What's up, ladies and gentlemen? Hope you're having a fantastic day so far. Hope you're having a great start to the week. Thanks so much for tuning in to the 40th episode of the footballers Journey podcast today. I got a special guest on he was actually the first guest on the footballers Journey podcast think it was about two years ago.When he was playing for Annie shopping beside NE in the third tier division one of Swedish soccer. Now as you'll hear he's playing for one of the biggest clubs in Sweden who used to play in the out Fennekin one the Swedish League about four times called Hempstead BK. This is one of my best friend's is name is Samuel kroon and you guys will hear clearly and episode how much he deserves to be where he's at and how How far he's come, he's one of the most disciplined and professional individuals I've ever seen and I'm so glad to see his progress and his process throughout his career and I can't wait to see the rest of his progress getting to the top levels of professional football. Please enjoy the episode. Yo, y'all good what's up, brother? What's up? Yes, good. How are you? Chill man Chillin good to have you back on the podcast the 40th episode man. I remember we had you on episode one. Yeah, I remember to have got to be back from of course man. A lot has changed since then, uh very much very much for both of us for sure, bro. So yeah, man, I mean for the people who don't know the men killed. I know they sure they've heard on the Instagram stories all over about the man come but for the people who don't No, the famous carrot if you can just introduce yourself, you know your name how old you are where you're originally from where you're currently playing your position. And then now we're just going to ask you a little bit about your journey of signing a perfect first professional contract. And yeah, we'll just move on from there. All right? Yeah for those who don't know me I'm clear on my real name is Samuel kroon and I'm 23 years old. Originally from about can be a little bit outside of Stockholm and hold of Stockholm. Yeah, one of them know is now it's all over there. But I'm sure they heard about the reloads all this stuff. Yeah, but I play as a Winger and right now I play Hound stubby Kaye and the Swedish super upon the the second tier I just signed coma Cool big congrats on that and you know being a good friend. I really have seen your growth and like will talk about and when we get to the you know middle part of the important discipline is played a role and just following a routine has played a role in your success. I'm grateful to have seen the growth over time. I appreciate that bro. Thank you very much. But if we if you can just tell us, you know a little bit of the behind the Seems when you when you signed your first professional contract, how'd it go? How'd it go? How'd you go about it? When you sign old you where where you signed and like I played the four years before I sign here in division one in the Swedish and third tier and you see that that's like see my professional the for the ones who listened to the first podcast. They know that I had like a part-time job beside and you don't make so much money in the in the third tier. So most of the people they work or study on the site. So that's what I've been doing. Now for four years. I signed it with Nisha thing for years ago do she won and since then I've been like working and studying a little bit beside of the football and now this year very recently. I just signed like My first like real professional contract where I can be full-time football player in Hong Kong stock in the second tier. Sounds good, man. Yes, I think it will be a very good comparative for people to listen to and here I think we'll first touch on, you know, kind of A Day in the Life at home start and then we'll compare it a little bit to me shopping to give players an Insight on how like the League's differentiate and how they're different. Current just to give them some extra motivation and to key them in on what really goes on behind the scenes and it sounds good. That would be very interesting for for everyone to hear I think because like I slowly like go and develop myself and I always try to like players as good and as high as possible so so I'm sure like a day in Life here in homestays is very very nice now. So I hope it can motivate like people to to keep on training and keep on being disciplined to to reach a decent level and go from there. Yeah, man, and also I think will constantly re-emphasize and show people and I remember when you were in Israel tell my roommates, they're both young guys that you know, they see, you know the big they see that you're playing for a big club now and You know, they asked you about how things were gone. I remember you kept telling them that it's not easy. It takes a lot of time and I always kept told them, you know when you weren't around and what you want to were around that, you know, you put in a lot of work behind the scenes were very disciplined and what you always did and always, you know professional in a way that you approach the game and like you said it took, you know for five years to secure. That contract you know, yeah, like like you say it's it's very tough. Like especially me. Like I've always been like talented but not like super talented. And also I was very like late in my in my life how I grew I was a very very small and very tiny as a kid, so I didn't really like got the chance early so I had to work really hard and I be like working myself up. Up in the Swedish system from like division 3 which is the fifth tier 2 division one, which is the third tier and notice the retina, which is you can say it's professional level. So so like in like you said, I've been very disciplined. For example, when I played in lower leagues I train a lot on my myself, but not only a lot but smart and I might try to learn as much as possible so I could perform as good as possible and And yeah, I take some tips from everywhere and very much from you. You've been like a big part in in my growth in that way and I'm very honest about that because like especially with like everything outside of football with the nutrition with the with sleep and with the mindset then and everything is very very important in whatever you do in life. Like it's not only football. It's so much around it and that Is and that's really what I've learned especially these last two three years how important it is sweet with everything. So for sure now and I'm grateful to be a part of it and what I can also tell the audience and I told you before what I'm very impressed all the time. Is