Many of my best ideas have come on the run. The best ideas I’ve had for stories, scripts, and even grand-scale projects have all come in the midst of a 5:00/km pace, strolling through the streets of Ontario. Starting a football website was a thought that frequently entered my mind throughout my teenage years. Sometime in May 2016, trotting around Western University, the thought regenerated in my mind. Only this time, it was more profound. I should start that thing for real.
My first few articles on this website had nothing to do with football. I was equally obsessed with Survivor and The Amazing Race, continuously pontificating optimal strategies for success in an exploration of human nature. Football also fascinated me, especially in understanding why successful players or teams were able to accomplish greater feats than those around them. Coaching conversations intrigued me too, and had very real ramifications in helping improve my day-to-day craft. For the first few years, I shared my thoughts on reality tv shows like Survivor and The Amazing Race for both the joy of writing and to allow others to join the conversation. Why MasterChef is Fake? (soon to be reposted) went viral, and that helped bring traffic to the other areas of my site that deserved equal attention.
The coaching conversations, and the sprouts of tactics and analysis that followed, were more so a library for myself to be a better coach; and hopefully along the way, help others do the same. Best Formations for 9v9 was born out of a desire to figure out the optimal ways to play at the 9v9 level with my own team. I wrote the article before I had ever coached 9v9. It’s been the most popular article on this website since that day.
Then sometime in 2018, in between university classes at Waterloo, I went for a run. I decided it was time to establish more of a clear sense of identity and brand behind my website. I removed the non-specific giraffe that I used as the logo to that point, created the sweet image you see at the top left of my site, and focused all of my attention toward coaching content. A year later, I started to theorize how the best teams in the world achieved success, mostly out of a desire to coach better teams myself.
For the next four years, the website blossomed into one of the biggest tactics and analysis websites in the footballing sphere. For a few years, I was bringing in more visitors and viewers than the footballing side of The Athletic, and even writing the scripts for one of the only platforms reaching higher impressions.
Pep Guardiola – Manchester City – Tactical Analysis (2020-21 Edition)
I tell you all of this because it’s worth noting that it was never intended to be this way. Back in 2016 in the middle of a steady-state run, I never made it my mission to create a tactics & analysis website bringing in 3,000 views per day and actual business revenue. I simply wanted to share my musings about whatever interested me at that time. Tactics and analysis didn’t come in a refined form until three years into the process. The same can be said for making actual money out of the platform. It’s okay for life to evolve away from your initial intentions. Your current state is the “now”. It does not always have to be that way. So never get stuck in your comfort zone, thinking that your chosen path always has to be the way it is right now.
I feel like we are constantly told to have a vision, be really clear on that vision and to follow that vision endlessly until your dreams within that vision come to life. The reality is that the vision always evolves. Caterpillars are never meant to be caterpillars forever. That suits them in the moment. It’s their state of being for the “now.” But not forever. They’re meant to be butterflies. They’re meant to spread their wings and explore the world in a different capacity from where they started.
It’s the same for us. Every year I continued TMS, my writing improved, my knowledge of the game improved, my communication skills improved, my confidence improved. The vision behind what I wanted to do improved.
If you speak solely to the footballing side of this website, I evolved it from sharing opinions to sharing educational content to writing scripts for others, to consulting for clubs, to working with professional players and coaches. Eight years ago, I never considered that this website might turn into a business venture of any kind, let alone one that would allow me to work with some of the best innovators, some of the hungriest players, and even some of my idols and role models growing up. That’s something that evolved over time as I grew my craft.
It happened through two key elements:
- Dedication to the craft including writing 3-5 articles a week based on whatever peaked my interest; and continuous research into how to improve every aspect of this website.
- Play.
That’s right. The opportunity for that to unfold only happened through play. That is, for six years, it never felt like work. As the vision changed, the passion for writing about the game and helping others never wavered. Even now as I take a mini-hiatus, the passion is still there to write. The passion is still there to help others grow their craft. I’m a firm believer that if you enter any situation with a genuine passion behind what you do, you can make your vision come true. Even if that vision is unclear. Even if that vision changes.
But I also believe that it needs to feel like play. It needs to be intrinsically motivating far more than extrinsically. Dedication and hard work can only get you so far. If you’re not enjoying the process, it’s far easier to quit, and leave that path behind in the pursuit of other passions. Other things that actually bring you joy.
So in 2024, as the vision behind this website changes once more and I amalgamate much of my writing into one place – rhysdesmond.com (I only know that word from years of practice on this website), the elements of play and passion are still in place. Not necessarily for football, and that’s why it’s been harder to write about the game. But for writing, educating, helping, and sharing. That’s why you will continue to find my work on rhysdesmond.com – a website that will evolve over time just like this one.
Thanks for reading, and see you soon.
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