🔥 Friday Fuel: The One Thing Every Athlete Needs to Become Unstoppable

Every athlete is told to “work on your weaknesses.”

But Emma Humphries (Wellington Phoenix Academy Director, former Liverpool and Canada youth coach) flipped that on its head in our conversation this week.

She kept coming back to one idea:

Not “kind of good at everything.”

World-class at one thing that makes you stand out and impact the game.

That’s where real belief comes from – in football, netball, rugby, swimming, athletics… all of it.

This week’s newsletter is built around two big ideas:

1. Find your super strength and make it world-class.

2. Protect your joy – happy athletes play their best.

As always, you can find our Athlete Sheet with Key Takeaways at the bottom of the newsletter.

💥 Emma Humphries: Find Your Super Strength

Emma has worked with some of the best environments in the world – Liverpool FC, Vancouver Whitecaps, The Football Ferns, the Canadian youth setup, and now the Wellington Phoenix Academy.

Across all of those, she’s seen the same pattern:

• The very best players aren’t always the most talented.

• They aren’t always the fastest or strongest.

• But they know exactly what they’re world-class at – and they lean into it, over and over.

She calls it your X-factor. When I coached we called it a super strength.

• A defender who never gets beaten 1v1.

• A midfielder who can keep the ball in tight spaces.

• A forward who is brave enough to take players on again and again.

• A keeper who is unbelievably brave in big moments.

• A cricket bowler who swings it on command.

• A tennis player with a reliable weapon — huge serve, heavy forehand, or unstoppable return.

• A sprinter who always nails their start.

• A point guard who sees the floor two steps ahead.

• … the list is endless across all sports.

That one thing becomes:

• Your confidence and belief anchor when things get tough.

• The thing coaches remember when they pick teams.

• The way you can impact a game even if everything else is falling apart.

• The thing you can go back to when your challenge level goes up.

Now what I found really interesting was Emma’s challenge to young athletes:

Not what you think you need to be good at - WHAT YOU LOVE DOING MOST.

And if you think about it, it makes total sense - if you love something you are way more likely to work at it to become world class.

And yes, the exciting thing is that you can build it.
It’s not magic, it’s repetition:
Against a wall, in the backyard, at the courts, after training, when no one’s watching.

You can watch her talk about it here:

🎯 For Athletes: How to Find Your Super Strength

If you’re 11–18 and chasing a dream, start here:

Ask yourself:

❓ What part of my sport do I love so much I’d do it even if no one ever praised me for it?

❓ When I’m playing my best and having fun, what am I doing over and over?

❓ If a coach had to describe me in one sentence, what would I want them to say?

Then:

• Pick one thing: e.g. 1v1 defending, first touch, passing range, pressing, shooting, support runs.

• Decide: “This is going to be my super strength.”

• Design tiny daily reps around it: 10–20 minutes most days.

And remember Emma’s point:
She’d rather see a player try the right brave action and learn than play safe and disappear.

👨‍👩‍👧 For Parents: Help Them Find (and Protect) Their Super Strength

Emma’s worked with hundreds of families. Her big messages to parents:

1. Be part of the team, not the selector

• See yourself as working with the academy/club to grow a person, not just a player.

• Success isn’t just “first team or nothing.” It can be: scholarships, National League, local senior football, or simply a confident, resilient kid.

2. Watch for when your child is most alive on the field

You know your kid better than anyone.

• When do their eyes light up?

• What actions make them smile or celebrate without thinking?

• When do you think: “That’s them at their best.”

That’s a clue to their super strength.

Instead of:

Try mentioning something positive about their identified strength:

3. Car-ride rule: it’s not your job to be the coach

Emma’s “do and don’t” for parents:

• ✅ Do show up, support, and enjoy watching them.

• ❌ Don’t use the car ride home to analyse every mistake and replay the whole game.

Let the coach handle the coaching.
Your job is to protect their love of the game and their sense of self.

If they lose the joy, the super strength disappears with it.

🧠 For Coaches: Create Space for Super Strengths

From Emma’s coaching lens:

• Be firm and fair – clear standards, but always explain the why.

• Separate development from the league table – focus on progression and performance, not just results.

👍️ On super strengths:

• Name it: “You’re a 1v1 monster.” “You see passes others don’t.”

• Design for it: Build training moments that require those strengths to show up.

• Protect it: When a player is struggling, start by reconnecting them with the thing they do best and the joy that came with it.

👎️ Big don’t from Emma:

📚 Book Spotlight: The Energy Bus (Emma’s Recommendation)

Emma mentioned that her staff are reading The Energy Bus – a simple, story-driven book about the power of positive energy, perspective, and mindset within a team.

Without spoiling it, some key ideas you can steal for your family or team:

• You choose whether you’re an energy giver or energy drainer.

• Every team (or family) is like a bus – you decide who gets a ticket and how that bus feels to be on.

• Positivity isn’t pretending things are fine. It’s choosing a constructive response when things aren’t.

Try this at home or in your team this week:

• Ask: “What kind of energy did I bring to training today?”

• Family or team question: “What do we want our ‘bus’ to feel like this season?”

• Create one tiny “Energy Bus” habit – e.g., everyone says one positive they noticed in themselves and one in someone else after games.

It links directly with Emma’s world:
High challenge + high standards… but with belief, connection, and joy.

✅ Making It Happen This Week

🧑‍🎓 Athletes – your 3 actions

• Choose your super strength. Write down one thing you want to be better at than anyone else in your team.

• Do 10–20 extra reps a day of that thing, on your own. Little and often.

• Track it. Start a simple journal: “Today I worked on… This felt easier/harder… I noticed…”

Print this out and let us know your wins and biggest takeaways.

👨‍👩‍👧 Parents – your 3 actions

• Spot their spark. Watch one game or training purely to notice: “When are they most alive?” Tell them what you saw.

• Protect the joy. This week’s car rides: no technical or game breakdowns.

• Check the fuel. Look at a typical training day. Are there long stretches (3–5 hours) with no food? If yes, help them plug one gap with a simple snack.

🧑‍🏫 Coaches – your 3 actions

• Name one super strength for each player. Tell them out loud this week.

• Build one activity in training where those strengths are clearly required and visible.

• Review your feedback style. If there’s a player you keep correcting in front of everyone, plan a quiet 1-on-1 chat instead.

If Emma’s world teaches us anything, it’s this:

• know what you’re great at,

• keep getting chances to use it,

• and have adults around you who keep the joy and the fuel tanks full.

Here’s to a week of super strengths, belief and confidence. 🍽⚽💛

Ben (& B)
The Game Changer x FYA Team
💙⚽🏆

FYA - Fueling Youth Athletes
🎙️ Home of The Game Changer Podcast

📺️Youtube: @TheGameChangerYouthPerformance
📘 Join our FYA Facebook Community
📸 Instagram: @fya_fueling_youth_athletes