that even when you were acne shopping, it's a good club. They play good football and it's a good standard but it's not it's not like player or players are full-time players, so You can get stuck in that mindset of other players who are you know, they act like they're good. They're good players. They have the talent they have the ability, but they don't put in that extra work to actually develop and get to a club like calm stata legendary Club, but one thing that you always did that stood out to me and I think this stands out to other players who are professional themselves and other coaches who are very serious about the game Andres. Spect serious guys who are passionate and really love the game. I mean you always acted like you're out of big Club, even if you were it were a tiny shopping. We don't consider a big Club you acted like you were at one of those big clubs and I always try to reiterate that the people that no matter where you are. You can always create yourself a professional environment, you know. Yeah, it's very very true like and I always liked you can may be that extra like training. Will not get you like so much better. Yes that one extra training. But if you like put them all together, it's a lot like for example, if you do if you do one extra training per week, it's so many extra trainings per year and mobile carriers, maybe hopefully within 15 Layla around maybe 15 years. And if you do only one extra training per week for 15 years, that's so much extra it hassle that way and people are so stressed than and they want to get up so quick. But yeah, I think one very important thing is to like take it day by day. And then I'm like like you say always like like do the best of the day and big things will come absolutely it's just a sec. Yeah now that's a key point. And that's one thing. I really learned from from Sweden. You know, I remember when I first came in an eShop and when I was in Germany, I was trained in six seven hours a day. and I remember, you know, the coaching nice shopping pulled me in and said, you know, we got a focus on your workload and really start to work smart instead of hard and you know, I went back that night and I was like kind of not pissed but I was like, what is he saying, you know because I come from America always want to work hard, but eventually I really did learn like you just said right there that putting in, you know, the extra 15 20 minutes a day every day is really Lee what adds up in the future like you said, you know putting in 15-20 minutes per day six days a week adds up to an extra hundred twenty minutes. Yeah, it's makes a huge difference. Absolutely not and that's like two training sessions. Yeah, it's so much I know and then and it's the same with everything it's with nutrition with sleep and with everything like like you can eat McDonald's today before I game and maybe it will play very very good, but it will not in the long-term life. It will not be good. That's that it's a key. Like like if you eat something unhealthy once a week after 10 years, that's a lot of unhealthy food. But if you not it, it's no unhealthy food. So like you need to people need to see like more far far ahead or City to take like every day day by day and make the best out of it and then good things will come like like maybe takes five years maybe takes ten years, but if you do, Everything's right. Most probably it will come sooner court and even like we were talking about just before you know, share with the listeners not the details, but we were talking about women and relationships, you know, everyone wants to you know, everyone wants to wants to put on a show for people for the outside to see you know, like and I think this occurs really and I think you can agree with me a really occurs a lot in football like, you know, you post a picture here you're at this. Of and it's not as good as where you want to be. So you don't want to show it and you get embarrassed instead of like you said focusing on being the best player at that club being the best player at that training every single day. That's what will get you to Big clubs. Yeah. It's so much so many people laid. They just want things to look good all the time and they maybe know what's right for them, but they don't know they don't do what's right because it doesn't look as good. And I think like especially when I was younger, it was more common that for example some young players. They played in the youth teams in aik and these really big clubs and and some other players may be played in lower league clubs, but played maybe with grownups and took that way and the players that played in The Academy team stay they thought oh, it looks so good. I think I had a meeting, but maybe that wasn't the best step for them, of course and then more when they couldn't make it to the first team. They didn't want to like go to smaller clubs because they were too proud and that's when were under the career fucked up. So I think what people need to be less proud and do what's best for them and Court it step-by-step and like focus on the long-term goal instead of just focus on Instagram and and focus on like what people will think about you right now, of course, of course and like we always talk about first of all what I hear in that is First of all, everyone has their own path. Everyone takes their own path and second of all the most important thing is being happy inside like as long as you could be look in the mirror and you're happy with what you're doing from the inside. That's what really matters that interior happiness. Not the exterior happiness showing people you have this showing people you have that because that's just insecurities and what I also wanted to point to I think you keyed it in nicely there. I You said to me I think you were taught you were talking about a couple guys who you know, we're playing in a ik when they were Youth and you know thinking they're big shots and they stop playing the game early and I think that that's very interesting as well. And even like you said in the beginning like oh, yeah, you weren't the biggest guy, but I think I think like accepting the cards that you were dealt and making yourself like Using that to the best of your ability. That's what really makes you the player makes you unique because for example, maybe if you were when you were younger you were this big guy this and that and you use your power maybe wouldn't have developed your Technique, you know, you're cutting into the left foot you're cutting with the right foot and maybe you wouldn't have developed that and then people would have caught up. So I think instead of like