Sports - How to get better than other people
In soccer, most professional players are technically not very good compared to the best players in the world, like Ronaldo or Messi. Compare a player of similar position who is playing in the second division of a bigger league to Messi or Ronaldo and they are so bad, especially their shooting accuracy . The gap between them and the best in the world is huge, if you want to become a professional player, you don’t have to be as good as the top players, you just have to be better than the not very good second division players.
If you play in a team and you realize that there are players who are better than you and you can’t get past them, you have to change the way you train. If you train the same way as your team mates, you will never get better then them. In school, some students just learn faster than others and it’s the same in a sport, some just learn faster than you. When everyone does the same, only the fast learners will prevail.
That doesn’t mean that you can’t become better than them, because the average offensive player is not very good. They were often the fastest learners, but they are far from their limit. Many exercises are a waste of time, even in professional settings are a lot of exercises that obviously will not help anyone to be a better player.
A good way to improve is doing everything harder or more difficult than your competition. Imagine you are a defender and you play every day against Messi 1 versus 1, you will improve your defense skills a lot and every player who is not Messi or another top player, will seem much easier in comparison. You will improve but Messi will likely get a bit worse, because you are not a strong defender. So if possible either try to do everything faster or try to increase the difficulty.
But the best way is to train on your own with the help of someone.
Reduce the size of the target, so that it’s harder to hit. A smaller goal, basket or use something like a bottle as target.
Shoot harder than normally in training, but shoot normally during a game.
Try to do exercises faster, but only if it makes it more difficult.
Repetitions - If you want to improve a skill like shooting, heading or volleying, repetitions are important. Try do as many reps as possible in 5 minutes with the help of someone who throws or kicks the ball to you. Go into a corner where it’s easier to recover the ball. For headers you can use a volleyball or a handball to make it more comfortable, you don’t want to head more than 100 soccer balls.
Try to give youself a handicap to make it harder - 2 versus 1
Remember, everything you do in your training has to be more difficult than in a real game. Always try to improve, most professional players are too complacent and just do their normal training routine. Christiano Ronaldo hasn’t become so good because he is a fast learner, no he trains more than anyone else.