tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38559745487779527872024-03-14T00:57:38.600-07:00Inside the Pyramid - Exploring levels of football more deeplyinsidethepyramidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15703758374222397039noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3855974548777952787.post-31931929099407586602014-03-04T22:19:00.003-08:002014-03-04T22:19:22.170-08:002nd session abroad - how things can change quickly<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">As I touched upon in the previous
piece, complacency is one of the most dangerous traps in football (and indeed
in life in general). It can arise from the formation of an oversimplified view
that you’re of an adequate standard for a particular level because your first training
session with the team went well. This wasn’t the first time I’d been struck
down with this, nor will it be the last. The most costly case of it was back
some five or six years ago when I was on an extended trial for the youth team
of a Ryman Premier side. In my first session I’d had a stormer – it wouldn’t be
an exaggeration to say that with the exception of one lad (who oozed quality
and was a pleasure to watch and play with), I had been the best player on the pitch. I
justifiably went home that night with a great sense of pride, but the barrier
between that and complacency is so blurry, so much so that many have trouble
locating it and resultantly are insufficiently equipped to prevent part of the
pride manifesting itself. I strolled into the next session so sure that the
events of a few days back would repeat themselves and that, even if things
didn’t quite go to plan, I had surely impressed the coaches enough to win
enough favourability points. Of course, it wasn’t quite as simple as that, and
the reality was harshly different. I didn’t play well at all in the next
session and struggled to regain the standard I had set myself initially –
needless to say I wasn’t accepted into the team at the end and had to continue
my search for a club elsewhere. Somewhat disappointingly, I failed to learn my
lesson even half a decade later, when it should have been clear that a positive
start by no means balances the magnitude of settling into a team in a strange
country where you don’t speak a word of the language (and hardly anyone speaks
yours). The easiest way to identify the oversimplification here is to remember
that all training sessions are different – in particular two in the same week
are unlikely to contain the same content. In a weekly schedule, different days
of training will of course be assigned to working on different aspects of the
game, with no two situations identical. Just because the previous day I’d shone
at running and in a 6-a-side possession game, no manager worth his salt would
assume I’d be equally as adept at practising certain tactical manoeuvres
involving team play, for example. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">After the standard running in the
warm-up, the tactical exercises were something new to me. The instructed player
movements and fluid interchanges and passages of play required certainly gave
the brain a lot of work. What made things immeasurably more confusing was the
manager shouting orders in a language of which I barely knew a word. This made
me appreciate the difficulties of being a complete stranger or outsider
somewhere and the hard-work and savvy required to acclimatise before you get
ostracised. The saying that in football everyone speaks one common language
isn’t strictly true – you are still free to express yourself on the pitch, yes,
but the surroundings can easily deprive you of that ability, especially when
you need to listen to instructions and prompts – these things have to be
grasped quickly if you’re to swim rather than sink. The first drill involved
shooting with a couple of parts of interplay preceding it – with players in a
line and then taking up different positions after one another, it’s something
that’s difficult to follow if you’re out of practice with it, even in your own
language. Two cones were stationed about 5 yards from each other and the drill
ran such that the player standing on the first cone ended up being the one
taking the shot. So the player at the front of the ‘queue’ would pass to the
man on the first cone who would turn and play a one-two with the man on the
second cone before taking a shot – the player in the queue would become the
player on the second cone, he on the second cone would move to the first and he
on the first cone (the shooter) would move to the back of the queue. The first
one wasn’t too difficult but required concentration to not make a mistake – it
certainly didn’t get easier. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">I think the shooting drills became
more complicated by varying the sequences of passes and accordingly the
distances and directions the players had to move to get to their next station.
The introduction of a tactical wingplay drill was the real killer, though. It
involved players running in pairs through the centre (one initially playing the
ball and the other in a starting position on a cone a number of yards in front)
with somebody on each wing, with the concentrated wing changing back and forth
after each drill run. The good thing about these drills is that there are many
variations, and the manager made sure we went through a few possible sequences
of passing. The kindest way to describe it would be that it keeps you on your
toes – if you’re having to overcome a language barrier also, it confuses the
hell out of you. An example of one cycle of play would be that the starting
player passes it to the player on the cone, who receives the ball and plays it
out wide (according to which wing’s turn it is). The two central players then
progress forward and must make a ‘crossover’ run, so one of them receives the
ball from the player on the wing to play a one-two with him. After the one-two,
the two central players cross over once again and the winger plays across in
where one of the two central players tries to make contact and beat the
‘keeper. Some attempts to execute a flowing move were amusing to say the least,
and it proved that understanding what the manager says still doesn’t
necessarily guarantee a problem-free run, but it must help. Whilst not
enjoyable at the time if it’s not going well for you, I do enjoy in hindsight
how such practices make you think as a player with regards to your next move
and the positions of your team-mates on the field, something I wasn’t too used
to back home. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">On to playing a 7-or-8-a-side match,
I made the mistake of using my performance the day before as a basis for the
belief that this would be a doddle. Contrarily, I found myself off the pace and
somewhat disgraced myself a little, faced with the additional weight of not
being able to use a language fluency to save face. The style in which the players
played reminded me somewhat of home also, with rushed, fast-paced attacking
play producing some incisive moves on the one hand and frequent turnovers of possession
on the other hand due to interceptions or the ball being passed out of play. I
suppose my expectations that a more patient game would be played led to me
being taken aback also, as not being ready for the pace of the game always
catches you badly off guard. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
insidethepyramidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15703758374222397039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3855974548777952787.post-66645360514763235382014-01-05T13:13:00.000-08:002014-01-05T13:13:12.752-08:00First taste of football abroad - first post in a while! <div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Continuing with my own
footballing story, what has changed and how has it been going? Well, as I said
I accepted a job offer somewhere on the continent and after a training period
scheduled such that it made it impossible for me to train in the week due to
the remarkably early start time over here and some struggles with shifts and
constant needs to swap with others I managed to get cracking with playing again
round about the first week in September. My keenness to get going in a foreign
country was somewhat countered by the trepidation of trying to work out how I
would be able to introduce myself to and communicate with these players – I did
have a strong feeling that there would be a considerable language barrier to
overcome, and I was proved correct. As I entered the gates to the ground which
seems to be at the back of some sort of disused factory or massive industrial
estate, I could see at the opposite end the players all gathered round the
tables outside the steps to the changing room, presumably waiting for the
groundskeeper to hand them the keys. In this situation there is no escape and
the walk feels a lonely and long one – they have just seen somebody enter just
coming from work carrying a satchel rather than a full-sized sports bag and
dressed in jeans and a scruffy hoodie. Regardless of my nationality, I’m a
foreign sight to them and there is nowhere I can hide and no tactic to appear
subtly, presenting myself unexpectedly. As I edged ever closer it was clear I
had become the centre of attention in their temporary pre-training boredom, I
could feel their watchful eyes on me. As I reached the tables they seemed to
sit forward in anticipation, expecting something interesting to come out of my
mouth. Unfortunately my inability to speak their language would cause me to
disappoint them, as I addressed who was clearly the manager in my own version
of very broken, simplified English which should somehow be easier for
foreigners to understand. The only foreigner present, however, was clearly me.
I tried to repeat to the manager about 3 or 4 times the question of whether I
could train that evening and the plea for reassurance that I had reached the
club I had been looking for. He stared at me blankly, none the wiser, as if I
had just landed from a spaceship and was exploring their planet for the first
time – it certainly did feel that way. All of a sudden I was put at ease as one
of the players sitting by him to my surprise blurted out “can I help you?” in
very clear English. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The relief was overwhelming, and
he translated my questions into his native language for the manager to
understand. The stony-faced man in a tracksuit seemed unmoved, the answer being
that I was permitted to play but I’d have to prove how good I was. In the
changing room I could sense a lot of inside laughter and giggling, and
sentences containing what was the country’s word for “English.” The most intense part was when a cluster of loose change fell out of my pocket which was met with a sort of "whoooooaaaaa-oooooooh!" from the lads. There is
something incredibly vulnerable about being in a room with a team of players
talking about you whilst you have no possibility of knowing what they might be
saying. Most sports or even team activities have special initiations for
newcomers, who knows what they could have been planning for the next couple of
hours? As it was, it turned out OK. We were sent out on the pitch to warm up
and the players were knocking balls around among each other and joking about,
with me sheepishly jogging around the pitch with the faint hope that somebody
might pass the ball in my direction. One lad eventually offered to have a
knockabout with me. It felt like he was sizing me up as he drilled some hard
and high passes in my direction, but I was surprised at how I managed to cope
with them and soon I was feeling OK, striking the ball accurately and cleanly
at others. Obviously looking at how well a player may control or strike a ball
when warming up isn’t the best way of judging him, but when you feel like
you’re being watched, this feels like a challenge to you and coming through it
gives you a big confidence boost. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">So training commenced with some
standard warm-up drills involving cones and ladders where I made sure not to
slip up. After that, having had a pre-season of intense running, I was pleased
to find more intense running waiting ahead of me. We were divided into 3 groups
of about 5 or 6 to complete a running challenge over the length of the pitch.