saying, oh, why me. Why am I small maybe I think it's best to key in on the strengths of your game and really developed that because eventually that's going to catch up when you grow for sure. That's a very good point like for for all of those young kids out there that that maybe not so accepted in the in the football world that maybe not playing for national teams or or like big teams in young age. Just just keep playing and keep developing like you say on your strengths and then when you grow as a person and gets muscles getting After getting stronger, you you will you will lay you will be catching up on this big guys because like you said they are not working on there like qualities as much because they have it easy. So for all of those that has like a tough time in maybe the Aged between 13 and 17 just put just keep on playing and and like be patient be focused and disciplined and good things will come. I'm sure. Yeah, man, absolutely and like you just said I think being grateful for not having it easy. It's hard in the present moment. But if you just take it in and accept it and you just work every single day like we just talked about and you're consistent with it over time. You're going to overcome those obstacles and you're going to be thankful in the future for having those obstacles because like you said, I've seen it many times. I'm sure you have there's a lot of players who get their asses wiped and they don't work hard and they Stay complacent. They don't work and they sit on their Laurels. They sit at home and they don't do that extra work because you know, they think they don't have to and eventually it catches up to them. Yeah, so so true. Yeah, man, I mean gray tangent there. But yeah, man, if we could just if you could take us through a typical day in the life in season at Homestead, you know, it'd be great for sure. I would love to it's it's very very professional environment. We I'm gonna get through like a now we're in preseason. So I'm gonna get this through like a normal week in preseason. And so we trained nine times per week. So it's very tough now in preseason and we a lot of load and we focus a lot about strength and conditioning to get fit to season. So what we are doing basically a normal week is we we Stop every day at 8 latest 8:30 for breakfast. So we eat at the restaurant in the arena and then we go and have like a tactical meeting for for the day where we go through maybe some things we're going to work on in the training for the day and yeah tactics and we go through some some basic stuff and what we're going to do this week and what we want to work on and then we go to the Dress. Then we go to the gym for Activation and that's very important. That's key to activate your body before you going out to the picture you are prepared. So you you minimize the risk of getting an injury. And so we go what time is it? It's like 9:30, I would say normally and what type of training is meant to you you incorporating individual base there. This is the physio run you through it and efficiency are there and he's a very good physio one of the best teams. Naevia and he runs through like he has some basic movements that were doing for example a lot of mobility and a lot of balance but then also he individualized a little bit. For example me. I'm a little bit stiff in my hip. So then we do some special movements for that. Then he can he can help me with it. So so it's basically the same for everyone but if you want to work on something extra you do that, but it's a lot of Mobility a lot of balance and just yes. Get your body going and you're and you're like nervous system for sure. And when we do that that takes maybe 15 minutes. Then we go by car right now to Turf Arena because the grass we have three grass pitches as they are re not that we train on normally beside the big big field, but right now the weather in Sweden is too bad. So we play on Turf and train them Turf and that pitch is maybe five minutes away from the arena with car. So we go with car and then we train for approximately one and a half hours normally and in our trainings we do a lot of a lot of like technique a lot of possession a lot of passing drills a lot of ideality drills. And then right now we focus a lot about with one. We once very intense trainings 3 with Row 3 because they want to put a lot of load of us and then sometimes after practice we we run on the field as well. And then we come back to the arena. We undress we shower how long is your training usually around one and a half hours. So it's a little bit different from from day to day and depending on what you want to do. But approximately one and a half hours and then we come back we shower we dress we go for lunch. And then we come back latest 145 and we have session to and 2:30. And there's sometimes it's an extra football training and then often if we do to football trainings, the second one is a little bit easier and and we focus more up on our tactics and and stuff like that. But also a lot of times we have Jim Jim session as our second session, so So we go and do it in or gym in the arena and sometimes we do legs and sometimes we incorporate some core when we do the upper. So we do either legs or core and upper and today we had legs for example, and and we do the very intense now we focus on strength. So we do very heavy and explosive movement. So we do some heavy exercises. A lot of weight and then we we do some explosive moves like in between. So you want to you want to like you can only do heavy weights because then you will get slow and you will not feel good. It's very important to incorporate like jumps and explosive movements when you do heavy weights so you can take it out to the field Force course. So now that's a creative way. Point that's a key point. I want to you know also have listeners focus on I mean like you said, they're the most we're in the gym the become better football or to become better on the pitch. You know, we're not in the gym to become better squatter to become better dead lifters were there to use that strength that we have in transferred to the pitch, you know, like you said doing a doing a heavy strength movement paired with an explosive movement is one of the best ways to transfer the forcing you to Up in the gym on to the pitch. Yeah for sure and our fees to is very good. And he has a lot of experience. Yes, a lot of premier league and other Pro players that comes team to do the rehab or physical training. So so he knows what he's doing and and yeah, so we work hard in the gym, and after that we go we undress and a lot of the times we do ice bath or other recovery. Three methods