Playing Tip: Movement off the Ball

Movement off the ball. A skill that is underappreciated, underdeveloped, and incredibly impactful. When we spectate soccer, we tend to follow the ball. We see the magnificent shots, breathtaking passes, and extraordinary dribbles. What we often don’t see is the player’s movement prior to receiving the ball to properly position him or herself in a dangerous spot to make those game-changing plays when they get the ball, nor their teammates’ movement that opens up the space that allows them to get into those dangerous positions.

I think Kevin De Bruyne and Man City do this as well as anyone or any team I’ve ever seen. Sure, De Bruyne is sensational to watch with the ball at his feet, hardly ever making the wrong play and often leaving the audience breathless, but his movement, and his teammates movement without the ball, pretty much never stops. He’s constantly moving to better position himself to make game-changing plays when he does receive the ball, and his teammates are constantly moving to open up that space for him.

With this picture painted, we can begin to understand that smart movement typically precedes breathtaking play, and all players have the potential to dramatically impact the game without ever even touching the ball. With this in mind, I’d love to share a few tips that will improve a player’s movement right away.

1. Move frequently behind defenders. The more you move, the more defenders have to account for you and the higher the likelihood they lose track of you. This becomes infinitely harder if you build the habit of moving behind defenders. Don’t run in their field of vision, run behind them, where they have to physically turn their head to see you, drop to cover you, or let you go free, trusting another teammate to pick you up. The rule I tell my players is this: if you receive the ball and can read the number of the closest defender, you have the freedom to go forward, if you can’t read the number, you are probably going to be under pressure and can’t move forward. Thinking this way forces players to move smartly prior to receiving the ball so that they can attack when they receive it.

2. Don’t suffocate the ball. When a teammate has time and space on the ball, move AWAY from the teammate. Doing this allows you to break a line of defensive pressure, and puts you in a dangerous position when you receive it. On the other hand, if your teammate is under intense pressure, move TOWARDS the ball to become an easy outlet/passing option to relieve the pressure.

3. Run in behind. The more the defense becomes stretched, the more space for your teammates to work. One easy way to stretch the defense is to make frequent runs behind the oppositions’ back line. Like the first tip, it forces the defense to account for you and makes it significantly harder on them to stay organized. It also pushes them backwards, creating more space for your teammates to move into. Lastly, when you do receive the ball, it leads to great goal scoring opportunities. It’s a high effort to low reward ratio, meaning you may have to make 10 hard runs behind the opposition before you even receive the ball, however, when you do receive that ball, you are going to receive it in a position to make a game-changing play.

Hopefully I’ve painted a picture of the importance of movement off the ball, and given the reader a few quick tips to become a better mover.

Want to work with us to improve this skill (and others) to maximize your ability? Contact us to schedule your initial consultation. We hope to hear from you soon!

-JL

Three Easy Recovery Tips That Few Do to Improve Performance

Recovery. Something that everyone knows is beneficial yet most people completely ignore, or at best, have at the bottom of their priority list. I get it. Life is stressful, there’s so much going on. We all have social lives and other responsibilities outside of athletics. With the hectic nature of daily life in mind, I wanted to give you three easy tips to increase your recovery with the end goal of improving your performance.

First, a super brief overview. I look at recovery as the process of maximizing adaptation (physiological development), and returning the body to an appropriate level to perform or train again. Recovery methods, therefore, are any focused, intentional, or deliberate implement we use to increase adaptation or speed up the time it takes to reach that level where we can train/perform optimally again. With this definition in mind, there are a ton of recovery methods we utilize to reach this appropriate level, however, I want to give you three incredibly simple ones that you can do on your own that are habitual in nature and can become a part of your daily routine.