The pitch was also divided about equally with cones into 3 sections – the first
part you had to run at 50-75%, sprint the middle section and for the third
section ease up again to 50-75% speed. One group would run, meet the next group
at the opposite end of the pitch and then that group would run, and so on. All
pretty simple and despite not having trained much for 3 weeks I found myself to
be among the fittest players, which was pleasing to discover. Either I was
extremely fit or the other players are just incredibly lazy in running drills,
which I know can be the case. We had to do 10 lengths of the pitch in total and
about halfway through, one of the other players there, who spoke English even
more fluently than the bloke who had addressed me at first, asked me for
confirmation that I was from England. I confirmed this, and his reply was “you
must be used to this, then?” I was unsure how to take that – either training on
the continent is not testing enough and he admires the comparative intensity of
English training or he perceives a more physical approach on the Isles and is
perhaps more used to ball work. I’m edging towards the latter or some version
of this. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The running was all well and good
then, and by this time I was looking forward to testing myself against the
other players football-wise. We were split into three groups, with two teams
playing against each other on a small pitch and the other working out with the
manager. First up for my team was working out, meaning the football had to wait
a little longer. I was a bit surprised when we were made to do all sorts of
press-ups and sit-ups in unconventional positions using balls, and over
training sessions since I’ve been getting pretty annoyed and fed up with it but
overtime I’ve realised this is due to my relative lack of upper body strength
and recognised the benefits of these – particularly as they are good exercises
for the core of the body, which I’ve always needed to work on. Anyway, this
didn’t last for long and soon it was time to play some football. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">From a couple of glances while
attempting to get a size 5 ball in my grasp to move in sync with my body during
sit-ups the confidence grew inside me that I would be able to hold my own. In
such a situation where you’re not sure what to expect, every misplaced pass and
slip-up from a player reminds you that they’re human too and, specific to this
level, not top international footballers who will leave you sprawled chewing
the wet muddy turf while watching them glide towards the distant goal. Important
to recognise, however, is that the mindset of a player can easily unwittingly
transcend the boundary separating confidence and complacency. My experience of
suffering this fate on repeated occasions helped me recognise that it had
happened again to me when I was caught in possession a couple of times or
misjudged an opportunity where I thought I could nick the ball off an opponent.
I bucked up my ideas, wary of what the lads would be giggling about behind my
back in an alien language, and showed I was able to hold my own. It wasn’t in
fact too challenging, and it certainly wasn’t a game being played at full
intensity, but my needy and insecure mind was satisfied that it had made a
positive impression on a bunch of peers, not to mention my satisfaction that my
ability with the ball hadn’t become <i>too</i>
rusty. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
insidethepyramidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15703758374222397039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3855974548777952787.post-59043174078023552162013-10-24T13:11:00.000-07:002013-10-24T13:11:01.272-07:00Football Punditry (Part II)<div class="MsoNormal">
So it's taken a while again after my last post where I meant to complete a sort of rant about the standard of punditry. I guess I'll just have to carry on where I left off. So, we were on the opening day of the season and I spoke about a few comments on a couple of games, particularly what was said by Alan Hansen. Watching the following day's action on Match
of the Day 2, Hansen was at it again! It seems like a witch hunt against the
poor sod thus far so I’d like to state that I’m sure many other pundits will be
picked up on later and I don’t think Hansen is anywhere near the worst of the
bunch (step forward Mr Shearer to claim that accolade). In the analysis of the
Chelsea vs Hull game, attention turned to Hull’s performance and their pretty
passing having displayed the match statistics (503 passes and 48% possession
compared to Chelsea’s 552 and 52%) and despite being impressed, he was quick to
dismiss its lack of effectiveness on the game. His exact words were “with Hull,
their passing we’re gonna show here – it’s all in their own half. I mean, it’s
actually very, very good…they keep the ball very, very well but you know, he's up on his own [referring to the Hull striker] no problem there. [next phase is
shown] This is actually even better. The passing here, it’s like, I think it’s
absolutely superb, but: they’re going back to where they started! You know,
they’ve kept the ball exceptionally well but they’re not over the halfway line.
[he then summarises] Well it’s all about goals. I mean it’s all very well
passing, but you’ve gotta be a threat at the same time.” All this analysis
shows is that Chelsea are a much better team than Hull and Hull understandably find it more difficult to pass through a quality side up the pitch. There’s no evidence that going
long ball or direct would have yielded a better result, nor does this suggest
that the pass-and-move football they showed wouldn’t reap greater rewards
against a lesser quality side. In his defence, he did add at the end “they
weren’t enough of a threat today, but the easier games will come.” However, the
comments in general were a bit wide of the mark, and again missed the point.
The aim of the game is to score goals; that is true, but keeping possession
goes a long way to help with that. And the “it’s all about goals” stuff is
where a lot of people go wrong. As I said before, things like this filter through
to grassroots level and players get told the same thing – should it all be
about goals there? Or should we be working out the best ways to work towards
scoring goals rather than just trying to score them in any way we can? <o:p></o:p></div>
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Since then there have been too many similar instances to keep track of. The main one that struck me was the post-match analysis after Liverpool's home defeat by Southampton. Several occasions were shown in the highlights where Liverpool lost possession well into their own half after being pressed high up the pitch by Southampton, including the game's only goal where Southampton forced Liverpool into conceding a corner after passing in near their own box. The comments from the punditry team (I believe Shearer and Hansen) were along the lines that they "shouldn't be messing about with it there" and should "just go long if they might lose it." Southampton got their tactics spot on in this game from what I saw in the highlights but there seemed to be little mention of this compared to supposedly 'sloppy' passing from the home side. Really this is a teething problem that sides attempting to play a patient passing game encounter. It's not so much that the players are not good enough on the ball as the opposition team reading and anticipating the future positions and movement of the ball quicker. If one player has the ball and should have two options, the pressing side will close off the best angles to make passes to which mean that the team-mates of the man in possession will receive it under pressure or be forced to retreat to receive it in an uncomfortable position which in turn compromises the positions of other team-mates and the progression of play. Ultimately the end result is usually the opposition intercepting or the team in possession inadvertently playing into touch. This is NOT sloppy passing where a player forgets to think or it fails to fully register in his mind where his team-mate is before making the pass, or worse 'messing around with the ball'. There is nothing to suggest going long when under pressure would be a better option other than that the ball wouldn't immediately be lost in a dangerous area, and the players further up the pitch are more likely to have taken up positions which would help their effectiveness when the ball does move into midfield and then into the final third and having to react to a long ball would sort of be reverting to some sort of emergency status. It's hard to say either way how a team would have fared in one game if they didn't pass the ball around in their own half so much, such are the complications of football and tactics. </div>
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In the same show Crystal Palace were criticised for their passing game which led to some cheap concessions of possession in their 2-0 defeat to Swansea. The reductive verdict from Hansen was something like: "if you can't pass the ball, don't do it, simple." - maybe true in terms of the main thrust of the argument, but how do you then get better at passing the ball? If a struggling side in a division attempts to play neat football, it is true that they will find it difficult to keep possession against better sides when playing a short-passing game, but the deeply ingrained attitude that we shouldn't try what we're not good at is the worrying thing. In a sense those who say this are correct - for a team that gets promoted, it's success in a higher division will invariably take priority over their style. If teething problems in playing a particular style will cost them a considerable number of valuable points, then in the interests of the club the manager and players are right to play to their strengths. At the same time, I feel those trying to play this way should be commended - in simple terms, in anything you start out at when competing against others, you tend not to be so good at first but you keep working on it and improve. Sometimes short-term results will take a hit before you arrive at some later consistency (not in the case of this Palace side, they'll go down comfortably, but I mean in general teams who are implementing this style of football). At a basic level of football, players will be more ready to play this style of football if they keep trying it despite struggling with it at first. Last weekend I read an excellent article in the Guardian with Dennis Berkgamp, one of my favourite ever players. He touches upon this point when talking about his time at Ajax, as a youth player and now as a coach: "sometimes you put your strongest player on the bench to let others shine. Or a right-footed player on the left side and force him to use his left foot. Of course in that game you will probably lose because you don't use your strongest players in their strongest position, but in the end you have a player who used his left foot when he was 12 and 13 and 14, and he can use both feet when he comes into the first team." By the time a player is already long in senior football, it can be too late to work on these weaknesses as it comes at the expense of results for the first team, which can have consequences. And I think these problems that come with attempted passing games and the reactions to it are yet more side-effects of us having got things wrong from the bottom up for so long. </div>
insidethepyramidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15703758374222397039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3855974548777952787.post-17822742012248676932013-10-06T04:22:00.003-07:002013-10-06T04:22:51.954-07:00Change of settings and football punditry (Part I)<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">So that pre-season friendly took place at the very start of August and since then, much has changed. While
on holiday, I was successful in a job interview for a company based abroad about which I had first been unexpectedly notified by email around the end of July. I accepted the offer, so that pre-season friendly
turned out to be my final involvement with this team. I thanked them for a tough pre-season programme and wished them the best of luck for 2013-14. I'm not going to be any more specific as to where I now am based other than say that it's in Europe and I don't know the language at all - it's completely different to anything I've learned. Since moving I