for me personally. I love the ice bath for my feel so good when I do it, so it's up to to everyone to do what they feel is good. And for me ice bath is very good for Recovery. I feel good. And then that's why I do it and after I've done that I take a hot shower and I I leave I leave for home what time are usually done for the day when we do double sessions normally and around for Sounds good p.m. So it's from eight to four. Okay, and just just to touch on the nutrition bit. So you said you're eating breakfast and lunch with the team. Yeah, what do you usually eat for breakfast? And what are usually for lunch? You just give the listeners some detailed. I'm gonna I wake up first at 7:30 because it's very important to wake up like a long time before you trade. So your body's awake so I don't want to go up like eight and rush to to breakfast. I want to get up a little bit earlier relax. And so I'm good to go when I get there. I usually also walk to the arena which takes 15 minutes so I get you know awake so I wake up. So what I do I wake up 7:30 I go and I pour a glass of water up. I drink it up and then I pour another one up and then I squeeze a lemon in it and I take 1/3 teaspoon of Himalaya salt in it as well. And then I drink it with my with my vitamins and minerals I take for breakfast. I take vitamin B complex multi vitamin A and vitamin D3 plus k 2 and then I take creatine as well. Now we preseason great stuff and then I go to the to the breakfast I eat. To like brown very healthy sandwiches with with two eggs one egg on each and then I ate oatmeal with the cinnamon and banana and a coffee. And of course, I drink a lot of water as well before practice right stuff. So that's what I eat for breakfast normally and then during training during the first - I drink EAA which is like a - its uh-huh and then for lunch usually for lunch. I'm super hungry like sometimes we do double sessions before lunch. So we're done like early and then I'm super hungry. So then we have like quality buffet places here in Sweden, which is they serve different type of food and their I try to eat as healthy as possible, but I feel like I need a lot of food for lunch. So that's why Like to go to the face, but normally I eat like one and a half plate and the first plate I take half with different types of salads and 1/4 of good carbs and 1/4 of good protein. And then the second round I just take a little bit more of what I like. Yeah the for myself up good and then I drink the Ric fit smoothie for in the air. Your noon as like in between me and I'm sure you can find the receipt on your Instagram and everywhere. Right? Of course, they won't really just matter was made a YouTube video on and start a rickford cooking channel. So they got a subscribe. So of course do that. It's he's cooking is unreal, but that that smoothie I actually really like so they can see what's in the turn. It's very energizing I think and then when it has so much much in it like so much good stuff for the body. Yes. I drink that in between lunch and dinner and then I usually eat like a late dinner and then I try to cook and because it's always better to cook. I eat buffet during lunch because I'm super hungry during lunch, but during night after that smooth. I'm not super hungry. So then I just try to cook one plate of like super healthy stuff. Normally I cook for Broccoli with the chicken and sweet potatoes. That's the typical dinner for me. And then I tried to cut the sauce. I the only sauce that I that I eat this this Sriracha chili sauce, which has like almost no calories. No fat. It's super sure for sure. That's basically what I eat and then I try to eat a lot of like fruits also in between like right after our session. Options I we have like cutted bananas and oranges which I eat too. So I try to keep myself energized throughout the day sounds like that nutrition pretty dialed in my nutrition is very dialed in and like I since I came here I have not eaten anything like unhealthy if I'm if I want a snack or something I buy this lynz kakadu it's called in Sweden. I don't know. English word for it, but it's like healthy healthy. Like I don't know what it is, but it's a lot of protein in them. And then I take some hummus on them Thomas some hummus and something nice, huh? It's not as good as in Israel though. It's you have some decent hung here. Yeah, that's my nutrition and I feel I feel good with his nutrition and I think it's key for performance. Yeah, we talked about this the other day. You know, how do you like since you've kind of change your diet and made it even more dial than what it what are they like the difference is that you've seen in your body and how you felt since you've changed it? The most important thing is that first of all, of course, I see like my body's getting fucking shredded to be honest. Now, it's more shredded than ever and you know that brings confidence, which is yes. Thing's for sure for the things and for for everyone for yourself and you feel stronger, you know on the pitch and course. So so first of all, it's that and second of all like with this nutrition that I have now, I can handle the tough load that we that we put on ourselves in during this Priestess. And especially when when when we train this hard, it's super important to like feel energized and also for for your body, too. To recover and to feel good its key. So so I just feel that I with this nutrition can handle the load that we put on ourselves right now, of course and then that's enough for me to keep going with it and to keeping dialing of course and I think a key to point out there when I always talk about people is first of all, the reason we're eating. Well the reason we're down there with our nutritionist because we want to perform well, and I think you said this the other day and I think one of the keys for me Is when I'm eating cleanly I feel so much better. You know, you don't feel heavy you don't feel tired. You don't feel sluggish. So when you have these two a days you have that motivation and that that drive and that that energy to give it your all and perform your best and something that I haven't talked a lot about. I mean we talked about in the beginning the thing with consistency, but also if you're consistent with your nutrition, you're going to be consistent with your training. Raining because you're going to feel better and you're going to want to train. I know I'm sure a lot of listeners have eaten the crappy meal and afterwards you just want to sit on the couch which obviously, you know, once in a while it's fine. But if you really want to get to the next level those little marginal differences