Variables
Today, my team trained in the rain.
It's not a big deal for 9 year olds... But it is for the school district we rent our fields from. The slightest drizzle, and ALL the fields are closed.
Since we have a tournament coming up, we trained on some local all-weather fields, unofficially of course.
Because such a small, uncontrollable wrinkle affected our training so much, it makes me really consider all of the little variables that could affect a team's development...
Fields.
Equipment.
Competition.
Coaches.
Referees.
And the list goes on.
A truly serious club will be sure to account for all these variables, to minimize (or maximize) their impact on the final product. A truly serious professional in any field will do their utmost to maximize the variables they can control.