The Euro 2012 memory challenge

                                         
A big problem that faces many footballers trying to make it in the beautiful game but still do well academically, is juggling the two worlds. Now, there are two solutions to this problem. You could gather a group of volunteers, give yourselves a menacing name and travel the world battling schools and teachers in an attempt to modify the amount of work students have to do. Or you could read this article, and change the way you memorize your schoolwork forever. I would recommend the second option since it’s a lot easier, but, if you have the resources, the first option is a pretty good one.

Can you imagine being able to recall 368 facts in order? Would that not help you with your school work? It is possible and we are challenge you to develop this skill by seeing how many names of the 368 players at the Euro 2012 you can memorize.

You may think that some people are gifted with a great memory and that they therefore find studying easy (we call these people nerds, just like they call us jocks.) By now you should know that talent and special gifts are a myth.  High performance (in sport or academics) is based on two things: a superior system and practice. Check out our Bounce article if you doubt it. Better still listen to or read the whole book.

The good news is you can remember hundreds and hundreds of facts without even having to put in the thousands of hours of practice you would need to develop a sporting skill.

You can master your memory in a short time because the system we have to show you is so good.

This method is called the “method of place” and has been used for thousands of years.  It reached its height in the Middle ages. Books were expensive and so students had to remember the content of their textbooks.  One of the greatest masters of memory was the medieval philosopher St. Thomas Aquinas . He explained that the basics of a good memory system are

• 1     Having a place to attach the memory to.
• 2     Using a humorous image or association.
• 3     You’ve got to want to learn the material . That can be a problem with a lot of schoolwork but try your best.
• 4     You must practice.

 The best part about this system is you will want to practice as much as you practice football because it is fun. Well maybe not as much as footie but you will still find learning fun and easy. But it also doesn’t take a lot of practice so don’t be put off.

We will show you exactly how to use this system and give you all the tools you need.

First you will need to download the list of all 368 players names from our website. Our goal is to show you that you can remember 368 facts in order.

Extremely useful for those tricky times when a mythical creature is blocking the bridge you need to cross and you have to recall by heart 368 obscure facts in order to pass… it could happen!

But if you just want to use this for one of those nasty upcoming exams send us a list of facts that you have to remember, we will choose a few of your submissions and make a video to show you how to use this method.

Then download the three rooms, The Changing Room, The Gym and The Fan Store and that will be enough for you to remember a list of thirty facts in order.   We will be adding more rooms soon.

You will also need to download the list that has the humorous images or associations listed in a short way. We call these memory hooks.

Now you are ready to watch the video and see how it all fits together. You can also listen to the audio. We have included an audio only so that you don’t have to have expensive equipment to use this method.  The audio can also be a good way of developing your memory while you are doing something else.

We have listed the teams in FIFA ranking order and started with Spain. OK, you have caught us we actually love Spain and most probably started with them anyway. ¡Viva España!.

But you can vote for the team you want us to do next. Go to either our blog or website and vote and we will add a video for the team that gets the most votes. We will continue (as long as you keep voting) until we have gone through all the teams and met the 368 challenge.

So, download everything you need now and take up the challenge.

Don’t forget to use our Twitter, Facebook, or Blog links to let us know how you’re doing.

Good luck or rather as we say here at Joga 11. Good Practicing.

Believe it or not, a working brain will be a necessary tool for using this powerful
method, which is something we forgot to mention in the above article- sincerest apologies.

Joga11-Brains and ball skills


You can check out our Youtube page at:
Joga11youth

joga11.net memory challenge room 1-the changing room

joga.net memory challenge room 2-the gym

joga11.net memory challenge room 3-the fan store.

Booty is in the eye of the budget beholder.

If you are a young footballer who doesn't get enough pocket money in exchange for the back-breaking chores he does around the house (the official term is slave labour), you will know that football boots don't come cheap and are rarely in your budget. (I hope you're reading this, dear parents of mine).

While we are waiting for the UN to deal with this pressing matter, the bottom line is you need football boots. And I mean good football boots.

So how can you get good boots but still have a few cents over to hire that much needed social worker?

The answer is be willing to wait until the boots you have your eye on turn up on sale in your local Adidas, Nike, Puma etc. outlet store.

Using this cunning strategy, your favourite cash-strapped young footballer purchased a pair of Adidas Predator X boots at the Adidas Outlet store in the WorldWear shopping centre for R499. Not bad when you consider that the original retail price was over R2000. 

