Advanced defending for the more accomplished defenders

At football training sometime last month with RMFTA, we did a simple segment, where a single attacker goes one-on-one against a single defender and tries to beat him to score.

I was pitted against my brother, a 120kg behemoth, who is a rock as a centreback, but as an attacker, not someone that'll make me quake in my boots. So here I am, facing up to my bro, tilting my body to show him to my left so I can move in for the steal when he goes for the shot with his masterfoot.

Instead, he did the unexpected and cut the ball to his left, ghosting past me like I wasn't there. If he took an extra touch or two after getting past me, I might have been able to recover and put in a tackle. But he took the right option for an early shot with his first touch after getting past me, smashing an unstoppable left footer into the net that would have made any striker proud. 

Damn that was a rude wake up call!

Probably overconfidence on my part. And some impressive footwork on his part. (There! I said it! You happy now?) But I also realized there's something fundamentally wrong with my defending in one-on-ones situations. 

Came across a Nike Academy training video that really shed some light. Not just on individual defensive skills, but the collective defensive covering and movement as well. Have a look at the video and you'll understand where I'm coming from.

All for the Love of the Game!

Why do we do the things we do?

Why do we, after a Saturday of high fever, incessant coughing and scratchy throats, insist that we are fit enough for a Sunday football game?

Stretching: Before or After playing?

There has been much debate recently about the effects of stretching and whether it is necessary. Studies done seemed to have insinuated that what we learnt in school about stretching BEFORE games have not prevented injuries.

http://m.runnersworld.com/the-starting-line/should-i-stretch-before-or-after-my-runs?adbid=10152487494631987&adbpl=fb&adbpr=9815486986&cid=socTP_20141224_37557287 

I came across this article today and felt the overwhelming need to give my 2cts worth. 

Before the game/activity

I was educated by the old school method of stretching before exercising. It didn't take me long to realise that trying to stretch cold muscles seemed a futile attempt. Jogging a little before stretching seemed to make more sense. A short jog around the field became my preferred warm up sequence, followed by 10-15mins of static stretching, starting from the neck muscles down all the way to the ankles. 

Over the last 2-3 years, I got re-educated again. This time after I got involved in football coaching for kids. It seemed agility exercises and drills were more important in the warm up phase, especially in a sport like football, where the nimbleness of your lower body is needed. In came the ladders, the cones, the slaloms with the ball.... etc

When I started to receive football coaching myself, I noticed we barely did the standard army style static 'head rotation clockwise 3 counts of 4'. It was just jogging up and down a 10m lane, doing knee lifts, arm swings and stuff like that. Much more dynamic and in my opinion, a much better way to warm up the body for football in particular. 

Even at the gym, my trainer never start with a stretching session. It was always straight off to the specific station, start with manageable weights and light reps. Once that part of the body is warmed up do we proceed to the what I call the 'pump the living daylights out of your damn muscles' kind of regime. 

After the game/activity

After the game, is where I feel stretching is useful. When the body is weary, all warmed up, we sit down and stretch the leg muscles. I feel this prevents the muscles from cramping up later and at the same time, gradually improve your range of motion. 

Even at the gym, we seem to do this. My trainer spends 10-15mins at the end of the session, turning me into some kind of pretzel. He knows I play quite a bit of football and he spends time making me do the sit-n-reach kind of stretching, as well as the lower back twisting one. 

So in a nutshell...

after this unusually long post, I feel that the warm up you do before the activity should be tailored specifically to the type of activity you are embarking on. The standard static ones we used to do is much better post activity as a form of recuperation and injury prevention, as well as for improving your range of motion. 

Why 4 Short 1 Long?

The name 4 Short 1 Long actually refers to an advice given to me when i attended training recently. The coach explained that after every 4 short passes, you should look to do a long pass to spread the play, especially since the opponents have already started to crowd around attempting to regain possession during the 4 short passes, thus giving other players more space and time on the ball.

It also prevents you from getting yourself into a sticky situation where you pick the easiest short pass all the time, unknowingly playing yourself into a corner and having to turnover possession. 4S1L keeps you on your toes, always looking to switch the play, whilst still keeping possession with short and quick passes.

I like this advice.

What advice has your coach given to you that resonated with you so much it stuck in your head all these years?