didn't manage to play any football for the first few weeks as my new job required a training period, the hours of which did not permit me to attend training sessions for the side I plan on joining. Nonetheless I'd been keeping something resembling fit and the temptation to sample the local beer
every night was mostly quelled by the need to be up at 7am during the
week. It was still annoying that I had spent a good month or so of pre-season getting myself in very good shape by being put through some gruelling practices only to have much of that undone by a sudden change in milieu where I no longer had such easy access to that kind of routine. But that's what relocating away from home does to you, I suppose. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">Thanks to my university's VPN network, watching the football back home is still a welcome possibility, and this is what I'd like to talk about for the moment. I have managed to get playing myself again but first I'd like to use the break in my own play as an opportunity to discuss something I've been meaning to for a while. <span style="line-height: 115%;">. The standard of punditry on Match of the Day
has always been a bugbear of mine – attempting to analyse at least half a dozen matches in succession for a couple of minutes each is both impractical and a thankless task to begin with, but I never cease to be amazed by how often ex-professional
pundits who have played at the highest level miss the point in their analyses. What
they say is very general, and they tend to offer no insight at all into why
things happen and how they develop, rather opting for empty, general statements
like something a player could or should have done (in a broad area of the game
– by this I mean “he should defend this ball better” – obviously defending encompasses
many different things) at a particular moment. </span><span style="line-height: 115%;">What irritates me the most is their lack of
understanding of players attempting to keep possession and appreciating its
value. If they lose the ball, it’s just dismissed as poor play for one reason
or another. The weekend of 17/18 August marked the start of another Premier League season and let's take an example from the opening day where the first game in the highlights was </span><span style="line-height: 115%;">the evening kick-off between Swansea and
Manchester United. </span><span style="line-height: 115%;">Swansea pulled a goal back late on having been
0-3 down after United player Danny Welbeck lost possession in his own half
having collected a cleared Swansea corner and trying to hold onto the ball. In
the post-match analysis with this goal being looked at, Alan Hansen somewhat
predictably commented that the striker was “trying to be too clever.” </span><span style="line-height: 115%;">Hearing this irritates me because the people who
use it don’t really know what ‘clever’ or ‘too clever’ means. If, when a corner
is cleared, the ball falls to a player of the defending team just outside the
box, he is probably positioned there because the manager wants him to attempt
to set up a counter-attack in this situation rather than complete the clearance
by hacking it forward to nobody. </span><span style="line-height: 115%;">Clearly the former is more difficult to execute
but also more likely to end up as a goal scored, so the player </span><i style="line-height: 115%;">is</i><span style="line-height: 115%;"> being sensible first by looking to
hold onto it and secondly by not just attempting the first pass he sees (if
there is one at all). If he loses possession in this situation, it isn’t as
simple as him holding onto the ball too long. </span><span style="line-height: 115%;">If I remember right, in this instance Welbeck
was closed down very quickly by about 3 Swansea players having briefly looked
for a pass only to find nothing on, where he probably would have expected to have team-mates showing for it. So here there's nothing 'too clever' about him trying to keep the ball - he only tries to outsmart the opposition from the point where he's immediately surrounded, a point at which he has to try. At this point even an aimless clearance probably would have cannoned off one of their players such was the intensity of their pressure and their proximity to him. What's more, his </span><span style="line-height: 115%;">attempt to keep the ball through close control
and working some space despite seeming almost impossible is successfully
managed by players every week – for me it’s having confidence in your own
ability and applying your mind to the game rather than trying to be too clever.
And how clever is too clever anyway? As I mentioned earlier, discouraging
players from doing certain things will cause them not to do it, revert to a
safer option and they won’t improve at it. </span><span style="line-height: 115%;">OK, obviously in this case Welbeck isn’t going
to be taking MOTD analysis as advice for his game, but we need to think about a
wider scope here. As a younger player I was </span><span style="line-height: 115%;">far more impressionable and receptive to this
kind of commentary and I doubt I was alone. There must be plenty who take the "advice" and repeat it </span><span style="line-height: 115%;">(I know as a teenager I used to take bullshit
clichés I saw on TV into playing in the school playground or indeed in a proper
competitive match and repeat them there), running the risk of not developing as
broad an understanding of the game as they should. I hate to generalise, but I know a number of managers and coaches at grassroots level who are ardent listeners to football phone-ins and such stuff. Trying my best to sound as unpatronising as possible, they relay this limited idea of the game to their players. From playing at junior level and watching either friends or younger relatives of mine, the number of times I've heard "don't fuck about with it there!" or "that's too casual!" or "if you can't pass it properly there just clear your lines!" and a myriad of similar phrases, could fill a viewing of Modern Times Forever (Google it to get the reference). </span><span style="line-height: 115%;">The reality is that trying to keep the ball all
the time immensely helps you as a footballer. The rule of practice makes
perfect applies here – you’ll lose the ball quite a bit at first, sometimes
even in dangerous areas which occasionally leads to a goal, but as you take
more opportunities to try it you become more adept at it. That’s better than
taking the safest option most of the time, not really trying to cope with more
difficult aspects and then being in a spot of bother when finding yourself in a
tricky situation on the pitch. The sad truth is that losing the ball makes you
look bad as a youngster and you get picked on – nobody wants either of those
things in football. It makes the problem a difficult one to get round.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Elevating this to a top professional level, I
remember watching Match of the Day on the first day of the 2012/13 season too
and seeing analysis of West Brom vs Liverpool, which finished 3-0 to the home
side. It was Liverpool’s first match under new manager Brendan Rodgers and he
clearly planned to implement the same passing philosophy which had served him
so well at Swansea. Clearly such systems don’t happen overnight and take some
getting used to – inevitable teething problems arise when a new manager comes
in and overhauls tactics and systems, meaning early results and performances
often aren’t great and some mistakes are made which seem basic – as the cliché
goes: “a professional footballer shouldn’t be making that sort of error!” – but
it’s really players trying and learning to adapt to a new system, a new
methodology of playing for their football team. In this very game, one West
Brom goal indeed came from Liverpool trying to play out short from the back and
losing possession very close to their own penalty box. Depressingly, in the
post-match analysis (and I think it was Hansen again), the comment on this goal
was something like “basic errors again – he’s just got to get rid of it there
but he gives it away and they go and score.” I was so wound up by this I wanted
to cry myself to sleep, and I was on holiday at the time. I’m sure as
ex-professionals these people have been present when a new manager has come
into the club and changed the team’s approach, with the players struggling with
it early on before getting to grips with it and improving (which is pretty much
what happened with Liverpool last season), and you hardly need to be a
professional to even work that out, hence it irritates me when pundits
consistently come at things like this from the wrong angle. </span></span></span>insidethepyramidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15703758374222397039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3855974548777952787.post-39704765344664734232013-09-15T12:17:00.000-07:002013-09-15T12:17:30.998-07:00Game #1 of pre-season - nerves, concentration and 'just get it up there!'<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">So the time had come for me to play (or rather feature) in the club’s first
pre-season friendly. It seemed an oddly late date to have your first pre-season friendly only 9 days before the start of the
season (2 more after this had been scheduled) but arranging fixtures at this level can be a difficult task. The club has a big squad this season and we had a squad of
about 18-19 players for the first friendly, with about 5 or 6 first-team
regulars missing through holidays or injuries! Our opponents were 2 steps
higher than us in the pyramid, which did fill me with a fair amount of
pre-match nerves as it would be my first game at this sort of level for almost
3 years. I did, however, take comfort from remembering that the last time I
played a first-team friendly for my last team at the equivalent level, also
against a team 2 steps higher, I came on at half-time with the scores level,
had an absolute stormer despite being physically roughed up a bit and we romped home
to a crushing victory (I like to tell people that one with my tongue firmly in the cheek when they take the piss out of my ability). If I'm out of practice, I get very nervous before games – I can remember every single game I’ve played where my
nerves have been very intense and it really isn’t pleasant, especially as I was
a sub for most of them. Strange as it seems, in most of these games, if not all
of them, I’ve gone on to put in good performances. At this point I would like
to mention nerves. In my experience a number of managers are very dismissive
towards nervous or nervous-looking players and don’t know how to deal with
them. Being nervous before a game is not necessarily a bad thing – a common
cliché is that “if you go out there with nerves you’ll make silly mistakes”, so
instead you’re told to “stop being so nervous”, “be confident”, or even worse,
“man up”. It isn’t so simple that a player will suddenly gain confidence if his
manager tells him to. Nerves come for various reasons – lack of match practice,
inexperience in a certain situation, lack of morale following poor performances
or a myriad of other factors, and so on. It’s not necessarily ostensible either
when a manager deals with player nerves. He won’t necessarily have a go at the
player, instead maybe ignore him or exchange uncertain glances, which in turn
would be more likely to increase the player’s unease. Subconscious rather than conscious. As I said, though, it’s
OK to be nervous as firstly footballers are human beings with changeable
emotions and secondly nerves <i>can</i> be
harnessed to increase performance. When I get nervous, it usually increases my
concentration and keeps me switched on during a game, meaning some mistakes
(e.g. losing my marker, failing to cover a team-mate or spot danger) are less
likely. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Of course, with different players nerves can have the opposite effect. What they may do also is affect a player’s ability to physically do something like control a ball or accurately place a pass,
but as these things aren’t the hardest tasks to execute on a football pitch,
they can be and are usually overcome. Once I
had my first couple of touches my nerves would usually disappear and turn into
confidence, so I feel treating nerves with disdain rather than encouragement is
unnecessary, and in fact shows a fear of nerves themselves. When I was about
15, my old Sunday League manager who ranted at me during training and told me I
hadn’t improved in 3 years had a go at me before a game. I was selected to
start the game and he was giving his pre-match ‘team-talk’ before he gave me a
