Episode Details

This week, in order to celebrate Christian Pulisic becoming the first American male to win the Champions League, we dig into the archives for our interview with his father Mark. Mark is a former collegiate and professional player and coach, and our talk took place soon after Christian completed his $73 million transfer to Chelsea of the English Premier League. Since then, Christian has hit some incredible heights, and experienced some devastating injuries and extreme disappointment, yet came through it all to become a Champions league winner with Chelsea one week ago. Today we speak about a variety of topics, including what it was like to raise Christian, how many times Mark and his wife Kelly said no to great opportunities, how they limited his competitive team practices to 2 sessions per week, dealing with pressure, Christian's goodbye in Dortmund, and so much more. We trace Mark's professional career and his short stint coaching in Germany and what were the major differences with coaching youth players in the US. His answer might surprise you. This is a great conversation with some terrific insight into the childhood and early sports career of one of world soccer's brightest stars. Other Highlights from the Discussion:

• How important is it to allow kids to develop their own passion for the sport?
• How do you know if your kid REALLY loves the sport?
• Is there a way to increase accuracy without losing creativity in children?
• Parents need to be able to say "No" to coaches.
• Does the tournament culture create "slow" players?
• What is missing here in the US, where and when do our kids fall behind?

Connect with Mark Pulisic

• Twitter
• https://markpulisic.com/
• Mark's Podcast: Soccer Unplugged

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Way of Champions Conference 2021

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