How Does The MSL Mindset Benefit Players? I #AskASoccerPro Show Ep 081
11-year MLS veteran Quincy Amarikwa welcomes you to episode 81 of the #AskASoccerPro Show! This week Quincy discusses how to thrive in chaos, negotiate your way to a great deal with a college, what to do when surrounded by better players, and more!
Check out what Quincy covers this week:
00:00 -04:26: Welcome to the #AskASoccerPro Show Ep 81!
04:28 – 07:18: What's New At Perfect Soccer?
07:21 – 10:00: How Are Players Doing In The #MLSisBack Bubble?
10:01 – 14:03: Make An Investment In Yourself
14:11 – 19:55: How To Negotiate With College Soccer Programs @eli.gish
19:59 - 22:54: What Does Quincy Think Of The MLS Season Resuming?@MLS_fan_page
22:58 – 28:10: How Often Do Pro Players Let Their Emotions Affect The Game? @john_hollinger27
26:04 – 28:10: How Does The MSL Mindset Benefit Players?
28:11 – 31:09: Why You Should Subscribe To Quincy's Personal Newsletter 👉🏽😶👈🏽
31:16 – 35:33: Why The MSL Thrives In Chaos! 👉🏽😶👈🏽
35:35 – 39:58: Does Quincy Plan To Become an ESPN Pundit? @official_mlsmemes
40:01 – 42:32: What Is The 'Quincy Clause'?
42:34 – 47:01: How To Shine When Surrounded By Better Players @julianKoulish_24
47:05 – 50:21: How To Not Let Family Problems Affect Your Soccer Performance @jjusef10
50:23 – 55:07: If I Send In My Soccer Video Will You Give Me Tips? @nathaliampr
55:10 – 58:35: How To Deal With Time Management When Unexpected Events Occur
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*Transcript is unedited and machine-generated. There will be errors. For further clarity please refer to the audio or video.
Quincy Amarikwa (00:00):
We're all here to ride the MSL wave. The Mental Strength League! I'd like to welcome you to another episode of the #AskASoccerPro Show! MSL fan Bay MSL fan paid said, Hey, Quincy, what's up. What's going on? I have not seen you in a while, but we also haven't seen the MSLT for a while. So look at that official MLF official MLS memes is joining in shout out Daniel, I think just before this live, he'd said there's a, a game of bingo that he's put together for the live stream, which is, which is dope. I was like, Oh, that's a good idea. Abdullah. Welcome grant. Welcome. Joe Jackson, 11 soccer dad for life says good to see you. Good to see you too. Thank you very much. Katie has joined in to help us get today's episode recorded. Braheem welcome.
Quincy Amarikwa (00:54):
Anderson flow. POBA jr. MSL fan page. I'm in your head, Joe Jackson. I'm in your head kind of room joined I'm in your I'm in your head. Spamming that heart button loving that MSL fan page said miss you we miss y'all at DC, bro. Please come back. You guys know I'm still in my free agency. Anything is possible. Hopefully we'll see some stuff being implemented and executed on here. Tony Tony said drop down and you had emojis and said another great episode is incoming. That is the plan. That is the plan and good to see everybody. So, I'm doing a couple of things. Let's see. Let's see we got here first and foremost, first and foremost, kicking it off with a decent little meme, putting it up on the page.
Quincy Amarikwa (01:50):
And while I go and look up, cause I forgot what today's episode is, episode number. So, let's see where we are. We're out here. We are on episode 82 episode eight two. Let's get into it. I like to welcome everybody to another episode of the hashtag. Ask a soccer pro show episode eight, deuce 82. Well, on our way to episode 100 and beyond everyone's spending that hard button. Everybody been out here just like our man Pablo over here, Wayne Wayne, a whole week for new episode of the ASCA soccer per show. Have you guys been patiently waiting for today's episode? Those of you who've been patiently waiting spam, spending that heart button, dropping them in your head emoji. And and let me know, let me know if, if, if you've been feeling, if you've been feeling like a man Pablo up there at any point in time in this last week, waiting for episode 82 of the hashtag ASCA soccer pro show with your host, the one and only me Quincy Amarikwa where we talk about the M S L the mental strength league.
Quincy Amarikwa (03:18):
It's a 4D mental game of chess, where we talk about how to success, how to thrive and be successful in the game of life. Using the Amarikwa process. Seven step process kicked off with the three S's of self-awareness, perfect soccer skills.com/sss, fill out your bingo board. I saw that on there, Daniel, the three S's of self-awareness, that's the foundation, the pillars of the AmeriCorps process and the MSL mentality and mindset, the mental strength league mindset, which is the mindset you need to accomplish your goals. And every Thursday, 6:00 PM PST 9:00 PM EST. We joined here together, live on Instagram to break down that idea, that core philosophy and a work together as a community. Cause you know, teamwork equals dream work to accomplish our collective goals. And I'd love to wa and I'm happy to welcome you to episode 82. So we can have a really good one here today, because really what we want to see out of everybody is what you look like before
Quincy Amarikwa (04:28):
MSL
Quincy Amarikwa (04:30):
And what you look like after you apply MSL. Yo, shout out John Holland, you're down there dropping the is infamous favorite core value. Teamwork equals dream work and a MSL fan page page asked where he can get that fire hat from where you can get that fire hat. Perfect cyber skills.com/store. You guys go over there and copy yourself some MSL as a soccer pro show and perfect soccer merge, swells, a perfect soccer bundle skills Academy, all that stuff. Cause guess what? Everybody and investment in perfect soccer is just an investment in yourself. And if you're not making any financial investments in yourself, how's that going to grow into any positive ROI? How's it gonna happen? How's it gonna work? Who's going to work.