few instructions. I can’t remember what they were, but I nodded silently in
acknowledgement of what he said (I was a very quiet one, and very different to
most people my age). His reaction to this was to direct at me a volley of
criticism for “acting frightened” in front of the squad, before ordering me to
“brave myself up.” He then gave me a load of rhetorical questions – I just
stood there blankly, shrugging. My lack of response triggered further wild
epileptic gesticulations and facial expressions from him before I quietly said
“I dunno what you want me to say”, to which he flapped his arms a bit more and
turned away in disgust. I guess I gave off quite a sheepish look when I was
younger, the manager of my very first club asked me why I looked so sheepish
before I played my first ever game for them. Anyway, I duly had a shocker and was subbed at half-time, with the manager telling the lads in the team
talk that I would be coming off because “I can’t play football”, but that’s
another story. There will be plenty on that prick in later entries. Being nervous is such a horrible over-simplification, and I've found that not enough people manage to deal with this effectively - a slap on the back is a nice little gesture but that's all it is, a little gesture. The words it tells equates to little more than a motivational soundbite. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Back to this pre-season friendly,
and we left the changing room to warm up on the pitch 45 minutes or so before
kick-off. We did a few drills of various body movements to get the blood
flowing and then some passing stuff. At one point the manager told us we
“looked like a Sunday morning side” and to be switched on. Then, during a
passing drill where the ball was continuously played square along the start
line before players made diagonal runs to an opposite cone, I managed to
misplace a pass (I’ll say it was the bobbly surface) which sent the manager
into a stern monologue of “if you can’t make a basic 5-yard pass without the
ball bobbling you shouldn’t be here.” Credit where it’s due, this guy does make
sure you stay switched on. Obviously criticisms like that (especially those
which infer your ability is lower than the level you’re playing at) aren’t nice
to hear but I guess (speaking from my experience here) when you’ve heard enough
of them you learn the importance of not taking these at face value. It doesn’t
actually mean that the manager doesn’t rate you – it’s just his way of telling
you that you’re better than that and trying to keep you at the standard he
believes you to be. I suppose, depending on the type of player you are, it can
drive you on not to make a mistake or make you more nervous, but mistakes can
happen for various reasons, so we shouldn’t be making too much of off-the-cuff
remarks. Perhaps I should have learned all this earlier. And some people won't, and that is a problem. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">In the changing room again, the
pre-match team talk consisted of the manager telling us that this team, despite
being two levels higher, wouldn’t be any better than us technically or as
individual players, but we would have to stand up to their physicality and not
be overpowered. I actually managed to record some of the talk on my mobile
phone – it mainly consists of him emphasising the value of effort, ‘giving
100%’ and teamwork. He mentioned how the club would be operating with a large
first-team squad and that competition for places was very high and no positions
were safe. Therefore, the players had to be (seen to be) giving 100%. He made a
point that about 6 first-team regulars from the previous season were missing
that night through injury, holidays or other commitments so every player would
be assessed starting from this game. After the stern words of warning, we were
told to enjoy the game before the customary rousing applause and shouting in a
farrago of masculinity as we prepared to leave the changing rooms. This is
something I’ve never understood nor been able to immerse myself in. I realise
the aim is to get the players pumped up so they feel ready for the start of the
game, but I don’t need aggression and shouting for a release of adrenaline in
my body. I just find it weird, and I’m not sure how it’s meant to intimidate
the opposition either. It’s happened at pretty much every club I’ve played for,
including playing for a mate’s team in a non-competitive league. For me, there
are plenty of other ways to motivate yourself for a game, and it seems to be a
symptom of the attitude we adopt to football based on power, aggression and so
on. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">On to the game itself, and the
manager was proven right for the most part. The opposition weren’t anything
special and watching from the sidelines from the first half, our players were
more than capable of matching them. I was both heartened and unnerved by how
comfortable our players looked in possession for most of the game – on the one
hand, it seemed our players often had plenty of time and space on the ball to
find their passes accurately, on the other hand, the cynic in me noticed that I
had a high standard to match and couldn’t let the side down by getting the
basics wrong. This is just general nerves, really, and you work out how to use
them to your advantage – it can be comforting for you if a team-mate misplaces
a simple pass, for example. It isn’t a case of Schadenfreude, it doesn’t mean
you <i>want</i> them to make a mistake, it
merely reminds you that they are humans themselves, and prone to mishaps. Again,
I suppose it’s my way of dealing with jitters – I don’t think I can pretend not
to feel nerves. That will apply to many people, and many other people need to
start understanding that. I’d like to make a point about observing the game as
a substitute too. I feel it’s useful to pay attention as much as possible when
watching from the sidelines, when from my experience most people at a lower
level of football prefer just to have a chat. They’ll still be watching the
game of course and making observations, but not <i>really</i> taking it in, not in the true sense of the word. That’s what
I’ve tended to find anyway. For me, it’s important to balance your
interpretation of how the game is unfolding and therefore what you might be
expected of you when you come on with keeping the body warmed up. From
concentrating on the game I might work out particular runs that an opposition
player makes and figure out how to stop him, or even runs that my own player is
making and figure out how I can play the ball onto one of his runs. From this
game I noticed that the opposition central midfielders rarely went with their opposite
number if they went towards the defence to collect the ball, and even if they
did it wasn’t high-intensity pressing, meaning I could have space to pick out
passes in my own half and perhaps build from the back if I came on in my
preferred position. Of course, you can’t do this too much at the expense of
losing your blood flow, so concentrating on yourself from time to time and
performing a routine of warm-up exercises and stretches is also advised so you
put yourself at the minimum possible physical disadvantage when coming on. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">We took the lead in this game with
a well-worked goal but they equalised with a penalty after half time (the
lead-up to which I missed although our players were adamant no offence was
committed). At times they did play percentages to press us back towards our own
goal but they were capable of playing neat stuff once they’d got up the pitch.
Our manager didn’t always agree with our style, mind. At one point in the first
half, we had a free-kick near our own penalty area and our manager wanted us to
force an attack from it. One of our defenders played it five yards square to
his team-mate which gave rise to a flurry of cursing from the manager. It was
exacerbated when we lost the ball in our own half a couple of passes later, prompting
questions of “why didn’t you just get it up there?” Obviously it’s frustrating
to lose the ball like that when starting in possession under pretty much no
pressure, but it’s equally frustrating to hear shouts to get it forward. What’s
more, the risk of misplacing a short pass in a dangerous area shouldn’t deter
players from trying to play there, but shouting at players for trying to build
a move from deep rather than getting it forward quickly discourages them from
it, even though next time they may successfully work the ball up the pitch. At
the very base of grassroots football we shouldn’t be surprised if this happens
and it obviously needs to be addressed, but to still hear stuff like this
halfway down the non-league pyramid annoys me. The thing is, this could happen as
managers may be using a tactic of aiming for a big striker up front to win a
flick-on and an indirect free-kick presents us with a perfect opportunity to do
that. Not only that, but he (from a club-centric point of view, rightly so) sees
winning and success for the club as more important than playing possession
football. Even in a pre-season friendly where no points are at stake it is
still important these games are for trialling systems and getting the players
used to playing in them. It’s a very tough dilemma when you bring our
footballing culture into the picture. I suppose again it would have to start at youth level, but I think it would be a fallacy to say that academies of pro clubs don't encourage their players to keep the ball in defence - the very grass roots that feed these academies will need to learn more broadly the significance of playing it short in defence, even when the temptation is there to launch it forward. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">I eventually came on for the last
15 minutes of the game when our manager decided to make his last batch of substitutions,
and got to play in my best position. I was surprised at how well I did
considering the last time I played at this sort of standard, and didn’t suffer
any confidence crisis when I went onto the pitch. I saw plenty of the ball as
we built from the back lots and got into good positions to receive it from them
and then pick out subsequent passes. I would say I was disappointed that the
game didn’t last longer but that would be a lie, as despite the encouraging
cameo, I was already blowing out of my arse by the end – a combination I think
of a lack of serious match practice, my body feeling the effects of the
constant pre-season training and other aerobic exercise I’d been doing other
days, and probably not warming up quite well enough as a sub (I started to
relax around the hour mark as I didn’t think I’d get on – a fatal and naïve
error I know). It was a promising start for me and a nice confidence boost
before I left for a week’s holiday the next day. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
insidethepyramidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15703758374222397039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3855974548777952787.post-88693536429778186392013-09-14T08:20:00.000-07:002013-09-14T08:21:40.719-07:00Lazy...or just playing a different way?<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Apologies for the lack of activity, it's been an incredibly busy week and my girlfriend was over to visit last weekend, so this has been inadvertently relegated to secondary status. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">After some despondence following confrontation about effort, there wasn't much to grumble about in the following session, I don't think! I was introduced to two new drills involving both running and
a football. The first involves three players and three cones, with one player
doing the work, one dictating and one feeding. The set-up is a ‘T’ shape with
the working player starting at the tip – the cones are stationed at each point
of the T. The dictator (for want of a better word) then calls out either 1 (sprint to the left cone), 2
(sprint to the right cone) or 3 (run backwards to the rear cone) – obviously
not in order, and the player has to get to the correct cone and back to the
middle before being fed the ball and setting off again – players work for I
think 45 seconds to one minute. Methods of feeding included ground passing, volley passing,
chest and volley, sit-ups with headers and press-ups with headers. The second
was a lot more complicated for the brain. It involved groups of six, sometimes
eight (with two players working) – the feeders would stand in a sort of square
and the workers would be at the bottom on each side, facing one of the feeders.
