What's going on guys? You guys are tuning into the project a podcast. My name is Omar. Zini. I'm going to be your host for this episode and the episodes to come if you're new to the channel and you to the podcast on the founder of project K Academy and I started this channel back in 2016 growing up. I was just like so many of you guys I was a goalkeeper and someone that was always looking for more and more content to learn from whether it was on YouTube whether it was through just matches on TV, whatever it is. I was always looking for that next piece of content that can take my game to the next level. After I stopped playing though, I realized that there just wasn't enough of it being produced. So I just decided to start the Channel with the hope of kind of providing that sort of outlet for so many of you that are just like me and are eager to learn and trying to get better as a goalkeeper and to kind of become more of a student of the game. So as many of you guys may or may not know I was on the podcast called inside the 18 where we would have interviews with top goalkeepers goalkeeper coaches and review the weekend goalkeeping, although I will not be joining them as often as I used to. I would highly recommend that you guys still sent to that podcast because Mike and Pat they provide a lot of goalkeeping knowledge and have a lot to offer to you guys and the goalkeeping community. So please make sure you guys check those guys out and I will have a segment here and there with them so catch me on there as well with this podcast though. I'll be publishing Evergreen content on a weekly basis for you guys what that essentially means is that I'm going to be covering topics that whether you guys listen to them today tomorrow in the ear. They're always going to be relevant a lot of you a and a lot of issues that are recurring issues for us as goalkeepers, whether that's confidence issues technical tactical issues all of that stuff and I will be doing that at least twice a week for the next ten weeks with all that being said, let's get going with episode one in episode one. I'll be answering a question from Instagram follower Logan Leatherman Logan asked me hey Omar. I heard you mention that you were a part of the LA Galaxy Academy growing up. What did it take for you to get there? And what kind of work should I be putting in now to? Into a development Academy and so to answer Logan's question. I want to dive a bit deeper into my youth career and time prior to the LA Galaxy Academy. I feel that that would be a good starting point where I could go into depth on some of the skills and habits. I learned at a young age that would prove to be the difference for me later in the episode. I'll be breaking down some of the habits that I wish I had had the discipline to master at that young of an age. There are a few core things that when I reflect on my career, I wish I had developed at a younger age those corporate. In suppose or lack thereof would have massively impacted my game as I progressed into the next stages of my career and lastly. I'll get my final thoughts on what I believe to be the most important habits for young goalkeepers at different ages. All right guys. So without further Ado, let's get into episode 1. Yeah. Alright guys, so I've been a little bit into my youth career. I kind of want to give you guys some back story on how I got into the game and all the little things that I learned along the way that would prove to really be the difference. Once I turned 15 and was able to play in front of an LA Galaxy Scout. So I started playing around six or seven years old AYSO just like everybody else very straightforward. I was a forward at the beginning didn't really like to run that much but just because the field was really really Compact and really small I was able to get away with it. I still remember early on Eon where I didn't really have much awareness either like the coach would say, oh my you're playing left back right back and I never knew what a position was or what those positions meant. So I would always just slowly gravitate towards the forward to the field or the front of the field and I was much bigger than everybody else. So I was able to shoot the ball a lot harder so coaches I okay. We'll make an exception you can continue playing up top no biggie for us. But as soon as the field started getting a little bit too big and I started having to run a little too much I was thrown and goal. Right away. I just kind of fell in love with just the adrenaline of being back there. And to be honest with you guys. I still got the same amount of snacks at halftime. I still got the same amount of matter of orange slices amount of water, but I had to do half the work so I was kind of like, all right, like I enjoy this position at the same time to cool with, you know, reaping all the benefits that the field players are going to get when them, you know, they're playing the entire game running up and down the field. So I'm cool with that. So that happens and little by little I start, you know, becoming more interested in understanding what are certain movements that make professional goalkeeper successful. So I'm watching these games on TV and I think I hit probably around 10 years old and I started noticing how goalkeepers move their wall and how they played a high line and you know how they distributed the ball out of the back and just started noticing all those little things and really started to pick up on them. And so my dad and my mom realized okay. Hey, he obviously has an interest in playing the position. So let's