are really what's going to take you to the next level getting in that extra one or two sessions a week and that could just have to do with your nutrition course sure. I totally agree like like obviously one. Now while you need to like have a crap meal or have like a chin day in the sofa in front of Netflix, but that's when you really deserve it. You can take it exact to be able to deserve it. You need to be dialing the other days and train hard so that you really deserve it because that sometimes it can be good for you to just relax, but then you want to be dialed in the other days you really deserve it. And that's the most important part like like some people they they eat bad food and They relax too much and that's when it's not good for you the like for me like I love to relax sometimes but when I relax I make sure I deserve it and that's absolutely not ski or earn that relaxation exactly. And then one more thing I want to touch on which I think is important. And you said and I've talked about before, you know, we're not, you know, obviously if you're training hard your training while you're eating while you're taking your care of your body in terms of sleep. Bath foam rolling stretching other forms of recovery, you're going to automatically look better. So the reason we're training is not to look better. But after you are dialed in with all those good habits, those looks just come as a natural side effect. And I think that's something that's very important and very an additional piece of motivation, you know, obviously, we're not bodybuilders. We don't need to have a perfect physique. But like you said man, and I think it's huge even if you know, so for example you put on your jersey you go out to the pitch and like you said, you look good in your jersey you feel strongly feel good. You'll automatically perform better just because of that confidence in that self-esteem boost. It might not necessarily, you know, it might not necessarily translate to being better on the pitch, but it'll give you more confidence on the pitch which will make you better on the pitch because you'll have More confidence when going into tackles when taking players on 1v1, if you're an attacker when going into wind tackles is the defender, you'll just feel better and more confident the pitch. You'll want to take more risks, you know, trying to Ping balls through lines things like that. And I think that's something that's kind of underlooked sometimes so, you know, obviously doing bicep curls in the gym that doesn't directly translate to to, you know, being a better football or but if you No, you go onto the pitch and your sleeves or tighter on your arms you feel strong, you know, maybe it'll give you that extra confidence boost for sure. I totally agree like and if you don't feel good, and if you feel unfit you will hesitate on the pitch. Also, there's never a good so yeah, what'd you what'd you say there is is very important and I totally agree with everything. Absolutely, man. Absolutely. So yeah, if you can if we could just do a quick comparison of that completely, you know, unbelievable Professional Day actually all I wanted to ask you one more thing before we hop onto the comparative and me shopping just because I like to give as much detail as possible to listeners give as much practical advice for them to take directly into their life. Can you just give us like a like a typical? Oil if you want to do offseason or in season because I know they gave you a nice offseason training session. You can just give us like a one of the workouts that you really enjoyed the most like all the sets and all the Reps and exercises. So maybe our listeners can get a you know, a pen and paper and write this stuff down so it could it could be useful right away into their daily life. I think that would be you know, awesome for sure. You mean like a gym exercise? Yeah like a gym. I'm like, you know, if you go over you know, what you did first, you know the sets and the Reps and then of course, that's only yes, of course like I would say like what you would do is like in season you would it's important to maintain the strength. So what you build up in the offseason you should maintain in the season. So you need to continue doing what you did in the offseason, but maybe take down the load a little bit because you would have a lot of games and you need to be fresh to perform in the games, but you Need to maintain the strength. But so so we go through what what I did now in the offseason and then you will know what to do in the season, but you just take it low down. So so in the offseason like straight away after we had like qualification game last year we do million. Do we share one where which we want? So we actually qualified with whom you to separate and also which I'm very happy about before and yeah, that's awesome. That's something we want to also congratulate you on I mean Making that shift from knee shopping who Mio and taking the team, you know helping the team the Super Death on probably one of your best memories and for sure it was a great year and and personally my best season so far in my career for sure, so that was great. So so straight after the last game which we had in the middle of November. I had one off week, but that doesn't mean like that. I just chill for 1 week. I went to the gym. Four or five times I chill like two or three times that week just totally chill and more five times. I did just mobility and Recovery to get my my body good again. And after that week I started to to do a gym program, which was very very like not super heavy, but I tried to focus on volume to get my muscles bigger and and focus on that so I did squats I did dead lifts. I did a lot of like those like exercises with a lot of volume. So I did ten times three on every exercise and I did a lot of leg exercises. So legs I did two times per week. I did I hit upper two times per week and I hit core once per week and And those exercises that I did it's it's like it's nothing new. It's like basic exercises and like squats deadlifts. I did. What did I do for legs more? I did. Yeah, just like yeah hamstring curls. Do you remember what I did more? Yeah those step ups with the knee Drive exactly step up walking lunges exactly and I did hip. That's well, and I did a lot of volume. So 10 times 3 and that's important to 10 times 3 the first month of the offseason always have those hip thrusts where those for the Fielder from the tangs. It's very important both on the field. And on the beach here until Santa have a good box. Oh girls they appreciate a good but as well, of course listeners was interesting for