Players run round the square doing ground passes, volley passes, (sit-ups and
press-ups) headers etc.; on the first go they must cross over and go to the
other feeder at the bottom of the square before running up to the top to be fed
by one, and crossing over again at the top before arriving back at the opposite
feeder at the bottom. If in a group of eight, the players would cross over
again in what would become the middle before running to the top and crossing
over again before arriving back at the bottom. Players bumping into each other and veering off in completely the wrong direction was not an uncommon occurrence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">So, onto Saturday morning’s session and numbers were vastly
reduced as a number of players had gone on the club's tour. The first drill was not quite
as intense as others have been as it involved working primarily on the spot for
about a minute but it did still require being switched on. In groups of either
three or four, with one player working, the player working will be fed the ball
in turns by the other players through means of volley passes, chest and
volleys, headers, sit-ups plus headers etc. – in a group of three, the player
working returns the ball to the player who has fed it him, whereas in a four he
gives it to the feeder without a ball (the exercise always involves two balls,
so with three feeders one is always without a ball). I enjoyed this exercise as
it really does seem to refine your technique if practised enough, making a
simple firm side-footed volley or header come naturally. After that was the 12
laps in 12 minutes again, though the manager did challenge us to do 13 if we
could manage it – I did. There was also the sprinting and passing etc. for 45
seconds sandwiched in between a 6-a-side game. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">In
the second part of this six-a-side game, something started to bug me and I left
feeling puzzled at it. I hadn’t played my best and had been sloppy with the ball way too
often for my liking, but it wasn’t that. Several on my team, myself included,
were feeling pretty tired (once again) after all the running we had done.
Clearly to recover some energy, we tried playing a slow, patient build-up when
in possession, and without the ball, allowing the other team possession in
their own half whilst carefully altering our positions accordingly in order to
shut out channels for ‘damaging’ passes. If they did manage to breach a line,
we would quicken our pace and attempt to shut them out. The manager instructed
the team which didn’t have the ball to adopt a high-tempo pressing approach
with lots of closing down, stating that “anyone just marking space isn’t
helping their team.” I realised about a couple of hours after I’d got home from
training that it was the manager’s words which had annoyed me. Ordering us to
switch from a containment defensive style to high-tempo pressing is fine in
itself, and it’s very beneficial for teams to learn and master various styles
of defence in order to gain flexibility and adaptability (although perhaps this
should be practised more with better organised training at this level –
admittedly may be difficult to implement). His motive for demanding a change in
our approach, however, seemed to be because he thought we were being lazy and
not working hard enough – indeed he said we were “lazy” if we weren’t closing
down, and of course football isn’t quite so simple, and even when trying to
organise something quickly it upsets me to see the game spoken of in a way that
reduces tactics and systems to a very simplistic form. Having expended a great
deal of energy running earlier, high-energy pressing to regain possession is
even more energy-sapping. If not done properly, which is likely when energy
levels are low, it is a very risky strategy – if you press high up the pitch
and commit yourself, once the ball has passed you, you are pretty much taken
out of the game, giving the team in possession a massive advantage. I get that
pre-season is also about fitness and the manager would want to push us so we
can compete in matches, but you don’t just have to keep running at full pelt
for the sake of it, not to mention that a containment game requires high levels
of sustained concentration, and the </span>knowledge of subtle positional nuances. The ‘lazy’ excuse is
just pretty poor, in all honesty. Pre-season is about fitness and several other things too. </span> </span><br />
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<o:p></o:p></div>
insidethepyramidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15703758374222397039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3855974548777952787.post-6333729939544536752013-09-03T12:13:00.000-07:002013-09-03T12:13:40.825-07:00Effort, 100%, Passion, Desire, "Going In" etc. <div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">So, continuing from yesterday, the structure of the training sessions in these two sessions brings me to my next point. A rule was implemented in the games whereby if a team concedes a goal they must
run a lap of the pitch they’re playing on. Even though a team can only score
with a one-touch finish within the penalty area, I feel teams adopt a fearful
attitude towards defending. There isn’t a lot of hoofing but play is very
rushed – it’s back to front very quickly with not a great deal of slowing
things down, ‘recycling’ or changing direction. The main flaw is that if a
player wanting to build a move from within his own third rather than rush it
forward loses possession near his own goal, giving the other team a clear
opportunity, he is punished for trying to keep possession, even if there's nothing on in front of him. Admittedly, sometimes there are some lovely bits of interplay in quick transitions from defence to attack, but the move quite often breaks down after a few passes. The best option might be to check back towards your own goal into a bit of space and then calmly play a square pass across the pitch. If this goes wrong, however, there's a high risk of conceding as the ball is lost in such a dangerous area. But players who are discouraged from trying this won't try it, and therefore will never improve in executing it. Most footballers at my level <i>can </i>pass, but there is a difference between looking to pass
and not just passing for the sake of it/making the earliest available pass
seen – as my mate put it, "actually realising the ball is a football and not a fucking
grenade." Even in a training match, players resort to a
panicky attitude in defence as they are playing with added pressure – obviously
neither team wants to run a lap of the pitch for conceding a goal, and even
more so given that they have 30 seconds to get round before the ball is thrown
back into play. And believe me you don't want to be the one that fucks up and makes your team run round the pitch. The safety first mentality that develops brings players to
think “well at least we didn’t concede and don’t have to run”, which is a
dangerous attitude to bring into future competitive games. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Even though a number
of players are technically skilled, the need to play the ball forward quickly
and go from there rather than pass around the back and the middle, giving
everyone a touch, probing patiently and seeking openings, causes more turnovers
of possession, as it requires a lot of work from the midfield players and even
the fullbacks to get up into the correct positions to support the attack. This, I feel, is where many grassroots clubs across the country go wrong – our problem isn't as simple as not being technically proficient. Whilst it can be, and often is an issue, many players at all levels of the
pyramid <i>are</i> technically skilled, but
the problem extends itself to mentality also, <i>how</i> we view possession football. Obviously it's not just players either, fans and paid journalists are guilty too. At this point I'd like to say it's a lazy assumption that supporters would just prefer substance over style, so to speak. Whilst yes, most would give 3 points for their team greater importance than how they play, I feel many <i>would</i> prefer to see their team play attractive football. However, more often than not it would have to be fast-paced play rather than patient passing - I've been to enough games where a side is probing in midfield and looking for an opening where people around me begin to shuffle about uncomfortably in their seats and the odd shouts of "forwards!" and "you won't score playing with it there!" are heard, but 'aimless' (I put this in inverted commas because they often seem aimless but there probably will be an idea behind them) balls forward which sail harmfully to the opposition are met with similar groans of disdain. So quick, more direct passing football gives the best entertainment - this is perfectly captured by the reaction you'll almost certainly see if a player has the ball out wide in a decent position to cross but chooses to pass back inside to a team-mate - and you only have to look at how supporters and journalists for top sports sites view Spain and Barcelona's style of play as 'boring'. Honestly, during Euro 2012 I saw a tweet from a top BBC Sports journalist written in a rather patronising way which went something like "so would anyone like to tell me what subtle intricacies of brilliance [from Spain] I've missed during this match so far?" Seriously? And furthermore, although not a very good indicator of opinion I accept, the BBC ran a vote during the Confederations Cup this summer on Spain's style being boring or brilliant, and you can guess which of them won. I feel true understanding of the value of patient play, rather than being rushed most of the time, is sadly lacking for the most part, and that's shown in mentality.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The question of mentality brings me nicely to my next point
about how it affects our perception of what is happening on the pitch. How we interpret certain instances or passages of play. First of
all, it is undeniably frustrating to see one of your team-mates not trying, but what constitutes 'not trying' is very subjective. Probably my biggest hate in football is
the saying that a player ‘isn’t showing enough passion’ or ‘looks
disinterested’ (what a terrible word that is) if he doesn’t run around a lot or
have a full-blooded style – this doesn’t confine itself to moronic supporters
either; players and managers not just at a lower level still hold this view,
and TV and radio pundits (i.e. retired ex-pros) come out with it on quite a
regular basis. Of course, it can be the case that a player who isn’t running
much or very hard does lack interest, and no player plays at 100% effort <b>all </b>of
the time (we’re human, after all), but it isn’t anywhere near that simple. During the training match that Tuesday, feeling shattered from all the
running, pressing and squeezing I’d had to do as a wing-back, there were a
couple of loose balls which I couldn’t get to quickly enough to win – this
would make me look lazy to those with the mentality just alluded to. One player
in our team (not the organiser of positions) was very vocal; constantly talking
to others and telling the team what they needed to be doing and where they
needed to be – not in an aggressive way, indeed it was helpful and beneficial
to listen to him. However, he didn’t particularly like the fact that I hadn’t
managed to get to a couple of balls that he felt I should have won, and told me
“mate, you need to make more effort when you go in for those” and “you just have
to go in mate! Just GO IN!” I snapped back at him and told him it was fatigue
that hadn’t enabled me to move any faster in these instances rather than a lack
of effort, and he repeated “you just go IN!” A player on the other team, whom I
think I’d in fact been involved with in one of these supposed 50-50s, patted me
on the back and told me not to worry, that I was doing well and that he agreed
with me. I don't like generalising on the basis of one small incident, but the player who told me not to worry was French. From my experience in football, it said something to me. What’s more,
the team-mate with whom I had the altercation is certainly no lumbering clogger
– on the contrary, he’s a very, very talented player, who’s very comfortable on
the ball in tight situations and seems to be able to relax in possession and
maintain it with ease. In fact he was one of those encouraging what I mentioned
earlier; to rest in possession rather than attempting to play forwards as
quickly as possible. Yet he still had this odd perception of effort. It was at
this point that I realised that such an attitude towards this area of football
does not confine itself to players trying to compensate for a lack of ability. Dispositions
to playing with the ball can differ from those to playing without the ball –
the two certainly don’t have to be synonymous. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">All that aside, the fitness work was tough as ever, and the
benefits I’m sure will be splendid. The main running was working in groups of 3
taking it in turns to do 10 sprints to a pole placed about halfway up the pitch
and back, and whilst recovering doing sit-ups, press-ups, squats, volley passes
or headers. The 10 laps in 10 minutes whilst having to get to each corner in 15
seconds was also done again. As well as this was working in groups of three,
with one player working very hard for 45 seconds and in some cases one minute.