put him in an official team. So we have some family friends. And again, I was much taller disclaimer when I was younger. I grew to like five seven five eight a lot faster than a lot of my friends and teammates. So anytime I would play in the game whether it was you 10 or whenever people would always say that guy's too old lets check his birth certificate that used to be the running joke, but I was much taller. So my parents said hey, you know, there's a you 12-team you're 10 years old, but hey, you're obviously physically at that level. So let's put you in there. So I joined this team. It was probably one of the worst teams I've ever played on just Terrible organization and as we all know different tiers in the Youth System. I was in the bronze level. So it was you 12 but like the worst of the worst so I joined this team and pretty much every single game. We were losing six two seven zero and I remember I was getting shit from like half filled and I was conceding some goals that were pretty just the were so bad that if my parents had come up to me and said yo, we're going to get in the car early just meet us a few blocks down the street then I probably would have said in hindsight. Yep that makes It's because I'm embarrassing you guys because there was a lot of rumbling on the sidelines a lot of people, you know saying this goalkeeper needs to be benched and all this stuff. So I kept thinking. Okay. I love the adrenaline when I first started playing for this a so team where the teams weren't very good. I got to take a lot of goal kicks. Kick the ball up the field as much as I can I could but now I'm losing six to seven is zero. I don't want to come to these games anymore. I don't really enjoy being on this team anymore. We had a family friend of ours named Sharif sane and he contacted my parents and Said hey, we have his team. It's the gold level but it's under 11. So when your son is obviously 10 now when it turns 11 this team is perfect for him. They need a goalkeeper and it's very high level. We think your son is ready for it. And so I my parents said look, you know, there's an opportunity for you to go to a much better team and you know, you're not going to be playing with older kids anymore going to be playing your level. So I think that is you know, the best way to go so I said, okay let's let's make this happen. I mean, I don't really have anything to anything negative to say about But again, I'm just not really enjoying playing anymore. I'm just nervous all the time and it's not something that I really look forward to any more. So I'm sure a lot of kids, you know, a lot of young goalkeepers have had that feeling as you get older you start to understand. Wow. Okay, there's a lot more on the line and there's a lot more people that you know care about wins and losses that actual development. So there comes a little bit of nerves but at the same time to it's that high risk High reward, so, you know, my parents explained that to me at a young age. So I said, okay, I'll do it. I remember I was about to turn 11 and I joined this team FC Barcelona, which is in Pasadena, California Sharif Hussein, very intense guy, if anybody knows who he is just very intense very professional and will definitely give you an earful if you want aren't in shape. You don't know how to play his system, which is the goalkeepers XI feel player, which was to me one of the big reasons why I was successful, but I'll get to that later. And so we got that installed in a super super early by Arco Sharif and My first day I'll never forget it. I showed up didn't even have the right attire completely looked like a sore thumb out there and we're playing as the you 11 team against the you 12 team and the u12 team is in little scrimmage their team is essentially, you know, they have probably ten players from that team that won professional. So right away my eyes had to be trained to see and understand that this style of play was going to be a lot faster than when I was accustomed to and without really much formal training. I was kind of of thrown into this environment where mediocre just wasn't acceptable so that kind of fast track me a little bit and made me understand that it was fight or flight like I could either show up every single week completely nervous so I can figure out a way to develop and get better. So that's kind of when I started realizing there was a few things that I could start using in my favor. The first was watching game film and I still remember again vividly one day were playing And stay team in the in the final of the tournament and I was probably at like 2:00 p.m. On a Sunday. But Arsenal was playing that morning and they were playing against man united or they're playing a big game and we don't have TiVo back then we couldn't record anything. So we had to watch things live. So I woke up about 6:00 in the morning set my alarm woke up watch the game and my dad comes out and he's just like yo, so what's going on don't you have a game at to clock go back to sleep? It's like no, you know, I'm I'm an Arsenal fan and I really enjoy the game and I you know, I give him a lot of pushback and he realized okay, there's no point in arguing because you're not going to go back to sleep. So and his mind he said look if you're just watching this to watch it. Then you're going to be wasting your time. Like why are you watching it? It's like well, you know, I love the goalkeeper. I love Yen's Layman. I love the way they play. I love Thierry Henry. Robert Perez is when they were The Untouchables and so he said, okay. Well in that case you're