THE PRINCIPLES OF LEARNING OF FUNDACIÓN MARCET PROFESSIONAL EUROSOCCER PROGRAM
Much teaching and coaching is based on the misguided notion that practice makes perfect. That is not necessarily so. Practice makes permanent and that fact applies with equal certainty, to both good and bad practice. Incorrect practice, therefore, will eventually produce permanent bad habits. This fundamental truth requires to be understood. Those who believe in coaching understand the benefits which will accrue from correct practice and the formation of good habits and sound knowledge. Those who do not understand this basic truth have no basis for belief.
There are two further misguided notions concerning the coaching of soccer which should be dispelled at the outset. The first of these is that soccer players are born with natural flair and do not require coaching. This notion is not supported by the facts. The essential fact is that the progress of civilisation through the ages is largely a commentary on the progress of education, whereby each generation has handed on to its succeeding generation more knowledge and better techniques of teaching and learning. So it is that man can run faster and jump higher, has ascended the highest pinnacle on earth and has set foot on the moon. These achievements are the result of the practical application of advanced knowledge harnessed to assiduous and purposeful practice and training. Suffice is to say that it is unlikely that soccer players have been granted immunity from this process of evolution.
This thesis is consistent with the facts that youngsters are not born equal- indeed. They are unequal physically’ mentally and psychologically. Nor is this thesis inconsistent with the fact that those who are born and brought up in a soccer environment will have better opportunities to develop their talents than those who are not.
It is, therefore, self-evident that we are not born with equal talents and that we do not have, environmentally speaking, equal opportunities. The great challenge of teaching, however, is to recognise potential talent and develop that potential to its full realisation.
The other misguided notion to which reference should be made is that techniques practiced in isolation cannot be transferred into the game. If a player is a poor technical performer in a situation where he has no opposing players, then there is nothing of technical merit to transfer into the game. It should, however, be understood , that the player who is technically proficient without opposing players will not necessarily be as proficient when opposing and co-operating players are brought into the practice.
This misconception of the affects of transference of training is often characterised by a desire to teach by trial and error. It is dangerously assumed that one can learn equally well by performing unsuccessfully as by performing successfully. Whilst it is desirable that performers should be challenged and stretched, the teaching progressions should be such that any new learning situation should be balanced towards the probability of success. This is not the least of the skills of coaching, and the accruing habit of success is not least in order of importance to the performer.
Effective coaching and learning of Fundación Marcet is very much bound up with establishing correct attitudes, correct habits and correct movements. First, in order of importance, is the attitude towards learning by both the coach and the player. This attitude should be characterised by two qualities:
. An open mind.
. An enquiring mind.
An open mind is essential to receive new ideas; it is essential for mental vitality and it is essential for progress. A close mind indicates that a man relieves he knows it all. It also indicates that he is not only feeling old but has become old.
An enquiring mind is essential to evaluate new ideas. Not all ideas are good and it is a mistake to accept a new idea on the sole criteria of it being new –this is as foolish as to discount it without evaluation. One should question new ideas, analyse them and establish if they are correct in principle. Only after the most careful evaluation should any idea be accepted or rejected.
What then is technique? And what is skill?
Technique is the execution of a single performance –a pass, a control, a jump, or a turn. Decisions are involved, which means that the performance involved both physical and mental elements.
Skill, in soccer terms, is the ability to be in the right place at the right time and to select the correct technique on demand. Skill, therefore, is concerned with making judgements and selections. There are some games which are predominantly games of technique. Soccer is predominantly a game of judgement. How do we reach that conclusion? By a simple analysis of the facts:
. In a 90 minute game of soccer the ball is only in play for approximately 60 of those minutes. For the remainder of the time the ball is out of play.
. Out of the 60 minutes in which the ball is in play, each team, in an even game, will have possession of the ball for 30 minutes.
. During the time in which the ball is in play the ball will frequently be in flight and outside the playing distance of anyone of the 22 players. An individual player on a team, on average, cannot have possession of the ball for more than two minutes.
Question: What is the player doing for the other 58 minutes that the ball in play?
Answer: Making judgement, decisions and selections.
Added to all this is the probability that soccer is the most fluid of all games. All the players and the ball can move through 360 degrees and there are a minimum number of laws and relatively few stoppages. Situations, therefore, change rapidly, requiring from the players a high degree of mental alertness and concentration.
All of which brings us back to the fundamental question which is not how does one coach, but rather, how does a young player learn.
HOW A YOUNG PLAYER LEARNS WITH FUNDACIÓN MARCET
Young players have a desire to achieve and a desire to prove themselves to others. In order to motivate them successfully, the coach needs to take into consideration the following factors:
He must be interested. The player who has not interest has a closed mind, and that, if it cannot be changed, is a recipe for disaster.
He should have enthusiasm –a desire to be involved and to participate. One should be suspicious of any young player who lacks enthusiasm. It is worth remembering that people who are enthusiastic want to do more not less.
