This is fantastic and i in no way want to criticizes players or coaches in it. Total respect to them all

but as a coach what do you see in the first part of the drill at 10:16

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dUgWFVPqFE

Observing these players doing this drill will show what us different coaches look at.

Picked up on
Failure to pass to the far foot
Failure to receive with the inside of the far foot
Failure to pass with the opposite foot to the one that received the ball.
The player in black is only comfortable with his right foot ( poor technical ability with either)
One player is often stretching for the ball, not moving for it.
one player often uses the outside of the foot to carry the ball across his body rather than move to receive it.
One has control with both feet but is often off balance leaning forward or back.

I would say their passing Technique was not corrected at a young age and has allowed poor habits to creep in.No amount of drills like this one will fix their Technique.

I thought guy in black was just filling in to get the right numbers because he looked way off the pace technique wise.

This is fantastic and i in no way want to criticizes players or coaches in it. Total respect to them all

but as a coach what do you see in the first part of the drill at 10:16

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dUgWFVPqFE

Observing these players doing this drill will show what us different coaches look at.

Body position - take ball with inside of furthest foot (back foot) and open body so first touch keeps ball and player moving away from cone. Generally drill feel down when this was not done. Generally worked well when this was done.

What can be suggested here, is that players receive the ball with effective body shape to play forwards.

In the past we've preached furthest foot. But if a player is on the wing, facing the play, sometimes s/he can receive the ball with the foot closest to receiving the ball form the passer, with the body in effective body position facing the play.

Next time you watch a professional game, one can notice that players don't always receive with the furthest foot, depending on the circumstance of play.

In the triangular passing/receiving exercise, used by the Galaxy coach I would also like to see players receive the ball, with the outside of the foot going in both directions, as a corollary to receiving on the inside of the foot. If a player receives with the inside and outside of both feet, it is good.

Even when one watches the HAL, some players are far too one footed, or more specifically one-sided in their play. Most of the guys who get to Socceroo level are more competent on both sides of the body - Milligan, Mooy, Spira.

Some particularly one side players in the HAL, are the Trifiro brothers. They are both very right sided. If they were as good on the non preferred side, playing forward, hence opening out, they would have better vision from more effective body shape on both sides of the body, and be harder to jockey form defenders.

Anthony Caceres is also a bit too right footed/right sided too, although he is a considerably better player.

That's good decentric
See the way you are looking at the drills and i am concentrating on the technique of the individual players?
Its great to see where others are concentrating on.

You correctly point out that you should also reverse the movement so you use left and right foot or players do become to one sided.

My focus was on the technique you can learn from the triangle drill and when I watch professional games a high percentage of the the modern game is played with receiving the ball with your furthest foot to improve body position and vision when you have space this would be a good drill to teach young kids this lesson.


Edited by justafan: 28/4/2015 08:06:58 AM

Todd Herman, Peak Performance/Sports Psych Consult... (more)
37 upvotes by Anonymous, Ed Caruthers, James H. Kelly, (more)
Great question and some fantastic stories of triumph, as well. Kudos to all the contributors!

As a Sports Psychology consultant to hundreds of pro and Olympic athletes, we have conversations around this topic frequently.

It's a difficult question to answer because there are a lot of variables at play. But the one that everyone seems to lean on the most is also the most deceiving.

--> Talent.

In a study my company conducted 7 years ago, we wanted to discover why the athletes you mention in your question, the most 'talented' in their sport, seem to fail to reach next level goals.

The study looked at the 200 highest ranked hockey players between the ages of 14-15 in Ontario Canada. An extremely competitive province for the sport.

We followed the athletes and wanted to see how many of these "best" athletes still played the sport 3 years later. And if they weren't pursuing the sport to the next levels, what was the reason?

Out of those 200 athletes only 23 were still playing the sport at a high level. So what happened to the other 177?

In interviews & surveys with the athletes 82% of them stopped playing the sport because of emotional burnout caused by parental pressures or bad coaching experiences. The rest were no longer playing because of either injury or an interest in another sport.

When we looked deeper at the responses and the data, we also discovered most of these athletes were a part of a group we call, "early succeeders". These are the athletes which had success at their sport early in their development, 7-10 years of age. This group also had a tendency to have their growth spurts earlier than others.

Why is this important?

It's important from a mental toughness standpoint, because the data showed that these athletes had an easier time dominating on the ice early in their careers. They were either physically more dominant or had developed coordination that was superior to their counterparts on the ice.

This can build a false sense of superiority and cause the athlete to think they're just "naturally more gifted". They also end up hearing from coaches and parents that their "naturally" good at their sport. The athletes ended up not having to deal with much adversity early in their careers when the concentration of skilled players is spread out amongst the leagues.

But as an athlete gets older, the competition becomes more concentrated because the casual athlete drops out and the discrepancy in size because of early puberty starts to dissipate. Now they don't find it 'as easy' to dominate.

They have to work harder to gain the success that once came so easily to them and if they haven't developed the habit of a good work ethic or a healthy self-confidence, they start to burnout and look to others to blame for their lack of enjoyment/success in the game.

These athletes still have the fundamental hockey skills to be successful, but they haven't developed the requisite emotional and mental skills needed to succeed at the highest levels.

Many of my pro clients or Olympic clients would tell you that during their journey there were many other competitors they played with or competed against who were more skilled than they were.

In fact, they'll tell you that the professional leagues are NOT filled with the best players in the world. They're filled with the ones who just didn't quit.

Something to think about...

So to the people that aren't in the group that are ranked the highest or perceived as 'the best'.

Remember:
Rankings are arbitrary, they don't define your potential. Just think of those 177 hockey players that were ranked higher than the 201st placed player, but didn't end up doing anything with their skill. If that 201st ranked player only focused on the fact that so many others were higher than him, he may be discouraged. Pro leagues in all sports are filled with people who weren't 'supposed' to make it.
Success has more to do with your attitude towards your endeavour than the physical assets you're gifted with. Keep your attention and goals focused on self-mastery and you'll be shocked at the results. The accolades will usually follow.
Create a goal that's deeply meaningful to YOU and pursue it. You may not reach that EXACT goal, but more often than not, you'll end up achieving goals that are far bigger and meaningful than the original.

I hope this was helpful.

Be Bold. Take Action.

Todd Herman
Sports Psychology and Peak Performance Tips