Quincy Amarikwa (05:19):
Mmm.
Quincy Amarikwa (05:21):
Okay. 23 Hampton. What's going on brother. Welcome a soccer dad for life says snap back. We've got a, we've got a bunch of merch on the store. Some of our stuff was out of stock because of the slow down with COVID. But though orders may be a little bit slower than typical. We still got everything in stock and we're getting out as soon as we possibly can.
Quincy Amarikwa (05:51):
But, but before we get fully diving in to the mentality and as we always do, I want to encourage everyone to drop some of your questions in the question box below, participate in the community, asking any and all questions that you got. And was, I wanted to make sure that we were getting to you today was I wanted to make sure we're getting to today. Yeah. It's just been a whirlwind of a bunch of stuff. Everybody like a lot of updates, a lot of uncertainty and just up and down in the world, as I'm sure everybody is, is well aware of. And it's a time where we're all trying to navigate to the best of our ability. So, what's, what's nice about the show is we can come to here. We can come here together every Thursday, talk about what's going on, break some ideas and some stuff down test a couple of things, get some feedback from you guys in the community as to what's been going good. What's been going poorly. What has worked? What has not. So we can kind of work together to you to figure out some solutions. I'm seeing everyone spam the heart button, which is awesome to see.
Quincy Amarikwa (07:23):
But let's get into it. Oh, Julian, K O U L I S H underscore 24 said, are you having anyone on today or just you? Oh I'm not sure. I think the thing that's been difficult with the MLS is back tournament and the bubble. A lot of guys, his focus has been on that which is obviously necessary to, to perform at a professional professional level. Probably focusing on the games is going to be the thing that your mind is most focused on. So, getting guys booked for the show, hasn't been something that I've been focused on making happen, just so guys can kind of get back into the rhythm of everything. So up until this point over these last couple of weeks, we've been highlighting the community talking through more, getting more questions answered than we maybe typically do.
Quincy Amarikwa (08:19):
When we have a guest on the show and then allowing guests to kind of come on naturally organically two weeks ago, Earl Edwards jr. Joined us gave us an update on his year is what almost a year and a half in the MSL. And how he's been applying a lot of the ideas and philosophies in his game, which is, which was a great episode. Let's see what episode that was set episode. Yeah. Episode 79 of the show. And what do we name episode 74. I'm going to see about setting up like this for the show moving forward. Cause then I can always check my computer do a little bit more research. The name of the show is how did Earl's mentality get him through the MLS shutdown? And that was episode, I believe, 79 of the hashtag Assa soccer per show.
Quincy Amarikwa (09:07):
If anyone was there live, what did you, what did you like about that show? And if you caught the replay, let me know if he caught the replay, a soccer dad for life said the governor of Illinois just took away competitive soccer games, but still can have club inter scrimmages. That's interesting. I didn't know that until right now. So you're brilliant at bringing that to my attention. I'd imagine they're trying to slow the spread. I think each individual state is, is at a different stage in the process and this largely varying way in which each state is handling the shutdowns and the reopenings is, is interesting to see and watch, play out to say the least Julian asked, do you guys have any of the old perfect soccer balls? The ones that are less money mine got stolen. Oh, okay.
Quincy Amarikwa (10:12):
So Julian, we are working on our pricing structure right now. Cause obviously as you guys saw, we upgraded the soccer balls to match a match ball quality with the lifetime warranty as always. And yeah, to your point, the, the balls are expensive and we're working to figure out how I can, how I can adjust our pricing model to reflect that. So, so there's like almost like two ways in which you can, you can approach your business model. One is high prices, low high prices, probably low volume and then low prices, high volume. And we were trying to go the route of low prices, high volume early on in our organization and company, but it was, it was very difficult for sustainability, just we weren't able to find any consistent flow of, of sales of traffic, of resources. So, and, and I was able to maintain that in our, in our early stages because I would supplement, I would supplement all of that with my contract.
Quincy Amarikwa (11:26):
So obviously I was under, I was under contract my last MLS contract. So who was that with the San Jose earthquakes? That's where I, I took a lot of my money and invested in trying to do a, trying to scale us, to get us to the point where that could be sustainable. I invest a lot of money in trying to make that happen and we just weren't getting the sales that we were needing for me to continue to be able to fund fund the business that way. So we had to adjust our pricing and greatly increase the price of our goods as you can kind of see on the store, but we also greatly increase the quality of the products as well, too. So it's good in bed. But after the several weeks of kind of looking at how that has played out, especially with the pandemic and a lot of people kind of tightening up their pocketbooks and looking for more affordable ways to go about doing stuff for trying to find that balance.
