I'm not sure what you mean by "being empathetic to [your] objectives," but if it involves spending time doing things, then one question becomes whether spending a given time doing those things produces more or less improvement in their soccer playing.

I would certainly agree that if spending their available time doing the thing you suggest (which, incidentally, I have completely lost track of what it is, if indeed you ever specified) produces more of an improvement in the skills they value than doing anything else they can think of, then they ought to do the thing you suggest.