This involved sprinting from cone to cone to receive a two-yard pass, then
stuff like volley passes, headers, sit-ups with headers, press-ups with headers
and dribbling the ball to the end cone before passing to the end player whom
you would loop around before he laid it off back to you. Good stuff. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
insidethepyramidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15703758374222397039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3855974548777952787.post-50888298344550893242013-09-01T14:17:00.002-07:002013-09-01T14:17:36.202-07:00'Right lads, positions!' You've just gotta push yourself. <div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The next two sessions (Saturday and Tuesday) threw up some food for thought. Both very tough physical sessions, Saturday
with some very challenging intense sprint work in particular. A slight
variation of the Thursday exercise involving shuttle runs and press-ups, this
time it was working in a group of three, with one player in the middle who
would work for 45 seconds sprinting from one cone to another where his
teammates have a ball. The physical stuff was either 3 sit-ups while at the
cone combined with headers or press-ups combined with headers. The ball was
eventually introduced to the player in the middle, dribbling from cone to cone
before exchanging passes with the end player but by this time we’d been so worn
out that even running with the ball was a real challenge. I managed to excel
myself in the following exercise – 12 laps of the pitch must be completed in 12
minutes. It actually turned out not to be too difficult, but I pushed myself a
fair bit and finished first out of everyone, in under 11 minutes too. The shouty coach/assistant manager was at his shouting again: “this is not good enough, if
you wanna play for this club, you’ve gotta push yourself!” during the 45-second
sprinting. Lines like these do have an element of truth - every player must push himself if he wants to improve, although I think most players already know that. Does being aggressively told you need to push yourself make you want to push yourself? Or make you want to push yourself even harder? Well, it's hard to generalise. I suppose I'm trying to say, transplanted further down grassroots football, do youngsters enjoy being spoken to like this? Talented youths dropping out of football is pretty commonplace - of course they have to know that a desire to improve yourself is required, but simultaneously the balance between that and driving them away from the game because it seems too much of an uphill struggle is a delicate one, not easy to get right, and I think we often get it wrong. <b><span style="color: red;">(I will definitely talk about this particular area in more depth later on.)</span></b> Anyway, after some games we did
something which seemed very similar to the 12-lap exercise but proved to be a
bit harder. We had to complete 10 laps in 10 minutes, but each stretch of the
pitch (i.e. byline or touchline) had to be completed in 15 seconds before we
would rest at the corner and wait until the next whistle. Naturally it was
easier to run across the byline in the time allowed than the touchline, so the
recovery period was greater when waiting to run down the touchline, which was
definitely needed. Pleasingly, during the 6 or 7-a-side games I found some good
form and put in my best footballing performance yet, which was hopefully a sign
of me reaping the benefits of hard work and shaking off the ring rust. However,
repeated in the next session, I began to question some things. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">When we’d gone into games during training, I had been
waiting for ages for some idiot in my team to pipe up and start delegating
positions. I was surprised when three sessions passed without a hint of this,
but reality unfortunately struck on Tuesday evening. A first-team regular who had been at
all the training sessions but not yet in a team with me was
deciding positions before we kicked off and it was clear that he would do all
the talking and organising. Calling him an idiot above was just a throwaway remark for what it's worth - he's a really nice lad - but I don't like this approach for several reasons. At a
lower level especially (where you can't guarantee 100% turnout or have an unbalanced squad), in small/medium-sized games you will usually have an
overload of midfielders, strikers or defenders in one team, meaning that if you
give people fixed positions you have midfielders stuck in defence the whole
game, players who prefer the wings playing through the middle and so on. Obviously
players playing away from their favoured position is going to occur anyway, but
assigning players positions at the start gives the player a sense of duty to
that position, and it becomes an effort to have to ask a player if he wants to
swap over (and a player playing in his best position then being asked to move
away from it for the rest of the game will be reluctant to do so to say the
least). Not setting players to specific roles, on the other hand, allows
players to be fluid and take turns to move around and interchange positions. It
encourages versatility and adaptability to a range of areas on the pitch and
instils a sense of independence into a player rather than needing to be told
what to do or where to be by a captain or manager. Moving around the pitch
during a small-sided training game makes a player more comfortable in a variety
of areas and less likely to be lost in a role which would otherwise be
considered ‘playing out of position’. Because of this rigidity, when players <i>do</i> have to move around a few times
during a game because of injuries or whatnot, it tends to confuse them and
impact on their level of performance, because they aren’t used to that
flexibility – this even happens in professional football too, and stems all the
way from 11-a-side grassroots level. And there's the rub - players will want to play in their positions in training and managers will want them to because it's in line with the team's tactics for the upcoming game or indeed the season. It would be seen as a waste to for a team's star midfielder to play left-back in a training match, for example. Most players joining senior football at this level won't really be used to playing more than one or two positions, and it's very rare that a manager or coach will have the time or resources to retrain them to a different role. So why would a player proven to be decent in his position want to go somewhere else? And why would his manager want that? This is why assigning players positions as soon as they join a football team at the age of 8 or so is one of the worst ideas for their futures. It doesn't mean it'll stop a kid developing into a very good player, but it will reduce his flexibility across a system. It’ll be of little surprise to you that on
this occasion I was one of these players who was shunted out wide when
preferring it in the middle, playing a right-wing back role in a back three, so
having to get up the pitch to support the attack, press high up the pitch when
they built from the back and also tuck in centrally when they played through
the middle or the opposite flank – basically, lots of running! It wasn’t
particularly enjoyable but it was a good test of fitness and tactical
discipline and taught a lesson on how to conserve and channel energy by
deciding when and how fast to run, and also getting your angles correct when
play is switched, something I’m still having trouble with. This stuff you just
have to get on with, and it was a decent if difficult experience. I admit, I hate playing out of position to fill a gap somewhere - I'm willing to give my best and learn what it takes to play there but I basically know I'm not going to be anywhere near as effective. That might sound like I have a list of excuses for playing poorly in an unfamiliar role, and to an extent that's true, but isn't that the problem? <i>Why</i> are numerous players uncomfortable with the prospect of not playing in their best position? Probably because they haven't learned enough about or don't have enough experience of playing there in the first place. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Next part on this session will follow tomorrow...</span></div>
insidethepyramidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15703758374222397039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3855974548777952787.post-43973768439124962162013-08-29T14:47:00.000-07:002013-08-29T14:47:53.836-07:00Shouting, being a man and more fitness work...and more shouting!<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Annoyingly, an ankle injury I picked up (I sometimes think the phrase 'glass ankles' were made for me, I'm always twisting them) didn't allow me to partake in the next training session, but it healed quite quickly and I was almost back to normal by the Thursday evening. We started off with a light jog around the premises. Even to ease into the session, the pace
wasn’t particularly challenging and I found myself firmly at the front of the
group, whilst some others lagged behind. I have always found the insistence on doing these things together interesting, and would like to find out the reasons behind it. The man taking the run (perhaps an
assistant manager, he hadn’t been at my first session…), instead of telling the
others to catch up, told the pack at the front to slow down. I did find it puzzling that we were asked to run at a less productive pace so that those having a chat with their mates at the
back don’t get left behind, but it's just a warm-up I guess. Where the truly cringeworthy side of football revealed itself was in the stretching exercises conducted following
the run. It’s unlikely to escape anyone that the England encountered some very hot weather in July and those doing physical exercise would have wanted
to keep their body temperature down. That evening, a handful of team members turned
up wearing vests, pretty sensible attire for such weather I would have thought.
