100% passing accuracy

At the risk of this blog becoming a Barcelona love in, I couldn't let last weeks incredible achievement from Xavi go without a mention - Playing for Spain against Columbia - 76 passes attempted - 76 on target -100% passing accuracy - unbelievable

Passing Accuracy - A world cup perspective

The Spanish approach to Football is well documented - possession is King - if you have the ball you can't concede but you can score. I thought the following stats from this years world cup illustrate the significance of passing accuracy within such a philosophy.

Figures in brackets are the Number of passes the % figures represent the success rate of each of the types of passes

Attribute	Spain	Holland	Germany	England
Short passes Under 15m	81% (948)	70% (718)	70% (712)	74% (493)
Medium Passes 15m -30m	85% (2627)	80% (2030)	80% (2094)	80% (1248)
Long passes Over 30m	64% (631)	51% (618)	55% (551)	51% (435)
Passing accuracy	81% (4206)	72% (3366)	74% (3357)	73% (2176)

As can be seen from the above the Spanish walk the talk regarding their philosophy.

This is further emphasised when each players passing stats are evaluated

Puyol 88%

Busquets 88%

Fabregas 85%

Pique 85%

Capdevilla 82%

Ramos 81%

Alonso 81%

Xavi 81%

Iniesta 76%

Pedro 74%

Villa 68%

Torres 48%

As can be seen from the above the front players operating in the final third understandably have the lower accuracy levels and conversely the defenders have the higher accuracy levels - seems to change the perspective regarding the big bruisers who can win it and clear their lines - incidentally England were 2nd in the clearence tables during this years world cup

Opposed or unopposed - Myelination

For all those who have been through their coaching qualifications, you will be only to aware of the discrimination between technique and skill based drills - unopposed or opposed.

The simple rationale being we have to know what to do before we can apply it in a competitive environment. Hence the technique/unopposed emphasis should be the initial part of the coaching process i.e. explaining how to do something. However the majority of my coaching observations seem to highlight coaches repeatedly doing the same unopposed drills. From my observations repeated exposure to unopposed drills will create players who are fantastic at unopposed drills e.g. Do a lot of SAQ and you will become excellent at SAQ but weak in an opposed environment - namely a game. It is also easy, self gratifying and ensures the coach stays the fountain of knowledge rather than the enabler of mastery and of course repeated exposure to drills that have a tendency to be boring and easy will ultimately become detrimental to development, thus coaching becomes destructive rather than constructive

Football is waking up to the concept of Myelination -if you don't know what it is - here is a brief explanation of how it applies to world of Football coaching

Definition

Myelin is a dielectric (electrically insulating) material that forms a layer, the myelin sheath, usually around only the axon of a neuron. It is essential for the proper functioning of the nervous system

What that means in Football

Myelin is an insulation that forms around the neural pathways - the thicker the insulation the faster and more precise the brain signals. Thus performing a delicate football skill is a consequence of continued practice - i.e. the more you practice a particular skill the thicker the myelin becomes - hence repetition is the root of mastery BUT only the right repetition fuels the act of myelination. A simple example would be the guys who are brilliant at Ball juggling - they are incredible at feats of juggling but not the driving force we would expect in a game situation because they master juggling rather than the game of football

Daniel Coyle has written a book entitled "the talent code" the book goes into great detail regarding sport, mastery and myelination. The Football perspective is however slightly different. A golfer has few variables to deal with when playing a shot i.e. lie. distance, weather and obstacles, hence golfers practices will be dominated by unopposed practice whereas football has multi-direction, moving ball, distance, opposition positions, moving team mates etc, etc

Hence we can only achieve meaningful attainment of mastery by repeated exposure to the conditioned drills that replicate the environment to which they will be applied i.e. TEACH THE GAME NOT THE DRILL

So do unopposed drills have any value - YES when introducing a concept but if you stay in this stage for too long player development will be hindered rather than enhanced. Ask yourself how many of Lance Armstrongs 7 Tour De France wins do you think he attributes to his time spent on stabilisers - thats the equivalent of unopposed drills - how often do think Lionel Messi attributes his wonderful skills to the time he spent amongst the dribbling cones on the training ground

Philosophy First, last and always

The goal of all Academy football is the creation of first team players, hence Academy Football should be the purest expression of Football - where else in the world of professional football does the way you play carry greater significance than the result of the game

The challenge for us all - how do we best develop the players at our disposal:

What do we coach

How do we coach

When do we coach

etc etc:

All the above are driven by the good intent of the coaching staff but without an under pinning playing philosophy how can player development be consistent and fully effective. Perhaps the best example of this approach in its clearest representation is the current Barcelona squad - of the 14 players who took the field in the recent 5-0 drubbing of Real madrid - 10 of them were from their own Academy -all of whom have been schooled in the Barca playing philosophy for 10 years or more

The Barca example is of course the exception - where academy and first team are totally aligned. My own club is now in a position where our academy philosophy dictates our training routines. Below is an example of how we are currently translating this approach -the example below relates to the current practices at our Newport Advanced Development Centre - u12-u16 age groups

Academy Philosophy/Style of play

Possession based attacking Football - hence we are trying to develop players who excel within such a style of play

Strategies to achieve our philosophy

1. Pocket play - no explanation required

2. When pressed - play 1 touch the way you are facing - see the video link below for a simple illustration of this - this enables passes to players who are marked

3. When receiving in space - you dictate the tempo

4. If we are to be possession based, we have to win it back - Quickly

5. Our first preference is to play the ball on the floor

Please watch this link of the Barca v Real game - A great example of all of the above being applied in a game