Philippe Edmonds – Soccer Success Story

Perseverance and Passion: The Journey of Philippe Edmonds

In the world of sports, every athlete carries a unique story of perseverance and passion. One such story is that of Philippe Edmonds, a dedicated soccer player who has journeyed from the playgrounds of Canada to the competitive fields of Sweden, proving that with the right mindset and determination, obstacles can be overcome.

Chapter Overview:

00:00 Introduction and Background
00:22 Challenges and Overcoming Obstacles
00:57 Struggles in Canada and Injuries
01:57 Turning Point and Life Coaching
02:15 Joining LPS and Its Impact
03:37 Training Philosophy at LPS
04:44 Atmosphere and Community at LPS
05:36 Dreams, Aspirations, and Future Plans
06:16 Advice to Younger Self and Playing with Passion

Early Beginnings and Challenges

Philippe Edmonds recounts that soccer, known as football in most parts of the world, has been a significant part of his life since childhood. His parents believed in exposing him and his sister to a variety of activities, and football was the one that truly stuck for Philippe. However, his journey was not without its challenges.

The first major hurdle was leaving his home country to chase his dreams. The idea of stepping out of his comfort zone and finding opportunities abroad was daunting. Philippe describes how it took strength on multiple fronts—mentally, emotionally, and physically—to keep pursuing his dream amidst such changes. He had to leave behind family, friends, and familiarity to adapt to a new environment, learning to navigate life away from home.

Injuries and Decisions

Another significant challenge Philippe faced was dealing with injuries. These setbacks made him question his path in football, prompting thoughts about whether he should continue playing or shift direction. The spiel between coaches, family, and friends about pursuing a university degree and enjoying a paid education further complicated his decision-making process.

A transformational moment came when a conversation with his life coach led Philippe to reflect on his true desires. The question was simple yet profound: “What would make you happiest in the world?” It was a pivotal point that reaffirmed his commitment to football, driving significant progress and development thereafter.

A Supportive Community at LPS

Philippe highlights the tremendous impact that joining LPS (an athletic training center) has had on his career. Drawn by the center’s reputation initially for injury prevention and strength building, he discovered an environment that offered much more—a community focused on competition and growth. At LPS, he was surrounded by like-minded athletes and trainers, making it a space where everyone pushes each other to succeed.

The comprehensive training approach at LPS transformed Philippe’s abilities. Unlike traditional methods focusing on isolated muscle groups, the whole-body training regime enhanced his physical prowess, giving him an edge on the pitch. This inclusive training hardened his resolve and improved his game comprehensively.

Pursuing Dreams and Future Aspirations

Philippe Edmonds continues to drive towards his ultimate dreams in soccer. He aspires to play on the world stage, representing Canada at the World Cup or joining the national team. However, his ambitions exceed his personal career as a player. Philippe envisions establishing his own team and academy to pass on his accumulated knowledge and experiences, providing future Canadian players with opportunities they might not otherwise have.

Advice to Aspiring Athletes

Reflecting on his journey, Philippe advises his younger self and current athletes to rely more on introspection rather than external opinions. He stresses the importance of being passionate about one’s pursuits. Passion fuels resilience, helps endure hardships, and ignites the fire necessary to ‘dominate’ in one’s field. According to Philippe, athletes should embrace their emotions and play the sport with heart to truly thrive.

Conclusion

Philippe Edmonds stands testament to the belief that pursuing a dream with passion and perseverance can help overcome the most challenging barriers. His narrative encourages young athletes to trust their instincts, remain true to themselves, and fight for their aspirations, reminding us that the journey is as valuable as the destination itself.

>> Watch more of our athlete success stories here.

TRANSCRIPTION:

My name is Philippe Edmonds. I play football. You guys might know it as soccer. I play in Sweden. I’ve played there for two years now. And overall I’ve been playing soccer basically my whole life. My parents just took the approach of throwing both my sister and I into every activity. And so they put me into football.

And that was the first thing I did, and that was it. The rest is history, I just stuck with it. I’d say one of the hardest things to overcome was First, it’s like a two part. First was getting out of the country, finding the connections and the ability to get out of the country to advance my career.

And then secondly was, then once you’re gone having the strength mentally, emotionally, physically, etc. To Continue pursuing what you’re doing. It’s not easy to leave your family, your friends, and everything you’ve known behind in order to pursue your dream. Managing to get through the first step, leaving, and the second step, learning about what it’s like to be gone, and how to do that in a healthy manner, was definitely a Definitely some big hurdles that I’m glad I overcame.

A lot of the struggles that I had to face as an athlete came from, being in Canada. The environment is a bit difficult at times, especially for soccer, being so new in this country. It’s not the same foundation or system compared to the rest of Europe and the rest of the world. And I found that was a big kind of block and obstacle and also injuries.