The bloke leading this decided to make a joke of it, declaring:
“right, anyone whose sleeves are missing from their t-shirts, 20 press-ups for
looking like a fanny.” This kind of joke based on what players wear isn’t
uncommon in football and falls under the term ‘banter’, and such ribbing
is fine. However, as a means to attempt to make jokes about masculinity and such bullshit, which is what the joke contains undertones of, I find this idea odd. From my experience in English football, the idea of pure masculinity seems very central among players, managers and fans alike. Funnily enough, idiots call players fairies and other unintelligent insults for
wearing gloves in winter, yet the opposite of that – which would better fit the
‘real man’ criteria – is also unacceptable. Maybe someone is only a real man if
he plays in gear which isn’t suitable to the weather. So I look forward to the praise I'll get when I turn up to training in 30</span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; line-height: 16px;">°</span> heat wearing a sweatshirt, overcoat, woolly hat, scarf and gloves. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The next bit was also a bit questionable. Clearly unaware that "Kingfisher" is an Indian beer, the guy asked a players in a vest displaying this logo where he’d
acquired it. After giving the appropriate answer, the assistant manager bloke looked momentarily confused before an eventual highly amusing quip of “what happened then? Could they not afford to put the sleeves on it?” Hmm. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Even though improvements are gradually being made, shouty managers and coaches who motivate in this way are still all too common, even at this level. From my experience, these types are
generally known as P.E. teachers. OK, clearly for some raising their voice works better than speaking in a softer tone, and some players rise to being shouted at more than others. The problem is, there often isn't much sense in what's being shouted. In my first session, having heard the
first-team manager yell a few random things, I wasn’t surprised when I later
discovered he was a P.E. teacher. I'm probably generalising, but I’ve experienced dickheads of P.E. teachers
from a very young age throughout my school life and Sunday League managers who
shout the same thing – back then I was pretty sensitive and let that kind of
shit get to me much more than I should have, but now I just learn to block it
out. I would say players would be well advised to learn this, but that they are
exposed to it as impressionable children makes things a bit more problematic. On
the Thursday evening we were doing various exercises using ladders. I haven't actually used them all that often, and I also hadn’t encountered one in a very long time, so it was
bound to confuse the hell out of me and made it a pretty nervous experience. I almost
managed to get through it unscathed but there was one blip. A fair few players
were struggling on the first run of ‘two jumps forward, one jump back’ through
the ladder, myself included. This happened to be noticed by the same guy leading the session: “come
on this is the basics, if you can’t even do this then you might as well go home.” It's just important to remember not to take these things at face value, but my history tells me this is easier said than done. The fitness work was very beneficial on
the whole, though. The best (or worst) exercise involved 3 separate cones,
consisting first of a sprint to one followed by 5 reps of something, also
involving a ball, the second cone then ten reps and the third cone then 15. The
most tiring was getting down into a press-up position before getting up again
and having to jump up and head the ball back. The first five are OK, then when
doing the set of ten you start to feel it approaching halfway through, and on
the last you feel like giving up after about 2 or 3. But you have to keep going
– the coaches shout, personally I find that it doesn’t motivate me, but if it doesn't I guess you just have to ignore it. There's no way of enjoying an exercise like this, I suppose. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
insidethepyramidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15703758374222397039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3855974548777952787.post-84761014040055107992013-08-26T13:01:00.000-07:002013-08-26T13:01:20.754-07:00Enough talk...pre-season training begins! - my take on running and fitness<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>So this was all written in July but I was a bit slow with organising this whole blog and also didn't want to publish anything whilst training with a club in case they came across it somehow. I don't say too much bad stuff, but I felt it best on this occasion to avoid any possibility of a difficult situation arising.</b></span><div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">With a new-found confidence, then, I began my attempt to approach football again with an open mind by re-immersing myself in the English game for around a couple of months. Just as a stopgap and a fitness boost. Or at least until I was either offered a job abroad, or scraped together enough money from a domestic job to fly out to somewhere else and look for stuff over there. Anyway, by 'open mind' I mean actually just doing things for myself and my own benefit rather than letting my dislike of a perceived wrongness in a footballing philosophy push me towards petulant behaviour, and using such a dislike as an excuse to lack motivation, worry about some sort of wider agenda and not perform as I should. After all, most people in football play with the primary concern of their own level of performance anyway (if anyone says otherwise, it's a lie). So I began training with a local club well into the non-league pyramid, in fact on the same step as my previous club - not being any more specific than that! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">I was trying to have as good an attitude as possible so it
didn’t start brilliantly when I was quite late for my first training session. Having
finished university and supposedly taking a break from the ‘wild’ student lifestyle, I’d been trying to knock alcohol on the head for a while. All was going to plan
until I got an unexpected call the night before training to come to a housewarming party of a
friend who has also just graduated. After trying, and failing,
to resist any consumption, going to bed at a slightly unreasonable 3am with a
friend crashing over, it was a struggle to get out of bed at 8.30 in the
morning and kick my friend out before making breakfast and setting off to
train. As it was, I still found myself boarding a bus at 10am, the time
training was scheduled to start. I have found, though, that while turning up
late for training (at least on multiple occasions) is considered a somewhat serious
offence in the upper echelons of football and considered ‘unprofessional’ (I
hate that word but that’s what it’s always described as), clubs are far more
lenient with this sort of thing lower down the ladder. For example, players
will have part-time or full-time jobs and so will work a full day or even a
morning on the weekend before training. Delays easily happen; hence the
possibility of turning up late is increased. From a personal point of view, though, you're only cheating yourself if you use this as an excuse to not be punctual, or indeed use the possibility of giving work as a reason for lateness as a chance to go and get pissed. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Thankfully for me when I finally arrived at 10.40 the
manager appeared indifferent. There was an
initial absence of players as they had been sent off on a timed 5k run as the
first installment of the pre-season schedule, so my arrival was timely to say
the least. I wasn’t too worried about that as I
regularly run this sort of distance around where I live, and one run wasn’t going to define
everyone’s fitness. Indeed there were still many more physical drills and
indeed many more sessions to go. The problem about 2-hour sessions and latecomers is the reduced capacity to use the already limited time effectively,
especially when it starts to get swelteringly hot around midday. Furthermore,
with so many fitness exercises to get through – I do not have a problem with
this, as clubs everywhere will provide its players with tough pre-season
schedules in order to get the players’ fitness up to scratch –, not much room
is left for proper ballwork, which has been neglected in the training sessions of almost every club I've played for or trained with. The fitness training, though, was very beneficial. I
hate it at the time of going through it and have to fight against questioning
the point of it, but once completed and repeated over a stretch of time the
benefits become obvious. At my previous club, the
Tuesday night training session, instead of being held at the club’s ground or
training ground, was dedicated solely to running twice around a lake. While
distance runs are tough and beneficial for endurance (not to mention
mind-numbingly tedious because of the repetitiveness and monotony of continuous
running, but yes they still have to be done), they utterly fail to take into
account the variety of paces at which players run during a football match and
the high frequency at which a player has to alter his pace. I’m amazed that I’m
even writing this as to me it’s an incredibly simple point (I’ve never done any
sort of course in sports science, but I think all you need to work this one out
is the most basic knowledge of physical exercise and the human body), but it
would seem there are even sides playing in the pyramid who have these
fundamental flaws in training their players. People can simply go for a run in
their spare time – considering the distance you’ll probably run, all you’ll
need is about an hour (preparation + run + warm down), unless you’re planning to run a marathon. To devote an
entire training session to this when players at this level will usually train
for 6 hours per week at best during pre-season (Saturday mornings/afternoons, Tuesday
and Thursday evenings) and 4 hours once the season starts (Tuesday and Thursday
evenings), is ridiculous. Thankfully, my ‘new’ club seemed to have it right,
easing in to sessions with some light running involving cones, ladders and
poles etc. just to get the sense of repetition so that the body gets used to
dealing with such instruments. What impressed me is that fitness tests in this
session were timed and recorded, something I suspect a lot of clubs at this
level fail to do (as a youth player at a higher level I was never timed or recorded). Monitoring players’ progress lower down the pyramid is
already a challenge as the player doesn’t have daily contact with his club, so
it’s good to note down as much as possible just to get at least a rough idea if
nothing else. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">There were 2 tests we were timed on, the first was an
agility test which involved starting in between two cones from a press-up
position, lifting yourself fully before pushing off to weave in and out of
vertical poles both to the end and back, before sprinting to another cone at
the end and back. The other was a 40m sprint – I feel a sprint over any greater
distance wouldn’t be of much significance to a football match, as most sprints
won’t be more than 10m bursts. I can’t remember my times for either but they
weren’t brilliant as I’m not particularly agile or quick – thankfully it’s
possible to get round that on a football pitch, as I’ll allude to later, but
nonetheless it’s still beneficial for general endurance. Also done was sprint
work with intervals – around the perimeter of a football pitch, we would sprint
(in allocated groups, for as much as possible) for 30 seconds before having a
recovery period of one minute. This was repeated eight times. It was probably
the most intense session I’ve had other than my first ever training session
with my previous club which was way back in the summer of 2009, but I think the
tiredness I felt from that session was more to do with stepping up from youth
to men’s football (although I have trained and played with a men’s Sunday
League team on occasions before just to keep things ticking over, pyramid
football is a different proposition, even if plenty of Sunday League teams do
contain amateur Saturday footballers and even semi-professionals from as high
as the Isthmian League). I took pride then in being one of those to handle it best.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Whilst on this topic, I recall
certain criticism I used to get (from players, managers, even referees!) for being tired when playing for my friend’s
Sunday League side and even when playing youth football before I was taken on
by a semi-professional club. It was along the lines of “how can you be tired?