wasting your time. Do yourself a favor and watch the goal. Fever and see how he commands his back line, see how he talks to his Defender see what he does so that you can learn from that and take it into your game. So, you know I said, okay, that's what's going to get you off my back. I will listen kept watching and watching and he was right. I just kept understand trying to understand why ends Layman was just such a force back there and how he commanded his Defenders and how he earned their respect from some of the big saves he made and kept thinking to myself. Wow. Okay. Let me see how high of a line he plays. Let me see how he plays out of the back. Let me see how he organizes his walls. Let me see how you know what he does when his team is up 1-0 in the 90th minute what they're doing when they're down 1-0 in the 90th minute keep watching and try to learn become cerebro and understand what they're doing. So I kept watching that and I kept trying to understand all the little nuances that came with the position then came the game days and I started trying to implement those things and it was back in 2004. We watched O'er my parents actually purchased the VD set of the 2004 euros and it was in the time where Greece ended up playing Portugal in the final and it was every single game with every single highlight and we had the Honda Odyssey. We used to put that DVD in and I would watch it every single time before a game and there was a time I think they hit a ball over the top and Iker Casillas comes out out of his box. Probably 25 yards out. He comes out and headers the ball out for a throw out throw out for a throwing and in my game that day. They hit a long ball over the top I cheated. Off my line just like a see us did and I won the header cleared out of balance and I remember like some some of the parents were like, wow. Like how does he know how to do that or like that's so unorthodox. How does he know how to do that and right away it sugared in my head. I was like, oh my God, that's the key you have to watch these professionals and whether their unorthodox their Orthodox, whatever it is, you can take little pieces of what they do and try and implement it into your game. So as I was telling you guys that's one of the major Use your key points that I would highlight two young kids out there. If you can watch your own games or watch game footage or training footage professional goalkeeper as you can see and try to analyze what they do and why they do it when you watch it though, right? Like my dad said remember it's all about the context. You have to understand why they're doing it in that moment. And what was in front of them? What did they see watch it on replay keep watching different angles and see what they saw so that once you're in that game you have that mental recall and you have the ability. To call on something that's not necessarily you but it's something else that you saw and in that moment. You can kind of fall back on something. So that's what one aspect of the game that I definitely felt at a young age. I really really capitalized on and something that essentially developed my game and I became somebody who is as you guys know now through Pro GK loves to analyze film that really started at that adolescence phase when I was a young kid kind of still molding my approach to the game molding my habits as I watched it. So that's one aspect that It got me to the LA Galaxy Academy. The second thing I would tell you guys is that after watching all that film and some of the film of myself and goal. I started understanding that there was different parts of my game that I could manipulate and for me because I was so slow because I was very very tall and just kind of lanky I wasn't able to come off my line very fast. And when I played for that team that was under 10 team, excuse me, 10 or 12 team at 10 years old. That was one of the main reasons how I got scored on was because I kept getting chipped. I started staying so If our back on my line that ball is over the top now I was so late to and I became you know, someone who was second guessing and someone that was a second too late or I would come out and completely missed the ball and my decision-making was so off. It was embarrassing and it was just one of those things that you know, if you're another team or your head coach of a team you say Scouting Report The Keeper. So sloth is line lets, you know bait them out and let's see what he can do make him make a decision. So I started watching ends Layman Iker Casillas Buffon and started understanding. We're trying to understand what made them successful and how were they so quick off of their line. So for me, obviously Buffon and Casillas, I think a see us now is retired because of his heart issue, but those two for me in terms of longevity. They've been able to continue their primes and really try to squeeze out every last thing their talent out there because they know how to read the game so well, so I'm watching these guys week in and week out trying to read their body shape and how they set themselves up as the ball was being played. So I remember one time I was watching Barcelona Real Madrid. They hit a ball over the top and Casillas comes out Ford's the attack just comes out left foot sit up the field and it was almost one of those situations that had he been like two or three steps late. I think it was Rinaldi know where I'd Echo one of those guys who was coming in behind that they would have beaten them to the ball. So I said, wow, okay, that's that trigger something in my head. Well, okay, how can I