Quincy Amarikwa (12:23):
And I think I said earlier at the beginning of the show and investment in perfect soccer is an investment in yourself. And a lot of people are making too many investments in themselves right now. And we do live in America and it is a capitalistic or at least ideologically a capitalistic society. And it requires money to keep things running and to, to pay the employees and team members that help run a perfect soccer. And yeah, I think just like everybody, it's tough times things are getting things are getting tight. You're trying to, you're trying your best to survive. That's what the MSL mindset is here. And sometimes you gotta make cutbacks and sacrifices and that's what we're in the middle of. And I'm not sure how much longer it's going to be, but I know that we've got to adapt or die and we refuse to die.
Quincy Amarikwa (13:14):
So Julian, if you could send an email into the account, letting us know, and we'll see if we can, we can bridge the gap and find a way to make it work. I'm sorry to hear that your ball got stolen, but I'm not surprised cause our balls are amazing. Right. but yeah, just trying to try to, as always keeping it real with you guys official meme said, make that MSL face mask. You probably get that, get that attitude, the store and miss Sophia and Paige said yet MSL face Mack. It has to be done. I would buy that. Okay. Well, well, okay. You'd buy that. What would you pay for it? So I can go do some research to see how much it will cost to get made and add that to the store.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
Okay.
Quincy Amarikwa (14:11):
English or Eli at E L I dot G I S H S said, I have offers from multiple colleges. How do I best represent myself or Anne bargain with the different schools to get myself the best option? Okay. I have offers from multiple colleges. Okay. So if you already have offers from multiple colleges, that means they've already been scouting. You they've seen you and they've reached out. So depending on where you're at in the process would determine what would be the best course of action. So let's give a couple of scenarios. So it's like general for the audience. So everybody would kind of know what to do if, and when they fall into this position with with college coaches or Scouts or whatever. So first and foremost, I think last week you saw me mentioned reaching out to Connor to get yourself your soccer highlight tape made and your, your soccer resume online resume.
Quincy Amarikwa (15:07):
That way you have something you can share with coaches when they're trying to get a better understanding of who you are and your skills and your ability on the field. So let's assume that you have that and let's assume that coaches have seen that and seen you in person. And that's why they're reaching out to you. They've got your contact information and they're giving you offers. Now, if you're trying, depending on where you want to go, determines how best to leverage one offer for the next or vice versa. So let's, let's really break it down to the point of, let's say you've got college, one in college, two and college. One is your number one choice. You really want to go there. In college too, you're happy with you. Be happy to go there. But you really want to go to college one.
Quincy Amarikwa (15:55):
Well, if college two is the one that's pursuing you the most and wants you the most in college, one is kind of on the fence. You want to try to use college two in your conversations with college one. And by that, you're really saying, Hey, look, just like, I've been open and honest with you guys in terms of this, the struggle right now on the financial side with Perfect Soccer and the business and surviving until hopefully this is over right, the way in which I like to approach negotiations, conversations, strategic partnerships is just honesty. Hey, college, one, I really want to go to college. One. This is the place I'd want to be. This is my number one choice, but college, two really wants me and I'm happy to go there, but I'd be more happy to go to college one, but I want to be at a place that actually values me and wants me to be a part of their program.
Quincy Amarikwa (16:53):
And as of right now, college, one, I don't feel as though you guys are making me feel like that's the case. And to me, that's more important and valuable to me than going to the place. That's my number one choice. And because of that, I believe as of right now, I'm going to go with option to college too. So positioning it that way does a couple of things. One, it removes a lot of the uncertainty and stress of the situation and where, where you're at of like, am I going to go or do they want me to duh, but you're just being direct and straight to the point, like, these are the reasons why I want to go to one. This is what I'm not feeling. This is what I'm feeling about. Option two. And being honest, if you're willing to go to option two over option one, you need to state why and how you're willing to go to option two over option one
Quincy Amarikwa (17:47):
And doing so we'll hopefully position option one to really self-reflect and think about if you are the option person, player that they want a part of their program. And they're going to be much more likely to give you a direct answer more quickly, which is what you want at the end of the day. If the answer is going to be no, no matter what, right? Or a high likelihood that the answer's going to be, you know, it doesn't help you. If the answer no comes a week, two, three, four or five weeks from now, it's best. If the answer comes today, so you have the answer you need. So you can start to process that information and look at other options, right? If you're, if you're, if you're holding out for option one, but you're not being direct and honest with them, that means you're delaying on option two and you're not making them feel as though you want to be a part of them.
Quincy Amarikwa (18:32):
So that's, that's creating a lose, lose situation for yourself. And we're here to create win-wins and you're talking about how do you position one or the other, and how do you go about doing it? That's the way in which I go about operating. I I'll get just as many nos as everybody else gets, but I'll get no's way faster than everybody else gets knows. And that's where I have and get my advantage. I'm learning to process being told, no being told I'm dumb being told it's not right now, or this isn't a good time or this isn't happening or whatever, the many different reasons in ways in which people use and come up with excuses or reasons why they're not going to let you part of their organization are there, or now's not the time. It's always, it's always that until it's not okay.