1. Drink more water. Obvious, of course, but something that few do. We all know that hydrating properly will improve performance on the field. What many fail to realize is that proper hydration will also increase recovery post game/workout. Here’s my recommendation to build the habit: track your water intake and shoot for a gallon a day. Simply tracking the amount of water consumed will force you to become aware and deliberately focus on the goal. To make it even easier on yourself, invest in a 1 gallon or 1/2 gallon bottle and set the goal of drinking it (2 in the case of the 1/2 gallon) by the end of the day. Start early and sip frequently. By the end of your first week, it will become habitual and you won’t even be thinking about water intake anymore, simply reaping the recovery/performance benefits.

2. SLEEP. The achilleas heel of most high school or college athletes, sleeping is the almost always the best investment they can make. There is no greater habit change these athletes could make that will reap more benefits than improving the duration and quality of sleep. I get it. I’ve been there. With the obligation of life, sleep is very often pushed to the bottom of the priority list, and we almost celebrate those who function on less sleep. We paint an unrealistic picture that we must sacrifice sleep in order to achieve our goals. This is pretty silly and idiotic since sleep enhances pretty much every physiological and neurological function, allowing us greater opportunity to achieve our goals. Adequate sleep allow us to function optimally and enhance our recovery and performance more than just about anything else. Here’s my tip: PUT THE PHONE AWAY. Set an alarm for 30-45 minutes before you want to go to sleep, and when that timer goes off, put your phone on a charger outside your bedroom and leave it. I promise you, your social life will be fine, and your quality of life, recovery, and performance will increase exponentially. This little strategy will not only force you to close your eyes and go to sleep, it will also start the habit of a nighttime routine, which is a great way to fall asleep faster and increase the quality of sleep.

3. MOVE. At the end of the day, all our deliberate recovery methods come down to one main goal: push blood through the body. Blood is what carries the fresh oxygen and amino acids we need to recover throughout the body, as well as carrying away the waste products that leave us unable to perform. The best way to speed that process up is to move. Cal Dietz, who is known as one of the greatest strength and conditioning coaches of all time uses one method: 2-5 hours post game, go for a 30 minute walk at a brisk pace. That’s it. That’s his main method of recovery for his athletes, and it makes perfect sense. Think about what most of us do post-game. We crash. Completely. We left it all on the field and are totally spent. However, doing this does not push the blood throughout the body and slows down the recovery process. Here’s my tip: build the habit of walking into your post-game routine. The trick with this one is it has to come at least 2 hours after the game so that your body is already in a recovery state and you can just enhance it. Sooner than that, and your body thinks you’re still performing. Bonus tip for this one: build an actual post-game routine. One that truly sets you up to recover. Here’s what I would do if I were in your shoes: I’d drive home, shower, rollout, drink a protein shake, eat a nutritious post-game meal, relax or nap, depending on the time, then go for a brisk 30 minute walk and reflect on the game while I do so (walking is great time for focused thinking, the psychology is over my head but essentially your brain is optimized to think and reflect while you walk).

There you have it. Three simple habits that you can implement right away to increase your recovery and as a result, your performance on the field.

Happy recovering!

-Jer

Do We Have Practice Design All Wrong?

In a previous post, I wrote about the power of consistent effort and the impact it can have on achieving success in any endeavor. In this post, I’d like to further explore that topic as it relates to practice design and player development.

I’ve had the good fortune of observing and learning from many different coaches with many different philosophies and ways of planning and conducting practices. These experiences have helped to shape my perspective and philosophy on practice design, and have shown me that some ways to design practice are far more effective, and lead to far better outcomes, than others.

Traditionally, I find practice design falls into one of two categories: fully random or systematic. Fully random practice design follows no clear system of design, whereas a systematic practice design follows some sort of pre-set template. For example, in a fully random setting, no two practices will look alike and there will be little to no distinguishable patterns that emerge. In a systematic practice design, each day clearly follows a similar pattern, let’s call it a “template,” with small variances dedicated to specific situations. While coaches have certainly had success with both methods, in my experience, those with pre-conceived templates typically have far more success than those with a fully random design. Let’s dive a little deeper.