sure. Sure, the girls did the listeners day, which is girls to can agree. Yeah, and then for upright did bench press I did a lot of shoulders and I did I don't know every English word for it, but I did see inside. It dips a lot of volume for sure. Yes. I'm the listeners can find like all the exercises on your pages like if they want to. My leg exercises, they can find thousands on them on your Instagram. It's not so like it doesn't matter. Not a secret. Exactly. It's not a secret just do the just do leg exercises that hits your legs and do a lot of volume 10 times 3 approximately. So you do I did Court 1 times per week upper two times per week legs two times per week for one month. And then after that I And more explosive. So after that it's important. You can do the same the same exercises, but you need to do it you put the weights down a little bit and you do more explosive and a little bit fewer reps as well and focus on going slowly down and fast up with with power and they can also incorporate jump. So for example the squats I did very heavy in the first part of the offseason very heavy and very many reps and And after that month I did I put on Lower weights and I did fewer reps, but I did it very explosive. And also I started to jump with the weight. So I went down and then I jumped up and down jumped up. So they need to incorporate jumps when it starts to getting to the end of the offseason so they can get the explosiveness out on the field the first you you put on on some weights on. Um some volume you get you get bigger you feel heavy but strong and then you you make that muscle you you grow you make those muscles explosive and the horse feel so strong on the page show. So right now we when I train with the team we train a lot of very intense on the field football and then in the gym, we do a lot of explosive movements. So so now it's we focus a lot of explosiveness and And we're trying to be as as powerful as possible. And of course of course and thanks for those details and just just a little insight for the listeners and you could chime in a little I mean, I remember you told me you know, how I'm stabbed flew you out two or three times to get you assessed by the physio to see where like you said, you know, your hips were tight where the imbalances were within the body before starting the program. Because like we spoke about and I talked about all the time before you start a program. You got to see where your imbalances are where you lack Mobility where you like Motion in certain joints and muscles because there's no point of strengthening a muscle group. If you can't get into the right position exactly. So so that's I want to actually fill in a little bit there for me like like you said, even if you're not at the professional level you need to make yourself Yourself professional and act professional so for example before I got to this level I I talked a lot with you and and we saw where my weaknesses words and we move we like try to to fix those things and I did that on my own with your help promote very much. And now when I got to the professional level I get that help from the club important thing. Is that even if the listeners are not They need to to get that help professional help to see where they they lack so they can get like a program for them so they can get stronger where they are weak. So so it's like you said like even if even if you're not professional right now, you need to act professional and you need to see what you can do right now to to be as professional as possible because that will take you to a professional level. So, what'd you say? Yeah, so so I missed out after professionals need to be like as professional as possible. Even if you're not at the professional level right now because that is what will get you to a professional level. Cut out again, bro. As professional as possible. You just got to create that environment. Yeah, exactly. You got to create it for yourself. Even if you're not that that lovely right now if you if you created for yourself, you will eventually get to that like professional level if it's with a team or yeah, so, huh. Yeah and like you said, you know, if you don't have all those resources, there are people that you can reach out to, you know people in your area people online. I think that can help move your need move the needle forward, you know, like you said, I mean, I think it's key that you take your training as a process and like we said from the beginning you don't rush it like the way how I'm starred in it is is very professional, you know, they assess your movement first. They see where the imbalances are. They have you work on extra Mobility to have you lengthen those joints and create some space in the in the to help you lengthen the muscles and then Create space in the joints and the muscles to increase the strength and then go through a hypertrophy phase in the beginning when you're not playing because hypertrophy sessions. Like you said, it's a lot of volume. It's going to make you sore but like you said it builds bigger muscles when you start to build bigger muscles you can you can sustain more load so you obviously you're going through preseason right now you're able to And the load more because you went through that first phase of hypertrophy and then obviously about a month before preseason. Like you said, you're going into more strength and explosive base movements to really, you know, transfer that to the pitch and I think all the listeners should take into account that there are many phases to training. Usually there are four phases I'd say first is you know, like you guys did you look you look for the imbalances you create balance throughout the body make it as Magical as possible. You're never going to be a symmetrical human, but you try to make it then the second is like you said you take yourself through a hypertrophy phase. You gain some muscle mass after that you go into more of maximal strength phase which could be a third phase in the fourth phase is a power phase and you know, like you said once you develop that and through the offseason when you're in season you just you kind of half the volume you do you do similar exercise like you said, Said but with lower volume to maintain what you did in the offseason exactly. That's a very good summary right to for sure man. Yeah. I also wanted to ask you I mean you told us you took a couple supplements. How do you do you feel because I get this question a lot and EMS. How do you feel since taking supplements? Do you feel any difference? Like I feel more and more energized. I don't know if it's if it's a bit thin in my head, you