manipulate my positioning to be kind of like to see us but play Within my own In my own ability once I can answer that question that is going to be the complete unlock and I'm not going to tell you guys that I use this terminology from with myself back in the day, but I definitely had some way of comprehending it that was easy for me to understand so next game I go or next training I go out and I start cheating off my line a little bit expanding my range yard by yard by yard. Okay again, I'm not going to tell you that. I woke up the next day and I was Miles ahead of everybody or miles ahead of my old self and was able to read the game and became a sweeper keeper that other people applauded. No, it's not true. It was manifested through days and days and weeks and weeks and years and years of just expanding my range a little bit more understanding was I fast on that day or what was the forward looking to do once he got in behind is it best if I cheat off my line to at least show a high line, but if I can't get it do I drop off? So you start trying to kind of force yourself to think of different ways. Is or you have different questions that you're trying to answer and with that expanding of the Ranger answering those questions in your you know, checking those boxes that you otherwise wouldn't be checking off if you didn't try something new and to me that was just like again the biggest unlock mental unlock for me. So there were times where I started understanding that one my team stepped up and we were playing the offside trap a lot if I minimize the space in between them and me I could capitalize on any ball over the top. So when I started to understand that concept I cheated off my line and when I saw the full word or she's me when I saw the midfielders or the centre-backs put their heads down. I had an idea. Okay, they're probably going to kick this ball. So I was in a staggered position, which means one leg forward one leg back. I would have my shoulders essentially kind of like pivoted just a little bit. So I'm almost in a running position and I would kind of like seesaw back and forth between my front foot and my back foot and I would do this because And I don't want to get chips. So if I needed to I could see saw back to my back foot and recover back to the line or go to the front foot and be on the front foot to chase down anything in behind. So I was going back and forth. And again, I would just kind of start to go back and forth back and forth trying to read the defender or the center midfielder. And finally when I started seeing from my peripheral vision, there was a forward making that run that's when I knew okay. This might be an opportunity for me to cut it out before it even happens. So again, I started off from like 10 yards out, which is probably Lie, right around the PK area then I went little by little by little forward and forward and as I started expanding my range I started realizing I could close down the space a lot quicker and a lot faster. So again, that is something that I learned from watching game film and understanding how to manipulate my positioning and my game so that my weaknesses were no longer weaknesses, but rather my strengths and that happened over a long period of time and it mainly happened because I was willing to fail and my coaching If was willing to let me fail they kept saying look Omar. It's okay if you get scored on we understand but you need to get better at this. So whether it's balls at your feet or whether it's balls and behind or crosses, you need to understand that to make progress. You have to make mistakes and I was very very fortunate that my coaching staff like have that wherewithal or had that understanding that you need to give kids freedom and the ability to make mistakes, of course, there's going to be repercussions, but let them be themselves. Then play with their instincts so they can grow their Instinct can get that instinct that much sharper so that when they're thrown into that situation, whether it's now or in the future, at least they have some experience with it versus being completely green. So those two things were massive in my development and then one last point that I will that I will highlight here is that I was almost addicted to training. I just love the position. I love playing so so much that it was almost addicting at that point. I was probably around 13 or 14 years old playing with this team now and we were we had want everything on I was under 13, probably national champions Regional Champions, and we were one of the best teams in the country and at that very same time my uncle from Mexico who played in the Mexican national team system when he was younger and play fourth Echoes and Liga MX get it tomorrow a few teams in Liga MX. He came back because he was running a business here and he decided that he wanted to be with his family. So he retires at around the same time. Time then I'm kind of entering that crucial period of development around 12 and 13 years old. So he comes back he starts training me once every other week or once a week and that obviously that advice and his coaching style was extremely vital and how I approach the game and how he set the sessions up and the intensity within the sessions his voice in the sessions and how it essentially made me want to be out there more and more and more so I can get better. So again right around the same time, Cherie. Zane who is the head of the club? He had these things called shooting Clinic shooting Clinic was free to the goalkeepers, but the fuel players had to come out and pay I think $20. So for us, it was a steal and my sister my brother were a part of the club as well. So they came out for the shooting clinic. So the way he would do it is he would have from different angles. He'd have guy shoot they'd hand him the ball. He drop it. It would be full volley half-volley and one touch finish from every single angle. And then we did one be ones then chips over the top and through Also, there was a lot of things being covered and I used to do is they used to have an older session on Tuesdays and then on Wednesdays that have the younger kids and on Mondays and Wednesdays where my sessions and then Tuesdays and Thursdays were my sister's training. So I would go to all the shooting clinics my sister's trainings and my own trainings. So again, like I said, I was addicted to the feeling of improvement and getting better and coupling that with like manipulating my game not so much even coming off. My line anymore was manipulating my positioning. Okay, so I may not be the fastest guy to get down. So how can I maybe set a little bit lower or set more neutral so that I can get those little balls and I can also get the high balls but I got shot after shot after shot and I was conceding goals sometimes and he used to call me a donut a taco a hamburger, you know, all those little derogatory terms that you say to somebody who may be overweight but it made me better because I wanted to kind of prove him wrong and say look like I'm going to show you that I can make improvements every single week and that's a I did every single week. I kept going out there and getting better and better and better and he would pull me aside every once in a while. I was like Omar, you know, I know I say some things here and there but like I'm really like your progressions are really good keep working. So I'd kept coming out kept coming out and I learned so much about shot stopping and how you're supposed to set that by the time I hit 14 and 15 years old. I was probably one of the best shots Toppers because I hide probably took about 250 to 300 shots every single week and with that repetition you learn so much. And again, it's the failure. I filled so so many times in those sessions over and over and over you kind of have that fight or flight moment understanding that you have to fight to understand how to get better and what to do to get better. So I did that and now it's about I'm 15 years old my team we hit kind of a wall like we're doing okay. We're still a pretty good team, but we're not winning the same trophies that we used to or not winning as often as we used to but then this opportunity comes up where the development Academy for the LA Galaxy is becoming a thing. So there's one game we end up playing against the Women's National Team. It was 2007. We're playing against them. They're getting ready for the world cup. So they're doing a tune-up game. And if you guys remember from the 2019 World Cup, this this world cup the Women's National team lost to an FC Dallas you 15 boys team. I think it was four one five one. And so I never really wanted to share the story of how we beat the Women's National Team or the score line. But when we play them in 2007, we're all we're a group of 15 year olds our team Barcelona and Beat them 5:1 it really wasn't much of a game. I probably did one or two things. There was a time where the ball got passed back to me and we're up five one and I was juggling the ball and then I picked it up. So like the game wasn't amazing, but I definitely needed to make some saves and come out for crosses and play with my feet a certain way. So I showed well and then we went to the peak a shootout and I saved two pka's. I think we won that three to two or four to two after the game Briana Scurry who's one of my heroes she came up to to me and shows like you're you know, that was an amazing game like congrats to you. Hopefully have a good career. And then I Hope Solo came up to me and she was like man, you're a stud and I was just like, holy crap like these are too like the best woman goalkeepers I've ever like I've ever seen and they're just they're huge huge names and big names in there on their profession. So I was in awe and not too long after Matt mental who was the goalkeeper coach LMU and he was going to be the goalkeeper coach for the LA Galaxy walks up to me and he says Hey Omar. Just want to introduce myself. I'm going to be the goalkeeper coach for the LA Galaxy Academy and we'd love to have you come out and play for the team. And I said okay, you know kind of committed to this team and I would really, you know don't want to upset anybody because they've done so much for me. But thank you. I appreciate it will be in contact and then he reaches out again and they said hey, we need you to come out to one of the sessions. Are you interested? I said, okay. He said yeah, like we've contacted a bunch of your teammates as well. And we want them to come out so fast forward probably three four months and seven or eight. Of our Academy or choose me seven or eight of our Barcelona players from my team. We're all signed by the Galaxy Academy. So essentially that team not disbanded but a lot of the better players ended up going to the Galaxy Academy and here we were at 15 playing with an MLs Academy. So that was like the Pinnacle of kind of all that hard work and in the moment, I wouldn't necessarily say that I remember all that stuff or I could even at that age pinpoint in attribute all that work. To that moment or culminating in that moment, but now that I look back I realize oh my God everything. I just said to you