I’ve found that coaches who follow a systematic design have a clear vision for their style of play, what it should look like, and know what they need to consistently practice to achieve it. Relating this back to my previous post, it makes a lot of sense. A systematic design simply holds coaches accountable to consistently invest effort into the areas they want to improve. Beyond that, it streamlines and speeds up the practice design process, leaving more time and energy to focus on other areas that lead to success, such as recruiting, scouting, or player management.

Now that’s not to say that a systematic approach will always work, because it won’t. I’ve been around a couple of coaches who follow a systematic approach, but invest their time and energy into the wrong areas; they invest practice time to drills and exercises that don’t actually lead to or translate to success on the field. Beyond that, a systematic approach to practice design doesn’t account for HOW a coach may coach, HOW they treat their players, HOW well they prepare for the upcoming opponent, and many other important aspects that lead to success on game day. All this is to emphasize that while a systematic approach will help streamline the process, it doesn’t guarantee success.

Let’s take a look at a couple of templates from coaches who have had a ton of success at the collegiate level:

Template 1:
Dynamic Warmup
Technical Warmup
Transition Activity
Competition
Finishing

Templates 2:
Dynamic Warmup
Technical Exercise
Positional Work with Positional Coaches
Group/Team Activity
Competition

When we compare these two templates, a few similarities stand out:

1. Both coaches invest in a proper warmup at the start of practice. While this seems strikingly obvious, it’s not something to take for granted. I’ve been around a few coaches, who even at the highest level, don’t believe in the values of properly warming a team up. A proper warmup not only reduces the risk/occurrence of injuries and physically prepares the body to train at it’s highest level, it also mentally prepares the athletes for training and gives them the time they need to mentally transition into the session. Both coaches essentially spend 20 minutes physically, mentally, and technically warming their players up so that they are firing on all cylinders when they get into the meat of their practice. Also, having been around these coaches, I can tell you that the warmup truly sets the tone for practice. The dynamic warmup is taken seriously and the technical warmup is done at game speed.

2. Both coaches emphasize competition. Competition is prevalent and is clearly a priority for both coaches. This competitive mindset is imperative to the culture of their programs and is part of the reason for their overwhelming success.

There is also one major difference to analyze:

1. One coach chooses to invest in the transition phase of the game, the other into positional development. I think this comes down to their philosophies/beliefs as coaches, and it’s seen in their style of play. One program is dynamic in transition and puts their chances away (they invest in finishing at the end of each session), while the other program is extremely organized and positionally strong. The way each team plays really showcases what they invest in at practice. Both are equally effective, but a great example of different styles.

I think what this shows is that there are certain principles that should be included in your practice design, and certain principles that you should include based on your own beliefs and philosophies. It’s also important to note that these coaches don’t follow these templates to the letter each and every day, but they serve as strong guidelines as they design their practices.

For me, my template pulls aspects from both of these, while including categories that are entirely my own. It’s important for me to properly warm my players up, get their hands on one another (to get comfortable with physicality), to compete, and to be dynamic in transition. As such, my practice design reflects that. I also want to bury our chances, so we work on finishing at the end of each session. Lastly, I think it’s important to develop composure on the ball for when we can’t go forward right away, as well as to let the game teach, so my general template looks like this:

Dynamic Warmup with “Hands On” Partner Work
Technical Warmup with Competition
Transition Activity
Functional Work/Tactics/Rondos
Open Play/Large Sided Game
Finishing

Doing the same thing consistently also allows players to develop a rhythm and know what to expect. There are no surprises which really streamlines their development because they aren’t worrying about what’s coming at practice; they know what’s coming and can focus on getting better.

Lastly, practicing this way allows coaches to properly evaluate the effectiveness of their training. Because of the consistent approach, coaches can make small changes, and properly measure their impact. If what they are consistently doing is not leading to success on gameday, then they are able to properly pinpoint exactly what’s not working, whereas with a random approach, there are far too many variables to consider.