When looking for a good deal, be sure to ask the staff to check in the back what boots they have in your size. A shout out to the Adidas Outlet staff, who spent a lot of time rummaging in the storeroom to find me a pair of boots.

In the end they didn't have the colour that I wanted but I decided to choose features over style. After all, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

The aforementioned 'bootiful' bargain basement Predators

A Joga 11 promise:

We will keep an eye out for killer deals like this and keep you posted, follow us on Twitter to make sure you don't miss out.     

If you are in the Fairland area or driving along Beyers Naudé you can check out the Adidas Outlet store at WorldWear shopping centre.

Adidas Outlet

Shop 15, World Wear Shopping Centre, Corner of Beyers Naude and Wilson Avenue, Fairlands,

Bounce, Bounce, Bounce,

                                                      Bounce, Bounce, Bounce,

                                                  Talent is a myth, like the Easter bunny.  

Have you been told that you don’t have talent? Has this stopped you from achieving your goals? In his revolutionary book ‘Bounce’, former table tennis star Matthew Syed reveals the true determining factors for success.

Practice makes perfect is a saying that all of us have heard at one time or another, but how often do we actually think about it?

After retiring from a successful table tennis career, Syed began researching what separates the great from the not-so-great, and has revealed the ingredients for creating champions. Because we are so kind here at Joga 11, here they are just for you:

            1. Purposeful practice. You need a staggering 10,000 hours of intense training to be world class at
            any sport, a recommended 1000 hours a year, for ten years.             

2.     Superior systems. If you aren’t already lucky enough to train using one, it is important to find the most effective methods or systems.

Now obviously the road to success is a lot easier said than done, but above, you have all that it takes to become the new Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo. 

For decades now the world has believed that the key component for success is talent, something that supposedly sets us part at birth and determines who will be great and who will be mediocre. Put up your hand if you honestly think this is fair. If you were to look very closely into the lives of those that are perceived to be talented, you will find that they got to the top the only possible way, hard work. To quote Syed, "the talent myth robs individuals of the incentive to transform themselves through effort"

If any of this makes sense to you, read 'Bounce', I can guarantee that it will blow your mind.

Bounce is available as an audiobook download at Audible.com

Bounce-Audible.com

Bounce is also available as a hardcopy at Amazon.com

Bounce-Amazon.com

LOST IN TRANSLATION...

Are you a fervent fan of a La Liga team?

Are you frustrated when you struggle to find Spanish football results sites in English?

If you have answered yes to either of the above questions, then I am glad to say that I can and will help you (if you are humble enough to let me).

My brother and I had exactly the same experience, before we found (drum roll please…) Soccer-Spain, a very informative bilingual website with the latest results from both La Liga and the Copa del Rey, with a bit of Uefa champions league in-between. Soccer-Spain is simply laid out, with extensive archives from the World cup and European championship, as well as a considerable amount of information on the Spanish youth teams of past and present, for all the statties.

If you, like us, enjoy Soccer-Spain you may want to consider visiting the associated football shop ‘Spain soccer shop’ which has shirts, shorts, and socks for all the teams in La Liga. The one downside to the shop is that they don’t have a lot of stock, so don’t be surprised if you find that they only have Barcelona shirts in XXL size. However, if you do find something you like, and do eventually decide to make a purchase, it is a very good way of supporting the site.

They also have La Liga match tickets, in case you are interested.

So, next time you are struggling to find La Liga results remember Soccer-Spain.

Soccer-Spain

THE GREAT INTERNET ODYSSEY

Do you shout  ‘¡Viva la furia roja!’ but are furious when you can’t find the latest Spain football shirt? Or are you simply unable to find the latest football shirt that your team has released?

This is exactly the problem that my brother and I had when we were searching for two Spain 2011 home jerseys (with the Official World Cup winners’ badge) in our sizes. After searching in South African stores for hours, and enduring our parents’ exasperated comments when we said we were going to try ‘just one more shop', we decided that we were only going to be able to find these shirts on the Internet.

 Our first stop on the great Internet odyssey was the Spain-based ‘La Liga shop’, where they had what we wanted, but the only remaining shirts were in small men’s sizes. Which was fine for me, but the idea of forking out R700 for a piece of clothing that would look like a dress on him did not appeal to my brother Xavi. We then found that most of the American stores had the shirts we wanted/needed  (depending on whose side of the argument you take.) but didn’t deliver to SA. We thought to ourselves, ‘these Americans are just plain selfish, and couldn’t care less about us‘.