guys which is you know, watching the game film manipulating my positioning my game and overtraining and being someone that looked forward to training and getting better. That was all coming to the Forefront as I showed well in front of the Galaxy Academy and so, you know, when I joined the academy there was a lot of little things that the coaches would say, there's some stuff obviously that I going to get into in a little bit about the A stuff that I wish I had done better, but the good stuff. They were saying Omar, you know how to position yourself very well. You're very good with your feet. You come off your line very well, you know how to read the game and so there's all these little things that they were putting their pinpointing and then as I got older I'm like, okay now I understand exactly where those came from from watching the game film manipulating my positioning understanding where I am on the field where the immediate threats are and how to, you know, fan those Flames out before they even you know transpire before anything really Comes of it and so those are the things that I really want to pinpoint for you guys. And if you're not doing them at a young age, not that not to say that they won't catch up to you but athleticism isn't always going to be with you as we saw with Buffon Casillas Nelson Dida, like all the big-time goalkeepers as they get older their body starts to diminish but their mind also has to be double as strong or they have to be that much more concentrated and have that Foundation of IQ and one goal. Keeper that I admire so much for doing that was one Peter schmeichel and David Seaman those two goalkeepers were two of the best. They're huge six foot four big big guys, but they knew where to be and how to position themselves to make the easy save, but at the same time to allow their hands and feet the money makers to make the saves because they were in great positions. So I tribute a lot of My Success to those two guys and watching them play as I grew up. So by saying all the good stuff guys, you know, I don't want to even I'm off as like, you know, trying to tell you guys that I was perfect or that there were no holes in my game because that's far from the truth. And in the next segment here. I'm going to tell you guys the bad that I wish I would have known at a young age and the things that I really wish had been instilled in me at that young of an age so that as I got older and stepped into different stages of my career. I could have been proactive rather than reactive and proactive meaning already ahead of the game ahead of the curve understanding what needed to be done. His reactive in the coaches saying hey you need to work on this. This is already behind you need to do this this and this better. And again as you get older, it becomes more difficult to develop a foundation because there isn't as much free time and you don't have much time to work and get better and instill a foundation. So starting now at a young age from ages, maybe 11 to 13 or 14 those The crucial crucial years. So this next segment. I'm going to cover all the bad and things. I wish I would have done better. Days passed a pass. All right guys, so as I said in segment one, there was a lot of good things that came from me understanding the game and making the game easier on myself. But when I started to say get to the next level when the game was much faster and my body needed to be in Tip-Top shape week in and week out or every few games in college my body began to fail me and It was mainly because of my nutrition when I was a young kid around 12 13 years old going to those shooting clinics. I would finish up my training and my mom would take me to Baja Fresh and that may not seem like a big deal because there's probably some you no good options there, but I used to get a burrito a big burrito with chips and that was probably every single day like they had a club card at Baja Fresh. I probably would have been one of the gold premiere. Ward's members because I want their so often and I got the exact same thing every single time that it became kind of like my downfall in a way, you know nowadays. There's a huge nutrition craze and health craze out there vegan plant-based going green all that. But for me, I was just very lazy on and off the field that I didn't really apply myself or try to learn anything new about how to recover my body or how to set nutritional goals at a young age that would prove to pay. Dividends in the future and again, I may have sweated a lot in training and worked hard, but that food either set me back or sent me exact exactly to where I was prior to that training and I never had protein shakes. I never did anything to improve my health or my Outlook on food, and it proved to really work against me even in college before every single game. I used to be exhausted and I don't know what it was and I realized as I finished up my career that it was the food that I was eating. I was eating a lot of carbs before the game a lot of carbs the night before and that may be good for a few players who are burning and exerting a lot of energy burning a lot of calories and fat but for a goalkeeper, that's not really the way to go but I just kept eating the same foods that they were eating and it was detrimental. So before every game we'd have a team meeting game would be at 3:30 or 4 have a team meeting around 12. I would probably have a full tuna sandwich from Subway a full tuna sandwich on wheat bread, which I thought was healthy, but it's like Like it's insanely insanely heavy and it put me to sleep. So