I’d like to leave the reader with one last thought. It’s very common in the athletics world to take a “there are many ways to skin a cat” approach to coaching. While I understand the intention behind this belief, I personally think it’s led to catastrophic outcomes for our field at large. When we unpack this catchy little phrase, we realize that the intention behind it is that nobody cares how we get there so long as we get results. However, with this mindset in place, best practices in our field will never form and coaches will always have a built-in excuse for their poor coaching. Other professions have extremely clear guidelines in place that not only keep their people safe, but also help to move the field forward. I strongly believe that eventually, systemized practice design will be the expectation. The benefits are too immense and it’s too common across the top performers in our field, however it won’t take hold until the field “professionalizes,” but that’s a topic for another day.

Thanks for reading,

-JL

My Thoughts on Style of Play

One of the many things that makes team sports so exciting is that teams can adopt a plethora of different identities and styles of play and still have success. Sticking to soccer, if we look at (in my opinion) the three best club teams in the world currently (Real Madrid, Man City, and Liverpool), we can very quickly see that they all have different styles of play and philosophies, as well as different personalities and ways of doing things from a coaching perspective, but are all equally successful in their own right.

Real Madrid is the perfect balance between system and players. Defensively, they are as stout as it comes, allowing players like Casemiro and Alaba to dominate and only giving up opportunities that trickle into their goalkeeper. When they win the ball, they play bravely in possession and allow their game-changing players like Karim Benzema, Luka Modric, and Vinicius Junior, among others, the creative freedom to attack with no consequences. They also tend to heavily adopt their system and style of play to the opponent they are facing, and are much more game-plan oriented than the other two (thank you Carlo Ancelotti). Man City on the other hand is a methodical system. Their possession will literally take your breath away, always making the safe play and relying on teamwork and moments of brilliance from Kevin De Bruyne to provide their goal scoring opportunities. As a side note, I personally believe that they have lost the balance between system and creative freedom, and have actually stifled players like Gabriel Jesus and Phil Foden, which is why I believe they haven’t won as much as they should; they don’t allow their best players the creative freedom to make plays that win them games and are actually a little too system-oriented. Hopefully this will change with the Haaland signing. Lastly, Liverpool is a complete and utter machine. Every decision is made with efficiency in mind. They look to move the ball into the final third and create a goal scoring opportunity as quickly as possible while gegenpressing relentlessly the second they lose it. Ironically, it is this high-pressure high-efficiency system that ended up being their downfall because their style of play is extremely physically and mentally demanding, and the players just ran out of gas by the end of the season.

While the many different styles of play lead to some extremely entertaining soccer for the viewer, what’s important to take away from a coaching perspective is simply that the best teams have a defined system and style of play. I do think there are styles that tend to have more success than others, however, it’s extremely important to have that style defined (and hopefully pick one that leads to results on the field). If coaches fail to define their style of play, then they will have no way in which to judge progress for their team, and no guidelines from which to run their practices. They will end up scattered, throwing practices together in the hopes of chasing results that don’t actually build towards anything, and ultimately letting their team down on gameday.

So how do coaches define their style of play? The first thing any coach should do is figure out what they personally believe in. Envision the “perfect” soccer team. What would they look like, how would they press, how would they attack, would they be big and physical, would they be master technicians, etc., and then decide on what’s realistic for your current group. Of course, the end goal should always be to achieve that perfect style, but what does a realistic end goal look like for this team. From there, you can then design your season objectives around reaching that style and use it to guide your practice planning.

For me, the perfect team is the hardest team to play against in the country. Of course, that isn’t realistic, so I’m constantly chasing the goal of making my team excruciatingly difficult to play against; a team that other teams hate to play because we take the fun out of the game. Tactically, this means we gegenpress relentlessly and look to go forward right away as soon as we win the ball, but if it’s not on, then we maintain possession and look to move the ball into the final third as quickly as possible. It means allowing our best players the creative freedom to make plays (and as a consequence, mistakes), that effect the outcome of the game. It means a team that only worries about what they can control, don’t argue with the refs, and takes advantage when the other team reacts negatively. Lastly, for me, being a team that’s hard to play against means having physically dominant players. My teams should be athletically dominant and not afraid of contact. They should win every ball and go in hard to everything.