know. So if the psychological part of it as well, but of course as I see it, like if I can get one percent better with them. Yes, it's worth it. You know what? I mean? Yeah. So yes keypoint everything that can make me a little better it's worth it. So I don't care if I spend 200 bucks on it. Like of course. It's like I don't make millions, but for me, it's very important to to do things that can make me better. Even if it's one percent it's worth. It you know course so course, so I feel good with it. But it's like we always talk about like do people should do what they feel good about. Like if they don't think it's worth it. It's not worth it. But for me, it's very important to do everything I can and and for me, I think it's helping me so so that's why I take it. Yeah now that's a key point and I want to bold that statement for listeners. Like the man just said, you know he if it can get him one percent. Better that investment is worth it. Likelike. He said maybe he doesn't see it right away. But in the long run that Investments going to pay off big time, of course sure. Yeah. It's kind of for the last topic. I want to cover a little bit of recovery. I mean you talked about ice baths things like that. I think the most important former recovery and I'm sure you agree. I know you've been dialed in on this for a while is sleep. Okay? So yeah, if you could tell us what time usually go to sleep. If you have any kind of you know night time routine that you do it would be definitely helpful for the listeners and the other athletes looking to get to the next level to really start to focus in on sleep sleep is so important like there is so much like facts on sleep how important in his and especially for us athletes. Like for example, if you don't sleep good, you will feel you have so you don't have the energy to trade first of all and second of all when you don't have the energy you your body will think that you need so much more food because it needs more energy and that's what is not eating bad. So if you sleep bad that will make everything bad like your whole routine will be bad. So the sleep is ski, so so what I do is that I I drink a good cup of tea with a little bit of Honey like 30 minutes before I'm going to sleep and then I make sure I turn my phone off. I turned everything off. I make it black in my room and I sleep I try to go to sleep around 10:30 and then I wake up 7:30 so that Almost nine hours of sleep. So if if you don't sleep more than 8 hours, it's a catastrophic. So it's a disaster. You need to sleep at least eight hours and it but it's always it's different from people to people for me. I need approximately nine hours to feel good. Some people need eight. Some people need 10. So they gotta like feel what they need. And and I'm sure everyone knows how much they need, but at least eight hours I would Say less than that is never good at all. So I think a lot of listeners they got to make sure that the tangs don't screw up their rhythms, you know, super important if you have a thing over make sure she comes early and leaves. Of course. And she knows she knows the reality of the journey and she and honestly if she's right for you and she's a good girl. She will and she really does like you or love you. She will respect and really like the discipline that you have to make yourself better on North Shore field. The most important thing is to be yourself and be focused the in what you want to do and then if she's right she's in if she She's if she's not the right one. She she's not the right one. Yeah, and and also for people listen to his podcast probably, you know, we mentioned this stuff and they say oh this is supposed to be a professional podcast this and this and that it is a professional podcast. And that's the reason we're talking about this, you know, both of us were very transparent. There's no point of hiding things on a podcast when we're trying to help as many people get better and we're not trying to make a bed image or push anything. Bad on people were just telling the truth because you're going to get involved with women and honestly it women can bring make or break your career. That's that's that's true. I swear a lot of a lot of people they stopped playing football because because of girls and because so like bad habits going to two parties to meet nice girls and stuff. And and it's like you said Erick like it's a like it relationships are part of our nature. Yeah, we need that for sure. So but it's important to keep focused and to to find the ones that It's want to help you and that really likes you and likes you because you are the one you are and because you want to do the things you do. It's easy as that absolutely man. Absolutely and we talked about it before that. You know, we've both been with girls that have tried to help hold us back from training and doing the extra stuff and at the end of the day, it has fizzled out and it didn't work and it was meant to be. Yeah, exactly. So yeah, man any other methods that you that you do to help your body recover besides, you know, ice baths focus on sleep focus on nutrition. I know you talked about that Mobility. Do you try to get some stretching in throughout the day or how do you look at that now since you're in season and do stretching like we incorporate like the mobility in the activation in the team, so I think that that is very good for Activation but also as as the recovery because Then you get your blood flowing and it's good for your body. But also sometimes when I when I feel sore I hop on my foam roller and there is there's different like sayings about it too. So some like it some not but the like key factors to do what you feel good about of course, there's people that hates ice bath, but but I like it so worth yes to like like find different recovery methods and do what you think is good. For yourself, of course. Absolutely. Yeah, and we're getting towards the end of the conversation. Got to two more questions for you. The first one is if you could go back to yourself at any age you wanted to and give yourself a little bit of the wisdom that you have today at 23. What age would you choose and what would you say to yourself? That's a very good question. I would I would go back to and I wouldn't go back to too far because Sick when you're very young It's All About Love for the game and to to find it. Friends and have fun, but maybe I would go back to ya 1314 around German. Ah. Yeah, I would go back maybe to 1314 because that's the age when it's very important to to like focus on everything around the football like we've been talking about like the nutrition and sleep and