I would go back to the house. All my teammates would be playing their music or doing whatever they got to do in their rooms to get themselves ready to go and for me, I would be like, hey guys, I need about 30 minutes. Please. Keep it down. I'm going to be passed out in my room. I need to I need to actually get my energy back. So I would go in there put my headphones in and I sleep for about 35 to 45 minutes wake up feel refreshed than we had a pool in the backyard I jump in there. It would be freezing and the winter time or in the fall time Jump in there. It would wake me up. Up, and then I would have this like vibrancy again in my chi be completely awake. Then I go to the games and I play well, but this was like a recipe that was meant to fail because on the road, you can't do that when you're at home. Sometimes there's going to be situations where like families visiting or there are certain responsibilities you have before the game that you can't squeeze all that stuff in so I became very dependent on that system or that habit prior to a game and when I didn't do it you could tell I wasn't I did not play well and that's one thing guys. I would tell you at a young age to really build a foundation with is your nutrition find out what foods are good for you. What foods provide energy what foods can give you and store you energy that you'll need in the game on a hot day or on a night game where you've already kind of, you know, walked around and done yourself throughout the day find something a formula that's going to help you out and don't get Baja Fresh don't get chips and guac. Don't go ahead and get a burrito after every session because you're going to be stagnant you're going to be After every single session, so that's one big thing that I really regret and I think if you guys see me now if you saw Matt back when I was younger I was thin but I still had that baby fat around the stomach area and that leads me to my next point which is weight lifting and core. And again, I have my uncle who was a former professional player in Mexico. And the first thing he told my parents who has he's got good instincts. He knows how to, you know, play the game. He's a natural but he has no core strength. He's very very slow very lethargic. Doesn't really move well and he needs to get better at that. So every single time I saw my uncle hey how the core exercises, you know, we'd be at a family dinner and I'd be eating a lot of food. Like that's not good for your Coral my need you to be better with your core kept drilling it in and in and in and again, like I said, I wasn't very disciplined. I didn't have much awareness and I was just very stubborn. So I never did any core exercises and I was kind of okay with being mediocre or okay with leaning. So heavily on my ability to read the game well, but that all began to Tell to me once I finished up the academy or inner in and around that Academy level where some of the goals that they were scoring. My athleticism wasn't there as you know, how I was when I was younger and it it proved to be pretty costly because I lost my starting position going into my last year with the Galaxy and then the next year when I ended up splitting time where I play one game and then the other goalkeeper play the other game and so on and so forth, but there were a lot of moments where I had the chance to seize myself are create the opportunity for Myself to be the number one and at the Galaxy Academy and I did when I was younger, but as I got older those habits began to really catch up to me and I wasn't somebody who understood how to do core exercises or go to the gym and weight lift and even in college. I got to college and I never did any core exercises never did any weightlifting because I was just happy with showing up and just playing because I understood the game and IQ again guys can only take you so far you have to have the physical qualities and you have to be able to have injury Invention from that weight lifting. I remember there was one time where I lifted before a game and it was the day before a gate or not the day of a game the day before a game and I did arms biceps chest all that stuff and I really lifted hard. I felt good and then the next day my arms were like like jello. I couldn't even move them. They were so slow to react and we lost 3-2 to against Sac State and I remember swearing off weightlifting forever. I said, you know what this is never going to happen again. I can't do this to myself, but it was because I was so reactive not proactive about the situation that I found myself in a situation that was detrimental to me detrimental to my performance and just detrimental to like my psyche and you know way of thinking about weightlifting. So again guys develop your core strength eat, right those two can go hand in hand because when you eat right you feel good when you feel good, you play good and when you have kind of an investment into your body and an investment into your core strength and weight lifting you're going to put Self in a position to be way more cognizant and way more conscious of what you eat and how you eat before games. So those two things both for sure. And the last thing guys I'm going to say is the psychology of the game. I can't tell you how important this is the psychology of the game. Meaning how you approach the game what you think in those moments where things aren't going your way when you've made a mistake in training when you've conceded a goal in college and they're breathing down your neck two minutes later and you have to be able to have that mental