While some of this may sound like an oversimplification, I believe that if we consistently practice the aspects we want to replicate in a way that transfers to the game, then over time we will begin to embody those characteristics. Maybe your style is different, but define it, figure out what’s realistic, and practice it consistently in a way that translates to the game, and in time, your team will begin to resemble your vision of the perfect team.

Please feel free to weigh in,

Until next time,

-Jer

More on Transferability: The How of Coaching

In a previous post, I explained the concept of transferability and why it’s important in sport. In today’s post, I want to continue that conversation, and explore how this applies to the how of coaching.

First, a little background. Historically, coaching has been set in one of two realms, Exercise Science/Kinesiology, or Physical Education. Due to the education models of these programs, and the type of people they attract, coaches who have an exercise science/kinesiology background are typically very analytically thinking, and often spend their time focusing on WHAT to coach. On the flip side, coaches who come from the physical education model are very adept at teaching their athletes, because that’s what they learned how to do in school. These coaches tend to be very good at HOW they coach. A coach can be good, frankly, very good, by being extremely proficient in one of these two areas, however, a great coach must excel in both. In that previous post, I focused on and challenged coaches to analyze what they are programming for their athletes, and how it translates to the field. In this post, I’d like to shift that focus, and analyze how coaches can teach in a way that also translates to the field.

As a quick reminder, transferability is how well skills transfer across different aspects of life. In sport, this means how well training transfers to the game. What a coach programs is extremely important to whether or not training will transfer to the game, but how that coach delivers the session is just as important as what they are doing. As coaches, we can’t play for our players. It blows me away when I see coaches trying to play from the sidelines, as if their constant yelling positively impacts their players. I’m a big fan of stealing from people who are smarter than me, and pretty much every coach I’ve ever been around who I want to steal from, takes a back seat on gameday and lets their players play. Instead, these coaches teach and coach in a way that develops effective decision makers, so that when gameday comes, the players are not reliant on the coach and can make those decisions for themselves.

The art to effective coaching is teaching in a way that allows for players to come to solutions on their own; to take ownership in the learning process and make decisions for themselves. As such, if coaches want their teaching to translate, they must be creative enough and disciplined enough to allow their players to discover the solutions on their own. Their job becomes creating problems that athletes will see in a game, and then allowing them to solve it on their own, so that the concept "clicks” for the athlete. How that happens may be different for each athlete, and part of that art is figuring that out, but I guarantee that coaches will not have much success on gameday if they are constantly telling their players exactly what they want and exactly what to do. Sure, in the short term, in that moment, the players will get it and practice may look better, but in the long term, they will not retain that information and it will not transfer to the game because they are relying on the coach to tell them exactly what to do.

So what should we do? We should teach in a way that transfers to the game. We should guide athletes rather than telling them what to do by creating problems that athletes will see in a game, and allowing them to solve it themselves so that they take ownership over their learning process. We should put constraints on games so that the only way for athletes to have success is to do what we want them to do, nudging them in that direction by what the game is demanding. And lastly, we should allow them to PLAY. Play at practice. Play in the games. Allow athletes the freedom to make mistakes so that they can discover the appropriate solutions for themselves, and support them while they do. All this means that practices may look ugly and chaotic. This is OK because it means we are creating an environment that replicates the ugly and chaotic game. If we create super neat and clean practices, where we tell athletes exactly what we want them to do, and don’t allow them to make mistakes, then we will have a team full of players who have no idea how to solve the problems for themselves when chaos breaks loose on gameday.

Transferability, or how training transfers to the game, should be a core component of coach’s philosophy, and a skill they should be masters of. When I spend time around smarter coaches, I see the power of it first-hand, to the point where I think it’s one of maybe three or four things that actually matter in coaching.

If you have any questions about transferability, or want to learn more, please contact me.

Until next time,

-Jer