Quincy Amarikwa (19:17):
So that's, that's what I do. That's a good question. I don't think we've really broken that down in terms of how to like use options that you have a lot of the time. A lot of, a lot of times we're usually talking about how to create opportunities for ourselves. And sometimes you're just, you're trying to get an offer from a school. You're trying to get a school, just to look at you. If you're in split a position where you have multiple offers, that's a good spot, but it can also be it can also be a spot in which you're not understanding how to utilize that position to your advantage. And that's what we, we kind of just broke down right there with that. So that was a good one. MLS underscore fan underscore page, as thoughts on the MLS regular season resuming at the end of August and possibly allowing home fans.
Quincy Amarikwa (20:05):
I haven't seen any information on that until right now. So if, if they are, if they are announcing the, the I think if they are announcing their willingness or, or, or lack of better term yeah, if they're announcing, they're wanting to get back to play by the end of August and implement what's necessary to make that happen. I do believe they probably have a bit of confidence in their ability to do that, especially with how things have been going with the MLS is back bubble tournament all things considered. They have done it and been their ability to continue the tournament with all the logistical issues and problems that they've run into the coordination of getting all the guys out there, maintaining the health and safety of the players. Staying on, I mean, a large mass percentage of games have been played.
Quincy Amarikwa (21:19):
A mass number of players have re so I think they have a good chance at having kind of that having that precedent and that, that the results of being able to execute on it, to be able to resume resume in the normal markets. Now, if they do resume back in the normal markets, I do think their ability to maintain the integrity, the manner that they did in the bubble is much less than the controlled. And because they pulled off the bubble, they're going to be able to probably get the, have the benefit of the doubt of doing it in the local markets. And that, that is another ballgame, but as more time, more time passes and we kind of see how things play out and what they're thinking. We could make our predictions as to what we think will, will result of it.
Quincy Amarikwa (22:17):
John Hollinger said, let's get Alan Gordon on the show. That would be good. That'd be good guy to get on the show. I don't think I've ever had. Yeah, I've never had a conversation with Alan Gordon, but I have heard him over on the BSI podcasts. He sounds like a funny dude. Crazy dude. Crazy funny, dude. I'd love to pick his brain a bit. Talk to him about the bash brothers era and just his overall mentality. If you guys, yeah, if you guys, you guys would like Alan Gordon to join the show, everyone goes spam his Instagram and let him know that he needs to join us in next week's episode.
Quincy Amarikwa (22:54):
Okay.
Quincy Amarikwa (22:58):
The Lucas said, what worked the MSL not work DC's playoff run without Quincy. Hey, you might be speaking too much facts out there. Luca John Hollinger asked, how often do you see players at the MLS level, allow their emotions and reactions to affect they're playing a game. Do you think, how often do you see most MLS players are playing on emotion? So it doesn't mean playing on emotion is necessarily a terrible thing or a bad thing, right? It's just, are you able to harness and focus your emotions in, on the task at hand and use your emotions to your benefit? So last, last week's episode, if I pee on myself on the soccer field, right, a week we broke down the process in which the thought of peeing on yourself can create a negative emotional response that makes you less that, that lowers your overall quality of play, your decision, making your ability to navigate, navigate the game and to play to the best of your ability.
Quincy Amarikwa (24:11):
The same emotional response can dial you in and focus you in, on being the best player that you can be on the field at that particular time. So I think a majority of all players are a majority of players. I think we cut out there for a second flow. I would say that you are not operating on emotion, right? But you can play in a flow state and score a goal or do something exciting and then evoke emotion as a result of that flow state. And the, the players you can tap into that flow state and kind of fall into the rhythm of the game are less likely to be exposed as the players that when you're watching that feel uncomfortable out of sorts, not in the flood and can get broken down easily. And a team is a system, right? It's an entire system.
Quincy Amarikwa (25:07):
And if one player is out of footwear and how you can exploit the system of that team, and based on your experience as a player and your style of play, you can recognize those flaws and then implement strategies and, and tactics to, to infiltrate the system. And now you can disrupt the flow of the game and then alter the flow of the game to flow around you. That's kind of when you're probably watching, walking, he's walking and strolling and the ball just always seems to come to him. And he always seems to find himself in the right places at the right time. It's because the flow of the game is now revolving around him. And most, most players, most players, aren't able to get to a point in time where they understand how to create that, Oh, for themselves. But that's what we talked about here on the show.
Quincy Amarikwa (26:04):
It's a mentality and the mindset and the MSL mindset is a way, is a way to assess your environment critically think and break it down to the, the fundamental pieces of that system and process and how to get yourself in to then create opportunities for yourself on the field. And this can be a way in which, you know, you learn the personality of a player on the field and hopefully brand yourself as a, as a specific type of player so that when a coach or a scout is watching your play, they can see how your style can fit into their system, into their system of play. But I think what's been difficult for most coaches Scouts and individuals to understand on the MSL side is this is a completely revolutionary system and a critical thinking process, which makes it very difficult for people to see how it fits into their system other than when their system is broken. And they need to have fall back on hard work and, and knowing what they're going to get. And and you know, it's been slow going, but I think it's starting to be understood.