After this heartbreaking disappointment, we came across UK soccershop, where we found not only the shirts we wanted/needed, but good prices, and on top of all this luxury/necessity they also delivered to SA. We then purchased one David Silva #21 and one Andres Iniesta #6 shirts, with the gold World Cup winners badge! (Sorry, I simply have to boast!) Our only worry was whether or not the South African Post Office would something scary to them! But despite our concerns the shirts arrived on the 14^th of June, only seven days after ordering them, and just three days after the anniversary of that historic night in Johannesburg!

So, in a nutshell, if you're looking to buy shirts overseas, I thoroughly recommend UK soccershop.

UK soccershop

Finding Brazilian Soccer Schools

FINDING BRAZILIAN SOCCER SCHOOLS...

The one thing harder than finding football shirts in South Africa is finding good football training.
This is the tale of how we found the latter. This is what we wrote for the BSS KMFEzine.

The Cordeiro family’s journey to meeting Simon Clifford on his visit to South Africa began about four years ago, with their boys wanting to learn to play attractive possession football. So Dad, Christopher, began researching soccer coaching and training systems.

When talking to parents who had kids at soccer clubs or whose kids played soccer at school he found that a lot of the time was taken up by fitness training of the "run around the perimeter of the field five times" type and then playing a match.

They were told that kids didn’t like drills and would rather play a match.

Both at schools and at clubs, the focus seemed to be more on discovering talent than working out what made a talented footballer and training children to be the best footballers they could be.

Neither of these routes seemed to justify the time and effort involved. Also, most schools and clubs only played seasonally. It seemed mad, if you wanted to develop as a player, to train for only a few months a year. It would be like a musician who only practiced their scales for half a year and then expected to be world-class.

They realized that they would have to follow a Do-it-yourself route.  Christopher explains, "We began scouring bookshops, and bought every coaching manual we could. While the manuals were better than what we were seeing in local schools and clubs, they didn’t seem to have an integrated system of coaching, and they also neglected the small skills, the building blocks that players need to know and practice before they go on to the more complex drills."

"One evening while researching on the Internet, I came across a reference to Simon Clifford and the revolution that he was leading in soccer training and coaching.  I downloaded a lot of information from the Brazilian Soccer Schools website and gave it to the boys to read."

Simon soon became one of the boy’s heroes. They had not only found the kind of football that they wanted to play, but someone who was training players of all ability levels, to play in a fast-paced and attractive style.

Christopher continues "Unfortunately we couldn’t find anyone who was doing Futebol de salão in South Africa and so we realised that it was the D-I-Y route again."

"Thankfully we found that Simon had made two DVDs, and with a bit of searching, we were able to find a supplier of a ball that we thought was a Futebol de salão ball. On meeting Simon we learnt to our dismay that these balls weren’t 100% Futebol de salão balls, but they served their purpose."

When the balls and DVDs arrived Gregory and Xavier set up their own training programme and have been practicing with them every day for the last two years.

They however lacked the dedicated coaching that they would have liked to access, and they also wanted to find a group of players alongside whom they could develop their skills.

Gregory takes the story further "A few weeks ago I was reading the local sports section of the Saturday paper, and came across an article on the launch of the Brazilian Soccer Schools in SA. I showed it to my Dad and asked him to call when he had a chance."

"The article just mentioned the opening of the soccer school and so it didn't seem that there was any reason to call immediately."

"When my dad phoned a few days later he spoke to Nick Aresti, who had brought Brazilian Soccer schools to SA. We were then given the big news.  Simon Clifford was in the country, and we could meet him on Friday!  Our whole family was very excited, as we had been fans of Simon and his approach for years."

"We invited our close friend, Prince, to join us and meet Simon, as he had heard about Futebol de salão and the Brazilian Soccer Schools from us and was keen to know more."

"We couldn’t wait for the big day, and when we met Simon we were impressed by his very kind and generous manner. He spent a long time speaking to us, and very kindly signed the soccer balls and DVDs that had been the basis of our training for nearly two years."

Within the week Gregory and Xavier signed up to join the Brazilian Soccer Schools, and both boys are now happily training alongside the growing group of South African soccer players learning to play the Brazilian Soccer Schools way.

Gregory and Xavier want to say a big thank you to Simon and to Nick for bringing BSS to South Africa.

Brazilian Soccer Schools

(This article was originally published in the Brazilian Soccer Schools KMFEzine.)