, you're getting into the 70th, the 80th minute, you start to get tired. You know you should be here making a forward run, but instead you're watching. Maybe it's a defensive play. So you know you should be tracking back to get this guy, but you just let him go and you let your teammates deal with it. So you need to stay switched on for 90 minutes. Now, how do you do this? It's about mental fitness. And that may seem like a weird phrase, but I mean that in the most honest way, mental fitness, you have to be able to have your mind play for 90 minutes, as well as your feet, as well as your legs, as well as your body. So it's easy to be switched on in the first minute of the game. Yes, you know you should be there. You know you should be tracking back. You know you should be running forward. You know you should be supporting your teammate who's on the ball. But when you get tired, you switch off and then you get lazy. You watch people run past you. You don't get forward when you should. Okay, so I want you to challenge yourself throughout the whole game. Ask yourself, am I staying switched on? Where should I be? What should I be doing? I say that all the time, but you need to be thinking about that, especially as you get tired. So do not let yourself switch off. Do not become lazy. Do not ball watch like so many players do. They get tired and all they do is just watch this player on the ball rather than asking themselves, where should I be in relation to this player on the ball, whether that is offensively or defensively? Okay, the next thing I want you to think about, and this is a quick tip that you can do right away is play on the front foot. So there's so much talk about possession, keeping the ball, not giving the ball away. And yes, that is very important. I'm all about possession. I want you to play a nice style of football. I want you to pass the ball, move the ball, let the ball do the work. But at which point do we go from possession to purpose, to penetration? So I want you to play on the front foot. And what I mean by that is when there are opportunities to get forward, go forward. And you need to be looking to always go forward at all times. So let me give you a few examples. So first of all, when you receive the ball in this situation, let's say you're attacking the school, you're this red player, what is your mindset? Now you guys want skills, you want techniques, you want tricks, but this is a mentality. It doesn't matter how good your skills are, it doesn't matter if you can bend the ball into the top corner or you can beat three guys and score a goal if you don't have the mindset that allows you to do that. So as soon as you have the ball, if you like this content, check out the soccer success planner, you can download it for free. There's a link in the description below. And for advanced training, check out the online soccer academy. So as soon as you have the ball, you need to be thinking, can I attack right now? Can I score right now? Can I play forward? Can I be on the front foot? So at every moment on the field? And let's just go through this example again. I'm saying as you get the ball, but realistically, it should be before you get the ball. You're already thinking, can I play on the front foot? Can I play forward? Can I hurt this team? And if you have that mentality, you're already thinking about going forward, getting your shot off, creating an assist, playing a forward pass, rather than just being so afraid of losing the ball that all you want to do is keep possession because you're too afraid to go forward or you just don't have the mindset. You're getting the ball and then you're making your decision and you're reacting to what's in front of you, rather than getting the ball and already knowing, okay, I'm going forward. I'm going to create chances. I'm going to score goals. So you always want to be playing on the front foot. Now, if you don't have that mentality, it doesn't matter how good your skills are, as I said, because you're always going to be afraid and you're always going to take too long to make your decision. So play on the front foot. As far as receiving the ball, you're always trying to get your shots off. If you're in good areas, when you have the ball, you're always trying to play forward, you're trying to play forward passes. Now, you're going to have to find the balance between playing on the front foot and forcing the player, rushing the play because some of you are going to hear this information and you're going to misinterpret it. You're going to say, oh, Dylan said always play forward. So every time I get the ball, I'm just going to ping it up the field or I'm just going to try to dribble through six guys by myself. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying, look for those opportunities. Always, always look for those opportunities. And if they are there, take them without hesitation. But if it's not the right opportunity, for example, let's say you receive the ball and there's two guys on you, three guys on you, you need to be smart enough to say, Hey, this isn't the moment to play on the front foot. Now I need to keep possession of the ball and I need to change my position. And maybe this is the opportunity. Okay, so you need to find a balance between that. But I want you to have that mindset of always playing on the front foot, always trying to play forward, always trying to be positive with your play positive when you have the ball at your feet and never hesitating when the opportunity is there. So the last little tip that I wanted to give was do not let them play. And this is so important. And it's just an instant switch that you can make right away. Now this comes back to your mental fitness, but it also comes to your physical fitness. So let's say we're the blue team. You need to hold yourself to a standard where the guy that you're marking, the guy that's on the ball, you do not let him play. So again, you have to stay switched on. This goes to the first one. Mentally, are you aware? But just always get in the habit of never letting your opposition play. So many of us were comfortable giving this player on the ball time and space. Maybe he has the ball back here. And we say, Oh, he can't hurt us. But the more time you give him, the more opportunity he does have to hurt us. Maybe he can ping that ball across the field. And because you didn't close him down, you didn't force him to go backwards or you didn't at least force him to panic or give him a hard time to make that pass. He hurt your team because you gave him too much space. So especially, I mean, sometimes you're going to have to drop off and you're going to have to pick your spots. But in the midfield, you do not let your opposition play. Now I want you to hold yourself as a player. I want you to hold yourself accountable. The guy that you're playing against, the people, maybe it's two or three guys that you're against most often in the game, you do not give them time to play. You do not give them time to get their head up. You do not give them time to make a pass to dribble to get a shot off. If they do, that is your fault. That is your responsibility. And you need to take ownership of that. But if you get in the habit of every time the ball is going to your man, let's say that ball's going, you already know he's going to get it. You're already arriving on his touch. Well, guess what? You're making your life a lot easier. You're forcing him to go backwards. Now you've done your job. This is way easier than him receiving the ball, you being too slow, too lazy to get there. Now he's running at you with speed. Now he's beating you with skill and you're falling on your ass and you're humiliating yourself because you weren't switched on going back to tip number one and you gave him too much space. So don't give him time to play force him. He's going to have to have a really good touch and really good skills to beat you because you're so tight on top of him or best case scenario. He's going to go backwards or sorry, even better case scenario. He's going to lose the ball. You're going to win possession because you did the hard work because you didn't let your opposition play. So I want you to do those three things. These are very simple principles, but you need to be honest with yourself and you need to evaluate yourself every time you play. Am I actually doing those things? Stay switched on. Do not be lazy. Do not ball watch. Be in the right place at the right time, especially in the later minutes of the game. When you do have the ball play on the front foot, you're always looking to play that ambitious pass. You're always looking to take players on and be positive with your movement. When you have a shot, take it. Do not hesitate. Now you have to find that balance between forcing the play and knowing when it is the right opportunity to play on that front foot. But I want you to have that mentality that, hey, anytime I get the ball, I'm looking to make things happen. And finally, do not let your opposition play. If this guy gets the ball, I'm all on top of him. I'm swarming him. I'm giving him a really hard time on the pitch. He needs to hate playing against you. And if you do that, you put in the hard work early, you're going to make your life so much easier on the pitch. If you like this content, check out the Soccer Success Planner. You can download it for free. There's a link in the description below. And for advanced training, check out the Online Soccer Academy.