Quincy Amarikwa (27:28):
I think it's starting to be understood to the point that
Quincy Amarikwa (27:33):
It won't be underestimated to the degree that it has been in the past. And the moment that happens, people will truly understand the value of the MSL, our way of thinking and the way in which we've built our community. So I appreciate everybody who participates every week, who comes back with feedback who joins in the community, who invests in the brand and applies these philosophies and ideas out in their local markets. And then it comes back with more questions of how to improve. I feel like our community has greatly been taking advantage of this time, this quarantine time of the quarantine. I was looking at my previous newsletter. So I you guys, hopefully you guys already know I've got the MSL weekly newsletter that I send out. And what I try to do is at least a week or two, after I send out the private newsletter, we get it updated and attitude, my personal website and my LinkedIn page. And I, I haven't gotten those updated in maybe a month and a half. So you'll probably see like a spam drop. If you guys aren't on the email, you see a spam drop of all the newsletters that I've been writing weekly. And if you want to get access to this, make sure you go to a quincyamarikwa.com/about joining the newsletter. But I think I was reading
Quincy Amarikwa (28:55):
Which,
Quincy Amarikwa (28:58):
Which newsletter episode, episode, which newsletter was that being ready for your up when your opportunity comes. So if you guys haven't read that, I definitely would suggest reading, reading that. So, yeah, it was a mental strength league newsletter. So you guys can see I'm looking at it, but hold on.
Quincy Amarikwa (29:19):
Okay.
Quincy Amarikwa (29:21):
Flip this around. All right. So over on my website, you guys will see, I add the previous,
Quincy Amarikwa (29:30):
The previous one. So like I'll spam upload them when I'm, when I, when I have a chance. So those were the last ones that I just did. And hopefully you guys are seeing, yeah, you guys are seeing it and then you could see the episodes being ready when your opportunity comes published June 23rd, but we'll need to adjust that it went out on the newsletter on yeah, there you go. Oh, one 14. So I was going back through and getting all these, getting these updated so you can kind of see what's going on. And that's how I can keep you guys up to date maybe more in, in real time aside from we're joining in, on the, on the lives like this. But yeah, I was, I was reading previous ones. I'll even read my own stuff. Right. Cause there's such a, it's almost like a diary is the best way to think about the newsletter for myself when I'm kind of in the middle of it. I'm wanting to document and make note of just the things that I'm thinking, what I'm seeing and what I'm predicting or planning for allowing for myself in the future. And I think I think it'd be interesting if you guys go and check out that stuff and excuse the the gardener
Quincy Amarikwa (30:44):
I'm seeing everyone in spam that heart button, if you're on the MSL newsletter, let me know.
Quincy Amarikwa (30:48):
Let, let me know.
Quincy Amarikwa (30:50):
Well, if you've been on the newsletter, how long you've been on the newsletter for,
Quincy Amarikwa (30:55):
I don't think I've asked anybody that before.
Quincy Amarikwa (30:59):
I think I'm just starting to get a little bit of time to, to unplug and self-reflect a little bit, to try to
Quincy Amarikwa (31:08):
Mmm.
Quincy Amarikwa (31:09):
Reflect on the progress we've made just since, since the beginning of this year.
Quincy Amarikwa (31:14):
Mmm.
Quincy Amarikwa (31:16):
No. MSL mentality is one where we learn to thrive in uncertainty and chaos. And I think this is the most uncertain times, at least that I can, I can remember in my lifetime here in 2020. So it's been a whirlwind of trying to capitalize on the opportunity opportunities that are in front of us
Quincy Amarikwa (31:37):
And remain consistent in those efforts. But
Quincy Amarikwa (31:42):
It also means you got to take a moment to step back and self-reflective and understand that there will always be another opportunity. So not to fall also not fall into the trap of so fearful of missing out an opportunity that, that you spread yourself too thin. And that is a, another skillset that takes time to, to refine. And it comes with experience. So let's see, I'm loving the participation in the community guys that like the level of consistency of of the live streams is getting pretty solid. And I'm loving seeing everybody consistently participate. It sounds like, it seems like everyone's mental stamina is getting greatly improved, which is awesome. Soccer, soccer, mom, memes, soccer, moms memes, boom, just joined in welcome to the live K 23 Hampton asks, how did you say we can get on your MSL newsletter? So you can go to someone could type Quincy, america.com/about a, B O U T. I'll pin that at the bottom. So you guys can see, and then there is update just like my most up to date about section, but I'll always have ways in order to join the newsletter there. L I T O S three to three 50 50 podcast joined in what's going on, brother. Welcome. okay.
Quincy Amarikwa (33:16):
I don't know if you guys saw, we did a Quincy talks episode, like three where we did a, a re a replay. There you go. Oh, I think thanks guys. Thanks guys. So Luca, thank you, Sirena. Thank you. Inside a Rapids. Thank you. Pin that right there. Three comments in a row. That's what I'm saying. That's high level. You guys, that's what I'm telling you. The, the, the engagement of the community and everyone's everyone's buy in is awesome. I love it. It's it's amazing. I like to think that it's because a lot of people are getting a lot of value out of these, the, this podcast, the show and the, the resources and things that when you're releasing here with the brand. So so thank you. I was thinking was in the middle of saying, yeah, the 50, 50 podcasts we've got the Quincy talks episodes that have been going out where I, where I kind of do a throwback to a, maybe an impromptu conversation I had or a live random live stream that I'd have on my personal platform or channel where I'm just talking through thoughts or ideas or a conversation I thought was valuable.