everything and I would go back to that age because in that day H also you can you can start going to the gym and you can you can start like learning about everything around just playing football. So I would go back to to that age and tell myself too. Yeah, I would I would like say those stuff that we've been talking about the podcast. I think what we have been talking about this super important for for especially younger players that wants to to develop them be their best self. And basically I would just say the things we've been discussing now and I'm learn my younger self forever today about you know, Biggest question of all, I think we've answered this question multiple times, but maybe some people get got sidetracked there were texts and other people while listening to the podcast if we could just give them a quick gist and you're coming from you from your heart if you could offer three piece of advice to a young footballer or anyone else who's looking to become a pro and get to the next level, what would those three pieces of advice be? First of all, never never liked it let anyone else like say what you gonna do do yourself and do what you believe in and what you want to do and be happy about that be proud about that and be focused about that. That's number one and number two is two We'll enjoy life to Corey Focus, but see other stuff as well. Like there is so much other stuff to do and don't be like a great one like militant if you say it like that like like enjoy stuff and stuff you can you can go and you can go to a party once in a while. But but make sure you you're dialed in the just like we talked about but enjoy yourself and and and make sure Exactly. It's it's super important to to be dialed in but but also enjoy yourself because that will make you happy because you can't be too strict. It's not good for you. Exactly and then the third thing is to make sure you you take care of your good contacts and you're really good friends. Make sure your you reach out to them once in a while or Like wherever you are, you need to keep the the ones that you really like around you and keep a good relationship with not you're absolutely right nothing without I think that's one of the most important part parts of the podcast that people need are really focus on and sometimes people forget when they're very very focused. You know, you gotta like you said man, you gotta keep, you know, three to five friends and good people around you because You know when you need something if you're down or even when you you know, obviously you always want to keep in contact because the energy of both of you, you know, if you have a girl or a guy whatever it is really fuels you and really keeps you motivated keeps you discipline and you could always help each other out and I think there's such a huge value, you know, even though I'm in Israel you're in Sweden. I got friends all over the world. You got friends all over the world keeping those contacts and just having a 15 to 20 minute conversation can really change your day change your mind change your mood. Of course sure, like it's you and me when we talk to each other after I spoke into I feel absolutely very motivated and we're on the same path. So we do the same stuff. So we motivate each other and that's so important to have others that do the same thing. So you don't feel lonely about it because it can be very boring if you feel loves me about but yeah, man what's on that and we'd like to thank you so much for coming on and There's only the Starfy man. I know it's going to be big time. Like we talked about keep doing what you're doing stay disciplined and focused and dialed in and I know big things are coming. If people want to follow you, you know on Instagram this Obsession, I'll drop it in the comments and I'm sure they'll Reach Out. For sure, they can they can follow me everywhere on all social media and just ask me questions if they want to I'm happy to answer. Okay, you can just write my my usual a brother sound good. Enjoy the rest of your night. Okay you two, brother. Take care. Thanks so much for tuning in to the 40th episode of the football Journey podcast. I hope you guys enjoyed it as much as I did. I know I took a lot of info out of it, even though I speak to the man at least once or twice per week. I learned something new. I'm sure he learned something new. It's just so great to talk to great people great friends and just build great relationships throughout this game throughout this beautiful game if you want to reach out to croon on Amber Twitter is handle on Instagram is @ KR o o 3 ends. So it's kr200 S3 ends croon on Instagram on Twitter. If you want to reach out to them. It's at croon KRON4 underscore Samuel. I'm sure they'll be happy to answer your questions. If you have any just drop them a line. Once again, if you enjoyed this podcast if you enjoy this episode, I would really really really appreciate it. I want to emphasize really and you can go to the iTunes app store or wherever this problem podcast is published where you're listening and just give it a review. I would really appreciate it because I want to spread these Good Vibes. I want to spread this knowledge. So people all around the world. Thanks so much for listening. Have a great rest of the week as always. Hit me up if you have questions. Have a good one.
Samuel Kroon is a 23 year old professional footballer playing as a winger who plays for Halmstads BK in the Superettan (Swedish Second Tier). Samuel is originally from Stockholm, Sweden, where he grew up playing. He was constantly looking for ways to make himself better and develop himself as a player to get to the next level. Samuel started his professional career in the lower leagues of Sweden. He played 4 years in the Division One (third tier) of Sweden before signing this year with one of the biggest clubs in Sweden. He also was a big part of helping his club Umeå FC to get promoted from the third tier to the second tier of Swedish Professional football. I have known him for about 4 years now, as he has turned into one of my best friends. He is one of the most professional and disciplined individuals who I have come across. Even when he wasn’t playing for big clubs, he was constantly looking for ways to improve himself and create a professional environment around himself. Take a listen to this episode to hear a day in the life at Halmstad, how he eats, how he trains in the gym and how he recovers his body to prepare himself for the day to day life in a professional football environment. If you have any questions, please reach out to him on Instagram @kroonnn or on Twitter @Kroon_Samuel. 