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Posted by John Morrison on 24th Feb 2014

​Think smarter not harder

Recently I met a man whose team had lost an important game. When I asked him how it went, he just engaged me with a rant of full expletives. “Don’t talk to me, it was a shambles. No marking at all, second to the ball every time. A complete lack of concentration all round. Up front the forwards did nothing but bunch all day. Our kicking, especially our passing was terrible. They just didn’t do anything I told them. Support play was absolutely nil and I believe we dropped more balls than we caught. Our kick-outs were atrocious, I don’t think we won any all game and out attacks seemed to be stuck in corners all the time. The other team definitely were hungrier, they were certainly sharper, and at least they looked it. Never once did we get a ball in early and so many moves were intercepted. Basically it looked as if we didn’t know what we were doing. Our fee-takers so totally off they should have been taken off. What really galled me was that two of their men constantly killed us off, one passing to the other who did the scoring. I’m just disgusted, but rest assured I’ll sort them out on Tuesday with a real tough session”, he lamented. 

Hopefully his anger would have died away by Tuesday and his intention to run the life out of them had evaporated. Mindless physical work doesn’t solve problems. What problem-solving needs is stimulation, challenge and encouragement. Could it be that their poor marking was down to a lack of confidence? Was there an agreed method of tackling? Was it trained repeatedly and with variety? Concentration can’t be demanded, it too must be trained. Concentration begins in the warm-up, with the task self-judged out of 10. If they start “two out of 10”, debate how they can raise the quality, then carry on until they are operating at eight or nine out of 10”. The process is one of an increase in concentration. Also to have concentration, activities that one can “put the mind to” must have purpose. Training activities done for the sake of it will never breed confidence or concentration. 

For kicking to be improved it has to be targeted. There is no use complaining about kicking quality, if 99% of all training sessions are dominated by hand passing. Games must deliberately target kicking as their purpose. Flaws in kicking will only be fixed on a “one-to-one” with the coach and, if a kick has not been taught properly before the player is 12 years old, he is less likely to have a good kick. No game plan or tactic will work consistently well if it is only told or even shown to players. It must be trained repeatedly, as should getting the ball in early. 

Where to? How high? Straight or diagonally? Where do the non-receivers go? Support play, good first touch, and variation in kick-outs must also be trained; otherwise they won’t happen by telling either. Calling a foul each time a player fumbles a ball in a game eventually breeds good first touch and develops concentration. An attack stuck in corners suggests straight line running and passing. “Switch” play is the cure here and the first things teams will notice is that the last pass always ends up in front of goals! 

Sharpness is down to training methods. The first question for the coach here is whether their sport is a stamina sport or a multi-sprint sport. So many moves intercepted is often down to poor speed of thought or a ”hand-pass” attempted over the head of the opponent. Speed of thought can be trained, as can a lower hand-pass, or a sideways hand-pass. Are they ever targeted? 

Free takers will never get better without monitored practice. I use a game to train free-taking, it’s called “double or quits”. Ask me about it. Do mentors have a specific focus to look for along a line, or do they just watch the game? Have a ploy ready to stop the supplier in the “double act”. When they are stopped, they usually keep attempting what you’ve stopped, because that’s all they have ever done! Extra physical work will not solve problems. It is really more likely to chase players. 

Problem-solving is exciting and best done through “focus” games. Why be “harder” when you can be “smarter”?