Quincy Amarikwa (34:28):
And we reshare that on the, on the, on the channel. So the 50 50 podcast that I did was a good one. So if you guys haven't listened to that, make sure you go check out that replay. Also just recently did the designated players podcast, and I, I think there'll be releasing that episode here soon. Yeah, Sirena said, is anyone calling in nobody's called in yet? I'm seeing everybody joining the, in the comments, which is great. Matea started Anderson underscores frequency. Would you be interested in joining my podcast as a guest speaker? I'm in tears? How long have you been doing your podcast, man? And kinda let us know a little bit about it here, what I got in there and I could, I can answer. So what episode number are you on Mathias and what's the name of your podcast and yeah. What, yeah. What's the name of your podcast and what are you talking about? Let's see, let's see what we got here. So official MLS memes said any plans to become an MLS pundant with ESPN.
Quincy Amarikwa (35:44):
That's a good question. You'd got, we need to maybe ask ESPN and these decision makers, how they come to the decisions as to what shows that they have or bring on and who they're reaching out to. What I can say is up to right now, knowing that ESPN has reached out to me to be abundant or to speak, which I find interesting. I find very interesting. I find very interesting. But as you guys know, we did, we have recently brought together and and created the organization, black players for change to address the systemic discriminatory issues and problems within the MLS. So I wouldn't be surprised as to that being a that being something that is being worked on as we speak as a result of a lot of the, the initiatives and efforts we've been doing as an organization.
Quincy Amarikwa (36:47):
I think most recently I announced was the partnership with the player's coalition. It's an arm, it's the social justice arm of the NFL PA. They've been in, they've been in operation since 2017. I think this is yeah. Since, yeah. So they're going into year five of operating. They secured, what was it like a $90 million contract, seven year plus two with the NFL to in grants to do social justice work. And I was the lead on negotiations for getting that deal done for the black players for change organization. So yeah, we've been having a lot of internal conversations with potential partnerships. That's kinda my role within the organization, as of right now being the negotiations since strategic partnerships director and yeah.
Quincy Amarikwa (37:49):
Change takes time to execute on and implement the policies and update the things that we're needing to be updated based on the data that we were able to look to you now, I think in that vein, there's been some great dialogue and conversation in the let's see. Yeah, there's been a great dialect. Speaking of which there's been a great dialogue and conversation in the community, especially over the BPC MLS account. I think most recently the MLS published a list, a short list of potential candidates for, for the Atlanta position, head coaching position, which lacked quite a bit of diversity. And I think a lot of, a lot of people were not too pleased with it. The BPC MLS account had brought attention to that. And I think the MLS quickly addressed the issue, made a public announcement as to the, the, the problems that they've now seen, they had seen with their original list. So it's good to see. It's good to see faster action being taken and the concerns of the player pool being at least listened to you as of right now. I'm cautiously optimistic as to you
Quincy Amarikwa (39:19):
Two,
Quincy Amarikwa (39:21):
This remaining the case moving forward. But I
Quincy Amarikwa (39:27):
I do
Quincy Amarikwa (39:28):
Acknowledge the, the work that is being put into make sure that that is not the case. So I I'm, I'm, like I said, cautiously optimistic. I'm optimistic that the systems and processes and the, the policies are being not only looked at now, but scrutinized and, and, and changed as a result of, as a feedback, which has not been the case in the past. So we've yet to see the results of these policy changes,
Quincy Amarikwa (40:01):
Things happened. So I'm, you know, I'm optimistic for that. A soccer mom, a soccer mom means Booz say Quincy to Atlanta. The question Mark, you guys, that would be dope. I think if anyone's been falling for a while, if you check out the Quincy clause article, I forgot who wrote that? I think one of the pundits for Atlanta and not pundits, or like one of the writers for Atlanta had written an article called the Quincy clause. I thought that was a pretty good article, obviously. But in terms of the, of the coincidence,
Quincy Amarikwa (40:35):
Cause of
Quincy Amarikwa (40:40):
Almost like a player, but pool keeper, I think a perfect example would be for implementing the Quincy clause would be with like Orlando. I think I saw a, unfortunately Don Dwyer sounds like he has a knee injury. I'm not sure how bad the knee injury was, but he made a public announcement about it. So it's probably not too good. And yeah, that the writer, I forget the writer's name. Cause I mean, it was a couple months ago, but essentially it just, it's just saying, Hey, you know, in these instances of players, like a Ford going down with the injury the Quincy clause allows for kind of like an interim pool forward to, to step in and sign with the organization in the interim that was being, that idea was being thrown out there when it came to you Martinez going down with his knee injury with Atlanta and then obviously now full circle and thinking about that again with the Don Dwyer in Orlando, but the Quincy clauses, I believe that's a good idea. Just like in terms of conceptually, like the idea of having that, especially in the MLS with the salary caps and the limited roster spots and stuff would be, would be good. Let's see.
Quincy Amarikwa (42:06):
Let's see. Let's see what else we got here.