You’re a young kid/teenager! When I was your age I came off the pitch wanting
to play another 90 minutes!” This criticism is particularly grating because it
fails to acknowledge the inexperience a youngster will have in senior football.
In turn, it can quite easily knock the confidence of a youngster and he could
begin to question why he doesn’t seem to be able to cope with the pace of a
senior game, thinking football might not be for him or even drive him onto
excessive fitness training which isn’t really necessary and increases the risk
of a burnout. Also, when ‘you’ were ‘my age’, football was very different to
how it is now. Thirdly, teenagers might be able to run up and down in a
straight line for ages but as alluded to earlier, football doesn’t involve that
kind of running. As senior players have played more football matches and had
more training sessions than youngsters, their bodies are more used to the type
of running football entails. More shuttle runs, more shuffling through ladders,
more dodging in and out of poles etc. As a case in point, I remember one game watching the team I support where a player emerging from the Youth
Team made his debut on the right wing. I think he was 18 years old, around the same age I would have
been at the time. He played pretty well but started to fade badly
after about an hour, understandable as it was his first ever senior pro game. We were 1-0 up, but he was struggling badly as players
seemed to comparatively glide up and down the pitch whereas his body movements
were clearly becoming more laboured. On the bench were both a right-back and a
senior right-sided midfielder, one of whom should clearly have come on, as
pressure was building down this flank as the opposition had clearly noticed a
weakness here. Deep into stoppage time, the opposition attacked down his flank
again and equalised – only was he actually substituted immediately after they
had scored, and play only went on for about another 30 seconds. It staggered me
that he was left on so long as he was clearly out on his feet - for me, a substitution based on the condition
of a player is the easiest call to make, as it is far less subjective than player performance. Maybe our man in charge was yelling to the player “come on
[name], you’re only 18! You should easily be able to keep up with all these
experienced professionals!” I’m sure a couple of managers whom I’ve played
under probably would have done.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
insidethepyramidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15703758374222397039noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3855974548777952787.post-91568188867828045462013-08-25T14:16:00.000-07:002013-08-25T14:16:09.656-07:00Introduction<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">A famous quote from Bill Shankly reads: “<span style="background-color: white;">Football is
a simple game based on the giving and taking of passes, of controlling the ball
and of making yourself available to receive a pass. It is terribly simple.</span>” I couldn’t disagree more
with these words as they appear; I think the more subtle subtext of the quote
is that when all the little cogs which make up the aspects of football are
perfectly in place, football <i>appears </i>to
be a very simple art. Top teams who comfortably move the ball around are
frequently described as “making it look so easy” by commentators and pundits
alike, and this is true – to the average eye of the spectator it looks a task
that even they would be able to manage. Being available to receive a pass from
a team-mate, having options to pass to when in possession, creating options for
yourself and making a pass into space which many fail to notice are all things
which require extensive tactical practice as a team. Such complete team
performances are misinterpreted as football being inherently simple. It is not
just supporters who peddle this myth – it has been pointed out before that it
begins from pundits, who have played professionally, relaying it to viewers of
football in this way, and coaches at grassroots level also pick up on this, and
therefore transmit this message to amateur players, including youngsters. In
England, where quality coaches are in drastically short supply (this <i>Guardian</i> article <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/football/2010/jun/01/football-coach-shortage-england">here</a>
of 2010 says there are only 2,769 English coaches with a UEFA A, B or Pro
licence, roughly one tenth of other major footballing nations in Europe – 26,000
odd hold an FA level one according to <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/8785895.stm">this BBC article</a>
from around the same time), the problem extends all the way up to the mid-reaches of the
football pyramid where I play, and beyond. </span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">This
leads me on to what I wish to discuss in this piece. Oversimplifying football,
misinterpretations and what causes them, and how they hold players back with
the attitude to football which evolves from them. My experience in England is
the primary area of study but once I progress in my journey abroad the two will
be put together. I shall pick out various instances that I experience from both
training sessions and matches, mainly in a sort of diary format but also
mentioning unforgettable moments of earlier days in my playing ‘career’, and
explain how they can damage (or indeed enhance!) the development of a player
and a team. Not only this, but I shall also attempt to clarify somewhat the
complexities which make up football from a training session to a match, for
example how two things which appear equivalents on the surface aren’t quite so. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">As
a bit of background, I have just graduated from University and am attempting to
get back on track in football trying to carve out a respectable career for
myself in the non-league pyramid. I had been training with a club (who I cannot
name for reasons which will become obvious) who play a handful of divisions
below the Blue Square Premier (not being any more specific than that for now)
but have just moved abroad and wish to get involved in the game, for the reason
that the attitude I perceive countries to have in general would fit me better
and give me more motivation, and also so that I can compare respective methods
– and indeed see if my conceptions are true (indeed, I could turn out to be
completely wrong). My years at University, where football most certainly fell
well behind socialising, ‘banter’ (including taking control of my friends’
unguarded Facebook accounts and telling all their friends how much they loved
cock), getting hammered and going out on the pull in my list of life priorities,
certainly hindered my development and I ended up just playing for a mate’s team
in one of the organised leagues there. Before that I had enjoyed a brief spell
in the world of semi-professional football having trialled with a handful of
clubs from Conference to Ryman Division One level but, looking back on it, I
don’t think I was good enough to make it last anyway. I tried to combine Uni
with teams of the level I am now but this never lasted. This was all after I
realised I was too good to continue playing Sunday League football (my then
manager would certainly disagree with that!) and if I wanted to make progress
then I’d have to do something sooner rather than later. I was a bit of a late
starter – I didn’t sign up to a junior club until I was a very nervous
13-year-old with almost no self-confidence, which might also explain my comparatively
late development as a footballer. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">My footballing
mind really began to develop when I reached the age of 17, I think, and I no
longer took any old bloke’s word as gospel. I’d re-signed for my previous
Sunday League club after a year out of the game (for reasons I won’t go into)
and was surprised at how I stood out as one who would hold the ball and pass it
rather than just kick it forward. The manager was playing me up front for the
reason that he thought I’d be too risky further back as he didn’t trust me not
to make a mistake; even then, he certainly wasn’t pleased by my lack of ability
to chase a ball hit 10 yards above my head and 30 yards beyond me and beat the
defenders to it, nor was he pleased by my lack of ability to smash into
opposition defenders, and one of his unique tips to me to encourage a more
aggressive side was to go round picking fights with opponents. Things all came
to a head between us during one training session shortly after this – we were
about to start a training game and I was about to line up in my preferred
position of the centre of midfield. He questioned what I was doing there and
suddenly remarked “only good players can play that position you’re in.” He then
proceeded in front of the whole squad to go on a rant about how I hadn’t
improved at all in three years since knowing him. I think this scathing
criticism coupled with his warped idea of aggression gave me the (temporary)
motivation to prove him wrong and earn praise at a higher level from better
qualified coaches. From my ‘journey’, I now realise I (and many others) have
witnessed and been exposed to methods of management and coaching which are
tragically lacking in footballing insight. Worst of all, they appear to be
pretty harmless at first but as we shall find out, football is a complex game. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Just
as a disclaimer, I am not going to pretend that I am whiter than white myself.
I realise that some may read this and think I come across as a petulant twat
who blames everyone but himself. That’s not the case, there have been times where
I’ve failed to prepare properly for a match and it’s been my own fault, such as
necking a load of whisky the night before a game and being unceremoniously
pulled off in the first half to prevent myself from further embarrassment on
the pitch. My point is that there are, in my opinion, glaring deficiencies in
our attitude to football which holds back players’ development and even lets
plenty of talented players slip through the net, even driving them away from
the game. I do NOT, however, profess to be the man with all the answers to the
problems, or know anywhere near everything there is to know about football. I
also realise that some readers may find this very boring – and that’s fine, I’m
a bit geeky and like analysing little things, probably too much. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
insidethepyramidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15703758374222397039noreply@blogger.com0