wherewithal. All and understanding that you cannot allow this first goal to lead into a second goal. Once you're able to kind of manage your emotions and be in control of who you are out there man. The sky is the limit anybody can tell you they're way more afraid of somebody who's confident than somebody that's passive. If you're in any profession as a boss or a CEO whatever it is, most people are going to be more reactive to you raising your voice and being confident in what you're saying then being passive and not saying what you need to do because the jobs won't get done and as go Papers we are technically the bosses and CEOs of our team. If you really think about it where the quarterbacks we see everything we can call anything out to our Centre backs are Defenders and let them know. Hey, this is what's going to happen in a few seconds. I need you to trust me and you need to understand what I'm telling you is important for this going out to happen. So those little things and again the psyche of the game can be confidence with your teammates or it can be the negative thoughts that you may have in certain moments crosses as Dan Abraham's would say say automatic negative thoughts ants where the ball stops dead on a goal on a free-kick corner. Kick, whatever it is and right away you start thinking about all the negative things that could possibly go wrong and being, you know open and vulnerable to speaking with a sports psychologist is huge when I was about 20 or 19 years old. I went to our sport psychiatrist or a sports psychologist at Caltech Davis and I sat down with her for about 3-4 days and we just like ironed out a lot of stuff that was going through my head, especially the pressure. Of being the starter at Davis and she started giving me all these little things that I could do and tips and tricks and I started getting out there was just so much more calmness and he's in my game and just not really worried about the score line anymore worry more about my performance and how I can control what I can control. So that was huge and crucial when you have a formula in a way to kind of approach every game with the same mentality with out whether you're winning games or you're losing it to without wavering. Everything is consistent. And you don't ever have to worry about okay what happens if I you know, consider goal here, it's more of like, okay, even if I do consider go I'm going to be ready to go. So it's just that vulnerability and leaving yourself open for criticism and to find ways that you can be hard on yourself. But at the same time be constructive. So again guys, it's the nutrition aspect the weightlifting and the psychology of the game. Those are the three things that I wish. I wish I would have done a lot better on because at the next level anybody you're teaming up against or you're playing Or competing for that number one spot a lot of them have gone through all those things and you'll start to notice the ones who kind of weave their path in towards the number one position. They can check a lot of those boxes off its being able to have longevity and that also comes from a tactical awareness and the same time to injury prevention with your core strengthening your weight lifting those things that I covered in this piece. All right guys, thank you guys for tuning in to the first ever Pro GK podcast episode one answering Logan Leatherman question about little things that I learned on my way to getting to the development Academy with LA Galaxy on my goal is to be doing two episodes a week Mondays and Thursdays work you a would happen on a Thursday and Monday would be CPL review and any big points or big mistakes or big saves and games over the weekend? I'd cover those in the podcast again. I appreciate everybody who's been tuning in. So all the pro GK content. I've been kind of on a Hiatus just kind of planning out these different episodes and putting things together where I can be consistent with my postings and be consistent with the content on podcast for you guys. This podcast will be available on every platform Spotify Apple music or a podcast Google Play everywhere. So you guys can Find it under Pro GK podcast and I'd appreciate if you guys tell your friends any other goalkeepers. You guys may know that would be interested in this kind of content. I would really appreciate it again guys. My name is Omar. Zini. I will see you guys for episode 2. Have a good one.
In todays episode,  I answer a question from IG follower, Logan Leatherman. Logan asks, “Hey Omar, I heard you mention that you were a part of the LA Galaxy academy growing up. What did it take you to get there and what kind of work should I be putting in to make it into a development academy? To answer Logans question, I want to dive a bit deeper into my youth career and time prior to the Galaxy academy. I feel that that would be a good starting point where I could go into depth on some of the skills and habits I learned at a young age that would prove to be the difference for me. Later in the episode, I’ll be breaking down the habits I wish I had had the discipline to master. There are a few core things, that when I reflect on my career, I wish I had developed at a young age. Those core principles, or lack of them, would have massively impacted my game as I progressed into the next stage of my career. And lastly, I’ll give my final thoughts on what I believe to be the most important habits for young goalkeepers at different ages! If you don't already follow Pro Gk on social media, you can find us on IG, FB, YouTube, Twitter & Tik Tok: @progkacademy! 