He should see good examples and be set good standards. Seeing good players play live, or on film, is important. By observing what good players do, good standards are set; standards, one must add, not only of performance but also of behaviour. By observing what others do, particularly those whom we respect and admire, attitudes and habits are formed. One cannot therefore overestimate the responsibility which falls on outstanding players and coaches alike in setting and establishing standards for young players. Through harnessing this means of learning, coaches can bring about a permanent change for the better and both attitude and habits.
He will learn through correct practice and through the frequency of that practice. The quality of the practice is more important than the frequency. Given, however, the quality, the greater the time devoted to practice, the better will be the results.
He will learn by knowledge of results. The more progress a player can be seen to be making, the more the player is likely to be encouraged to practice. Like taking medicine, we may not always like it; but if there is clear evidence that it is doing us good we will continue to take it. Correct practice involves setting players performance targets so that progress can be measured. This task belongs entirely to the coach.
He will learn by being challenged. Progress involves a continuous process of reaching beyond one’s grasp. Progress is not achieved by constantly working within one’s limits –one does not climb higher by looking down. Players will improve by being set more difficult tasks and by playing with and against better players, the proviso being that the task is not too difficult nor the opposite players too good. Coaches must set these challenges carefully for young players calculating on the probability of success.
He learns by faith. At the end of the day a man will not achieve more than he believes to be possible. The question is, what is possible? Many of us underestimate what we could achieve. At the same time, most of us are inspired by hope; but many hopes are not realistically based. Coaches should inspire and encourage players to strive harder to establish and improve hopes and ambitions which are attainable.
THE ELEMENTS IN A SKILLFUL PERFORMANCE
Having established how a player learns, what does he need to learn in soccer? What are the factors involved in skilful performance? There are three major areas: technique, understanding and fitness.
Techniques. Techniques in soccer are the tools of the trade. The better the technique, and the wider the range of technique at the disposal of the player, the better he is likely to be. A player, therefore, who is one-footed, no matter how efficiently technically that one foot may be, would be even better if he were as efficient technically with the other foot. There is no substitute for good technique.
Understanding. Understanding jeans understanding what one can do and what is necessary. To attempt something which one knows one cannot do is, to put it midly, unskilful. Understanding what is necessary requires knowledge, vision and perception; thus the excellent technical performer may not be skilful, since he may not understand or perceive when and where to use his various techniques.
It has already been established that, for the most part, players will not be performing techniques with the ball during a game of soccer. A skilful player, therefore, must understand how to position to the best advantage of his team and team mates. In order to do this successfully, the principles of the game should guide his thinking. Without a thorough grasp of these principles, real understanding is not possible.
A player must also understand the relative importance of the various areas of the field, the state of the game, and the physical conditions, when calculating between safety and risk. Coaches sometimes refer to good soccer as it were a finite state. Efficiency is what we must strive to achieve: Efficiency as an individual and as a team. Part of that efficiency is embodied in a player’s appreciation of when, where and how to take risks and when, where and how to perform with safety. Understanding and skill in football are therefore a composite of many factors.
Fitness. Fitness requires a combination of physical and mental fitness. It is, in our present state of knowledge, impossible to determine where physical fitness ends and mental fitness starts. It is also impossible to state with any certainty the influence which a player’s physical state has upon his mental state, or vice versa. The two are not only inter-related: They are woven like a golden thread through the whole of soccer.
Fatigue causes techniques to deteriorate, concentration to lapse and judgement to falter. Thus, skill is not a realistic asset unless it is accompanied by fitness. Without attempting to draw final conclusions, an analysis of the times at which goals are scored in matches gives some interesting statistics. 30 matches were analysed during which 76 goals were scored.
23 goals (30 per cent) were scored in the last 15 minutes of the game.
17 goals (22 per cent) were scored in the last 5 minutes of the games.
These statistics are an indication that fitness is an important factor, and perhaps de major factor, during the closing stages of a game.
Arising, from the three major areas of technique, understanding and fitness, there emerge five elements in skilful performance:
Mental concentration. This has to be ingrained as a habit and attitude of mind. Without concentration, and thinking about what one is doing, the game is reduced to a lottery, and the game as a battle of wits does not take place.
Correct techniques. The wider the range of techniques the greater the possibility of being equal to the technical demands.
Seeing and perceiving. There is a vast difference between seeing and perceiving. There are some players who are essentially “one-eyed”. Only seeing the play on one side of the field. Usually it is the side they happen to be at the time. Often an incorrect body position of the player or a poor supporting angle precludes the player from having a wide range of vision. Players need to learn to play with their heads up, surveying constantly the changing positions of the ball and players. They also need perception to interpret what all that information means. Without perception, seeing means very little.
Decisions and judgements. Knowledge and perception are fundamental to decision-making. It is necessary to be able to sift the essential from the nonessential and the first priority from the second and lower priorities. It requires an alert, decisive and positive frame of mind to make such a judgement. Players should be encouraged to understand that soccer is a game of decisions. It is better to make a wrong decision than no decision at all.
Action. This is the application and the implementation of the decision with single-minded purpose. Soccer is very much a game of mistakes and the biggest mistakes are not to make a decision or to change one’s mind in the midst of applying the decision.