Quincy Amarikwa (42:18):
[Inaudible]
Quincy Amarikwa (42:18):
All right. Yeah. We've got about 15 minutes before Instagram kicks us off here. So please continue to send in your questions and I will start going through them. Please check the question thing. So let's see, we've got a lot starting to come in now. So this is good. So let's see Julian. I had a Hyatt, I had a high level soccer clinic all week this past week and I played great the first day, but then the second and third day, and when they get too long, it can be second and third day, third days, I didn't play as good because I got so intimidated. I'm seeing that you're saying you got so intimidated. If you want to drop the rest of your question in the actual live thing, once I see it, I can answer, but I'm assuming that you allowed the intimidation of the other players in the level that they were able, they were able to play at to make you second, guess yourself, doubt yourself.
Quincy Amarikwa (43:14):
And you got in your own head and then your quality of your play probably dramatically decreased, which is, which is something that you've got to go through. It's a, it's an experience. It's a good experience. It's not a good experience to go through when going through, but it is a good experience to have because you're able to now refer back to that experience in the future. Yeah, you'll be able to refer back to the experience in the future when you ultimately face it again. So you're going to get into moments of time where you realized the players and the level around you is much higher than you currently are at. And that may intimidate you. When that happens, you want to find a flaw in their system of play that you can exploit. So we kind of talked about it earlier, where you don't have to be the best player.
Quincy Amarikwa (44:07):
You don't have to be the best player on the field, but if you're the best at figuring out how to exploit the other players system or their weaknesses, then that makes you the best player on the field, but in a different type of system. And that's the system we're talking about creating. So we're talking about, we're talking about looking at the skills and level of the or team that you're playing against and breaking it down to the weakness and focal points that you can then exploit. And you don't have to necessarily be better at them at what they do, but you have to be better at them at their weakest link or PO point within their system. So we're talking about how to think through and break down their systems. So you can exploit those points of weakness. So if you start to get intimidated, you're probably getting too focused in on what they're good at and not finding what they're poor at.
Quincy Amarikwa (45:07):
So if you're getting overwhelmed with that, now let's self reflect and go, okay, well, okay, they're good at that, right? Like, Oh, this guy is super, super fast. This girl is super, super fast. Okay. Let's assess that. Are they so fast that they're not aware of care of there spacial awareness on the field? Do they not take up good positions on the field because they rely so heavily on their speed to be players? Okay, well, if that's the case and you can assess that and you can recognize that then you can nullify their speed by standing in places that they're most likely to naturally flow into. This is what we're talking about, the flow of the game. So if you can be there walking, moving to get into those spaces, you can nullify their speed, which now breaks down their system. And now they become overwhelmed by you because they don't understand how this slow player keeps shutting them down because you've exploited a flaw in their system.
Quincy Amarikwa (46:15):
They have yet to encounter before. And in that moment, that can be the advantage that you have to beat them on the day. Now, if they also have the MSL mentality and mindset, they'll hopefully that hopeful for you, but hopeful for the advancement of the game, be able to self-reflect a practice. The three S's of self-awareness in the moment, recognize and understand what you're doing and then adjusted their game to now re-explain your system, but doing so creates a flow state of learning. And now it's teamwork equals dreamwork. They're helping you get better. You're helping them get better. And over time you grow, you build experiences and the cream rises to the top. But that's a good one. I like that official MLS meme said MSL is greater than MAVA mentality thing. It might be, it might be that upgraded, that upgraded mentality guys, mainly cause we're breaking it down into simple, simple steps that that everyone can see and understand, and then decide if they want to apply them for themselves, which is, which is I feel different much different than I'm much, much different. And then other things I've at least seen okay. ESF is put in those questions and how do you not let your family problems hurt your performance either in practice or game? I think you'll need to, hold on, let me look it up and see. So if you go to perfect soccer skills.com/blog.
Quincy Amarikwa (48:22):
So if you go to perfect soccer skills.com/blog, and up at the top, you click the top right corner. You click the search, the search bar and you type in some keywords. So in this one, you're saying you want to overcome family problems, hurting your performance, either in practice or a game. So you'd go to that top corner, you click search and then you type in your keyword. And in this case I typed in the keyword family. And the reason why I did that is cause I remember we did episode and it is episode 77. And the title of that is what to do when your family doesn't support you. And that would be a great, that would be a great one for you to go and relisten to you. And you see the breakdown and all of that, the notes from that there. But like I was saying, you come to you per sector schools.com/blog, you type in the top F a M I L Y you type in your, your keyword.
Quincy Amarikwa (49:30):
And then you'll see all the articles that have come up with that keyword in there. But that's how I'm now able to get that information over to you guys more quickly, like I said, I've been working and by, I mean, we are team, the perfect soccer team has been working crazily it, talking about investing, invested a lot of time, a lot of money, a lot of energy efforts into our tagging system and getting and breaking down all the episodes, breaking them down into clips and getting them all together in a manner that you guys can get access to answers to your questions as quickly as possible, but more importantly, through, through our personal experiences. So that's how you do it. That's a whole episode. That's kind of whole episode that was focused in on that. And a lot of a lot of great information on how to do that. They're so, so please head there.