In the past when I was younger, I did have my fair share of injuries. There was a point in time where I was considering not necessarily not walking away from the sport, but taking a different direction within the sport. All my life. I had been telling myself that everyone, I was going to be a professional.

And then after my first year abroad, I was realizing all it’s tough to be away from family, friends, everything, and not only that it wasn’t my most successful year. So I seen the challenge ahead of me and started to let the voices creep in of parents, family, friends, teachers, coaches that said, Go to university.

You’re good enough to get your whole degree paid for. Go to university, go that route. So I almost went that route, and then suddenly I had to sit down with my life coach, and he just said, forget everything for a moment, what would make you happiest in the world? What do you want, and you know you want?

And then after that moment forward, I never looked back. And that’s actually where a lot of progress and change came from as well. So I’ve been at LPS for four to five years now, done three off seasons with them. I heard about LPS from one of my longtime friends that at the time was a hockey player. He’s been coming here a couple years for himself at the time, and now he’s a boxer.

LPS has helped him and since joining LPS has helped me tremendously. I decided to come to LPS over other facilities because I just heard about the reputation. Originally it was for injury prevention and just getting a bit stronger and faster. And then once being here I just seen it was like the atmosphere, the coaching, everything was more than that.

It was about competing, and that’s an edge that I feel other places definitely don’t have. And since being at LPS, those injury worries have been left behind. And I’ve had the opportunity to meet like minded people, like minded athletes, trainers, et cetera, and advance with the right connections in a field where, or in an industry where connections really did lack in this country.

My experience here has been above and beyond everywhere else I’ve been. Everywhere else was doing fads and this and that, not really paying much attention. They’re always going through the motions, whereas here it’s a community. Everyone wants you to succeed, everyone’s pushing you. My durability, I haven’t had injuries since joining LPS and I’ve been much sharper mentally, physically.

I’m prepared for everything that the game throws at me. Originally, I hadn’t done much of any sort of like squatting, and I definitely didn’t do any Olympic lifting. And since being here doing that, I’ve seen that my lower back has been so much stronger. I’m a lot faster on the pitch. I’m better in physical duels.

So all of this has just made me more durable. All my injuries went away and a better athlete overall. Where I was training before with regards to movements, it wasn’t as complex or whole body. Everyone would go, okay, today you’re going to do legs. And then that was it. And then the next day you’re going to do arms, for example, where it’s here every single day.

It’s whole body training, because obviously in a game, you’re not going to say, okay, one day I’m only going to use my left side. No, in a game, you’re using your whole body. And that’s what this place. has helped build me for dominate. To me just means have the attitude, have the mentality, the fire in your gut to just want to win, want to succeed, strive for better.

It’s like the one word is all encompassing the attitude of this gym and the attitude you need in order to Get over all the hurdles and obstacles in your way to achieve that success. The atmosphere here at LPS is just contagious. When you’re in here, you want to move weight. You want to move fast.

You want to compete. Like I am one of the smaller guys in terms of body weight compared to other people. So I see people moving 300, 400 pounds and I’m like, Oh, do you know what? I still want to do that. Or I want to have a better ratio. I want to be on the board. It really makes you want to push yourself.

So when you’re off the field, or off the ice, whatever it may be, and you still push yourself and you ingrain that mentality in you it’s contagious. It moves you. Coaching staff feels like family. Their attention to detail. And the way that they can communicate effectively how you’re supposed to be training.

And the way they just want to see you succeed. It might not always be rainbows and butterflies and all that, but that’s the point. It’s like family. You’re going to have your days and at the end of the day, they just care. They want to see you win. And that’s what really comes across. In terms of my dreams and aspirations within the sport, I really want to keep pushing, just see how far I can take this.

And ideally, the biggest goal would be to be able to play in a World Cup of Canada, or play for the national team. Outside, outside of the sport, when I’m done playing, I would like to get into coaching. I wanted to set up my own team and academy, to be able to leverage the connections I’ve made in Europe over the last few years, and over my playing career, and give players in Canada the opportunity to Through my own experiences and through the system that I also went through there in terms of academy structure.

Give them that opportunity here to develop and then the chance to progress their careers. A piece of advice I’d give to my younger self would be Spend more time just reflecting myself upon my goals as opposed to listening to other people. A lot of times when you’re younger you look up to others to find direction, to find meaning, to listen to advice and wisdom, but that can just cloud your judgment.

So I would tell myself just to stay in my lane, listen, and feel what I know is true and what I know is right for me. One piece of advice that I think I’ve taken the most recently and is coming through is to play with passion. Too many times nowadays you get coached out of it.

People want you to become a robot. But if you don’t care about what you do, you’re not going to get through the hard times. You’re not going to do the things you need to do. It’s through actually enjoying what you do and feeling that. Also, when you enjoy that much, if things don’t go right, you’ll feel worse.

But that’s okay because it, that builds character, that builds that fire that we talked about, that, that need and want to dominate. And you can’t get through all of that if you’re a robot, you need those emotions.