Dan Blank > Quotes

“Social media is just useless garbage until one random, serendipitous, meaningful connection happens and suddenly the whole world shifts.”
― Dan Blank

“As soon as you begin assigning responsibility for your failures to forces beyond your control, what you’re really saying is, “Look at me! I’m a victim!”
― Dan Blank, Everything Your Coach Never Told You Because You're a Girl:

“Winners have this beautiful paranoia that won’t let them take their foot off the gas regardless of the score. They love winning, but they are utterly obsessed about not losing. They refuse to give the opponent a chance to hurt them. They are the ones who will gladly do the dirty work that others are not willing to do. They refuse to accept defeat as an option. And I cannot possibly have enough of those players in my team.  ”
― Dan Blank, Everything Your Coach Never Told You Because You're a Girl:

“Set up sessions where your defenders see a variety of serves and have to meet them with one-touch clearances with both feet. Set up competitions where each clearance over midfield is worth a point.”
― Dan Blank, Soccer iQ: Things That Smart Players Do

“whole 360° worth of options”
― Dan Blank, Soccer iQ: Things That Smart Players Do

“Note for Coaches: Try this possession exercise. It’s called 31 and it’s my favorite because it incorporates so many aspects of possession, including when to play one-touch and when to take two or more touches. It’s a tough one to keep track of, so if you have some helpers or injured players available (preferably 3), call them into service and assign a team to each one of them. Divide your group into three teams of four and use a grid about 30 x 20 yards. Adjust the size of the grid as necessary. One team is yellow, another is blue, and the third team is red. To start, red and blue play keep-away from yellow. If the blue team, for example, gives the ball away or knocks it out of bounds, the red and yellow immediately play keep-away from blue. There is no touch restriction, but whenever a player on either of the two attacking teams successfully passes the ball to any other attacking player with one touch, both attacking teams are credited with a point. To clarify, two teams get credit for every point that is scored. The object of the game is to be the first team to score 31 points.”
― Dan Blank, Soccer iQ: Things That Smart Players Do

“If you are serious about winning, then you have to believe that it does begin with one. It begins with one personality that refuses to accept less than excellence; one personality that has the courage to police the standards of the team and confront teammates who aren’t living up to those standards. It begins with one personality that has the courage to stand up and say, “This team is about winning championships and you either get on board with that or you pack your bags.”
― Dan Blank, Everything Your Coach Never Told You Because You're a Girl:

“Take nothing for granted. Once you’ve seen a miracle, you fear the miracle. Beware of the opponent who is giving herself a chance to be lucky. Stay paranoid. Finish your job. Relax when the game is over and not a second before.”
― Dan Blank, Everything Your Coach Never Told You Because You're a Girl:

“You have a right to expect the very best from your teammates and they have the right to expect the same from you. Learn to hold your teammates accountable and welcome it when they do the same for you.”
― Dan Blank, Everything Your Coach Never Told You Because You're a Girl:

“I’m telling you now, if you want to be part of a true winner, you need to choose between your teammates and the mission.”
― Dan Blank, Everything Your Coach Never Told You Because You're a Girl:

“Peak performance begins with your taking complete responsibility for your life and everything that happens to you.” -”
― Dan Blank, Everything Your Coach Never Told You Because You're a Girl:

“Don’t cut off your nose to spite your face!”
― Dan Blank, Soccer iQ: Things That Smart Players Do

“Slow play is the enemy. Slow play allows your opponent to get organized. Slow play leads to turnovers. Slow play loses games.”
― Dan Blank, Soccer iQ: Things That Smart Players Do

“If you want to be a winner, you must accept that you are the margin of victory”
― Dan Blank, Everything Your Coach Never Told You Because You're a Girl:

“In addition to defenders who know when to drop off, your cause will be helped mightily by a goalkeeper who understands when to come forward… way forward… like sweeper-keeper, out-of-the-eighteen forward”
― Dan Blank, Soccer iQ Presents... High Pressure: How to Win Soccer Games by Smothering Your Opponent

“Fast is better than slow. That’s just how”
― Dan Blank, Soccer iQ: Things That Smart Players Do

“excuses because no one wants to hear them. If you want to be a winner, you need to demand more of yourself. You need to have a higher standard. You need to own the responsibility of steering your ship.   You”
― Dan Blank, Everything Your Coach Never Told You Because You're a Girl:

“When you begin to see your failures as yours and no one else’s, you’ll be amazed at the lengths you will go to prevent them. And the sum of those lengths is the cornerstone of every winner: work rate. The correlation between work rate and success is paramount. Never will you find one without the other. Work rate is the not-so-secret ingredient in every success formula.”
― Dan Blank, Everything Your Coach Never Told You Because You're a Girl:

“Smart players that communicate well talk about what’s best for the ball. They feed their teammates a concise stream of information that helps those teammates solve their soccer problems. They are like chess-masters moving the pieces to orchestrate the attack, directing the ball from one teammate to the next. That’s what smart players do. What most players do is see the teammate who has the ball and then scream, “JENNY! JENNY! JENNY!” And there’s poor Jenny at midfield, trying her best to evade two determined opponents and the only help she’s offered is ten teammates shouting her name from ten different directions. Listen – Jenny already knows her name. What Jenny needs is some useful information that will help her out of her current unpleasant predicament. Jenny needs a teammate saying something like, “Drop it to Danielle.” That’s the kind of information she can actually use. Instead she gets, “JENNY! JENNY! JENNY!”
― Dan Blank, Soccer iQ: Things That Smart Players Do

“In order to impose yourself on the contest at maximum volume, you’ve got to maximize your competitive fury. Let me put it to you another way: All other things being equal, the competitor beats the player.”
― Dan Blank, Everything Your Coach Never Told You Because You're a Girl:

“Aware of Nixon’s propensity for perspiration, Kennedy’s handlers cranked up the thermostat in the television studio for hours before the debate began.”
― Dan Blank, Soccer iQ: Things That Smart Players Do

“It will also behoove you to understand soccer’s speed ladder: Slowest – A player dribbling the ball while making lateral movements and fakes. Slow – A player running with the ball, straight ahead, at top speed. Faster – A player running without the ball Fastest – A moving ball Nothing on the soccer field is faster than a moving ball. Nothing.”
― Dan Blank, Soccer iQ: Things That Smart Players Do