Here's how I went from being a holding midfielder at 18 to being a striker and my team's top goalscorer at 20.

Here's how I went from being a holding midfielder at 18 to being a striker and my team's top goalscorer at 20. From 15 to 18, I was convinced I was a holding midfielder. I mean, it was the position that I broke into non-league playing. I found it simple. Protect the back line, clean up second balls, and then clip it into the channel. I'd spent ages studying the best holding midfielders in the world and started to make some real progress, going from under 18s to step six to step five. Then once 18, I joined a new team at my uni and I went up top in small-sided in training. After the session, my gaffer pulled me and said, I think you're a nine. And I just got there, so I kind of thought he was joking, but he was dead serious. So I started the next four games up top and managed to score 10 goals. Now, this was in a reserve league, so it's not like I was smashing 10 goals in against some unreal players, but still. And then as soon as I realized, oh, I might actually be playing here long term, I started to go to work. After every training session, I'd take a bag of balls, a goalkeeper would stay behind and the assistant coach would stay behind and we'd work on my finishing. This helped me improve rapidly. Two seasons later, I was starting up top for the first team in step four, which was the highest level I'd ever played. And by the end of the season, I scored 19 goals, averaged a goal every 105 minutes and finished as my team's top goalscorer. Now, one of the things that was crucial to me getting that was training real goal scoring scenarios with other players, like my assistant and the goalkeepers. However, I didn't always have others to train with. So I built an app called BALLR. It allows you to post where you're training, what time you're training, and what you're looking to work on, and then other nearby footballers can see this and join you. Or you can open your map and join their session. Also, you never have to train alone. If that sounds interesting, the link's in my bio to download.