BEHIND THE PLAY #5

Seriously going to try to keep this one short…

Unopposed technical training. One of the most divisive issues in player development. Favoured by those who provide it, ridiculed by those who have a shred of common sense.

A month or so ago I went by a local artificial turf field and there was a coach there who is known to offer individual or small group training with a strong focus on individual technical skill. He recruits players off the back of parents saying their child has a much better touch now (generally because they can do pullbacks and juggle the ball more than ten times).

I watched for a few minutes. Three players. All girls. Following patterns that he was leading them through. And the whole time I watched; all three players had their heads down. Zero correction from the coach.

And therein lies the main problem critics have with unopposed technical work: zero transferability to actual game play. It’s totally unrealistic due to the absence of opposition. You will never have the luxury of a ball at your feet for ten seconds with your head down without it being taken away from you.

Liken this to teaching your child to drive a car on completely empty streets in perfect daylight conditions. All they need to do is focus on accelerating, steering, and braking. No other traffic, no pedestrians. Nothing else to worry about. Let them do this for a couple months and watch how smoothly they speed up, how well they brake and stop on a line. See how comfortably they steer on winding roads. Yet would you consider them a good driver ready to take on rush hour traffic? You would not. They are not at all prepared to deal with the realities of driving.

Here's a further illustration involving one particular skill. Receiving a ball in a game requires far more than just watching the ball into your foot and stopping it close to your body. Players need to recognize when to want the ball and to communicate that along with where they would like it (to feet or in space). They need to know before the ball is played what they are going to do in terms of a first touch and that decision is guided by where defenders are, where the goal is, and where your own teammates are. They also must re-calibrate this in real time as the ball is played to them based on how the factors change. You need to look up to see all these elements of play while still focusing on the ball, so you take a touch that facilitates the decision you have made on what to do next. Are you taking a touch forward to confront the defender? Are you turning away from the defender to shield and wait for support? Is your touch near you to gather the ball and keep possession? Is it played in front to attack space?

Communicate > Decide > Prepare > Act.

You can’t do that with your head down and you don’t have to do any of it if you have no teammates and no opposition. Just as debating is no more than a speech without an opponent, learning technical skills in the absence of opponents is just show-pony stuff that serves no purpose other than Insta-content and an income for coaches who ‘specialize’ in an aspect of the game that has no real application.

_{A song you may not know but must surely like once you have. Fontaines DC’ A Hero’s Death . (Apple Music) (Spotify)(YouTube)}