Quincy Amarikwa (50:28):
Natalia, N a T H a L I a M P R said, if I send you an email, a professional soccer videos, I'm working months on it and improving myself a lot. Can you give me any tips on what I need to do to improve even more, please? Yeah. Send your, send your email into contact@perfectsoccerskills.com break down and write out, you know, what you've been doing, what you've been working on and what you're needing help with, what you're wanting feedback on specifically. And if you could do a screen share of it as well, too, that would be helpful. The more information and the better you guys break it down, the more quickly you probably get a response from us on the account and the better we'll be able to help you. So we, we invest in those who invest in themselves. So the easier you make it for us to understand what your issue is and your problem is the more quickly and better we can help. Micah Makilah Michaela said, I don't speak English. I'm Brazilian. You'll have to take our episodes. I don't know if you're going to be able to understand this, take our episodes download the audio or take the audio and then put it through a translating software. So you can skip this MSL mentality. But hopefully in the coming years, we'll also have some translators will translate the MSL mentality, mindset, audio stuff, into other languages. So our non-English speakers can join in as well to you.
Quincy Amarikwa (51:53):
Boom, trap. Xcel said, keep the positive vibes going. That's what we do here. Every Thursday, positivity Micah said, I I'm a big fan of you. Thank you very much, brother. I appreciate that. Oh, well I think, let me see, you have said, Quincy, talk about how you talk about an actual MLS player. Let's like a striker from like LFC. Maybe we'll maybe we'll break what breakdown, how to break down a player. I think it might be better if I let's say we're we're breaking down a player from a game a year ago or something like that, or maybe you play this on league anymore. That's just me thinking off the top of my head first, first pass and go around. But that actually might be good. Like how to BR breaking down each player, strengths or weaknesses across the league could turn that into a show where a bunch of players I know would definitely watch that too, to understand the weaknesses in their game, but why would I want to put everybody up on that free game if they're not going to pay for it? But that's a good, that's a good business idea. I think Paul Paul, let me see. Paul had said, Oh, what did I see? Yes. I think I saw the question that came in. I was going to click it.
Quincy Amarikwa (53:33):
I think he removed his question. I'm lucky. What was my point? That's something we could potentially do. I'll think more about that and get back to you guys on that. That would be something that would take longer than the four or five minutes we have left before we got to call it a show. So table that that's a good one a little bit better now. It was very obvious to drop the level and I got nervous also. I have my first, this weekend. Okay. Yeah, Julian. I saw the rest. I saw the rest of that. And my, my answer to that question covered that. So that's good.
Quincy Amarikwa (54:27):
Increased football set. I really enjoyed the spiritual athlete podcast with you. And when you said that truth wins in the end, but the BS wins in the beginning. Thank you very much for checking out that that, that episode I'll need to turn that episode into a Quincy talks episode as well, too. So thanks for bringing that up. Increase football. If you guys haven't listened to that podcast episode, head over to spiritual athlete over on YouTube he's on his path to he's on his path to pro and we had a very good conversation. Breaking down a lot of concepts and ideas. I think you guys would, would enjoy that one.
Quincy Amarikwa (55:10):
Oh yo shout out Justin Moro. Justin dropped in. I didn't see him. I didn't see him and had I seen him out. I told him to call in. So sorry about that, Justin. I'm scrolling back up to the top cause I fell behind on the, on the comments. Being a part of my podcast, I saw that word Eli doc gives said when I commit, I can call in and let the people know how the MSL has helped love that. Please do. If anybody has a, you know, accomplished anything as a result of kind of the mentality, the mindset, and we'd love to share with the community, what you've been doing and how the MSL mindset helps you among that, that path. I'd love. I'd love to have you join and drop by for a couple of minutes and let us know, but that'll be dub England 2130 welcome or not welcome. Just seeing you, George says no way they're getting fans back in the stadiums. Not yet for more schemes. Yeah. that will be, that'll be a task very least for them to do, but I think yeah, Instagram's give me two more minutes here before it kicks me off.
Quincy Amarikwa (56:41):
Yeah. Inside a Rapids one minute warning. Yes. Quincy, do you, what do you do with your time management sheet stuff? If an unexpected event happens and it ruins your time, time of your schedule? Well, you document that you make note of it and then you account for it. You just keep going. I think the important thing guys is you're going to make mistakes things aren't going to go perfect. But the goal and ideas to break things down to a level that you can remain committed to it even in uncertain times and difficult times. So making, setting yourself up for success to the best of your ability, but we've got a minute left before Instagram officially kicks me off. I appreciate everybody who joined in this week. Thank you to everybody. Who's been being joining in every single week here, participating in the community on the newsletter, sending in emails letting us know what's been working for you and, and applying, applying applying what we teach here.
Quincy Amarikwa (57:42):
I think final question from official MLS means kid of 16 year old have the wisdom of seven-year-old. Yes, they can. They just gotta, they gotta apply themselves. Be tuned in, dialed in and and learn from the mistakes of others. I think that's the best way that you can gain the wisdom of your elders. But thanks again to everybody who's joining in love. Seeing everyone drop the I'm in your head emojis, we've got 20 seconds before MLS, before MLS, before the MSL has to unplug here right now. Everyone's spam that heart button. Thank you everybody for joining in. And I will see everybody here next Thursday, 6:00 PM, PST 9:00 PM EST. And as always, I mean your head.