Thoughts From The Kitchen Table

March 12th 2020

TTi staff meet and almost daily at my kitchen table - the conversations range from logistics to opinion and usually everything in-between. The other day we were discussing appropriate answers to some questions and the query below came up several times. We all had the same answer!

As a coach I have been faced with the same question from players as I did I did 20 years ago;

“What Can I Do Better”?

Well. Everything. Absolutely everything.

It always irks me as it’s a double edged sword for the coach as it is far too general. I question the question itself!

Its so subjective to start off with. For example, I enjoy players that love the game first, as it is so easy to help them, but I equally also adore a technically gifted player that has vision and creativity flowing through them. But this goes into an overall ethos that playing good quality football as a pre reuist and I am happy to sacrifice numerical result in order to be attractive in the attack and industrious when defending. Not everyone has that same perspective.

I am not knocking the question in its true form or players being inquisitve and wanting genuine feedback on their pathway. The inquisitve nature should be encouraged and genuine feedback is the breakfast of champions.

But I do always come to the same immediate answer: “Everything”!

With that said these four pieces, all encompassing, in no order should serve as a good foundation for “getting better”; 

1.     Nutrition 

You are what you eat and so on! Every player I see eating incorrectly is seeting themselves up for failure. The bady is the car and the food is the gas. If you put mud in your engine, don’t expect it to run well!

https://resources.fifa.com/image/upload/practical-guide-eating-and-drinking-515515.pdf?cloudid=ukbqfkkxw2o8s1gyjria

2.     Be Technically Literate in Both Feet

This is vital. Be literate in both feet and you solve half the games problems. If you can receive on your non-dominant foot and be able to execute advanced still you become attractive to coaches and scouts quickly! This will also adjust your speed of play in every scenario, even defensively being able to attack with both feet is an advanced skill!

“Most of the time I was by myself, just kicking the ball against the wall, seeing how it bounces, how it comes back, just controlling it. I found that so interesting” - Dennis Bergkamp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYPhZz9NvB4

 3.     Take Care of your Body

I cannot emphasize how whilst Im no quite yet 40 years old, my legs and back feel well into their 70’s at times. I didn’t stretch as a youngster. It was not encouraged, let alone enforced. Now I look at young players and think that it is a defining factor in success.

I think we have so many instant tools to help us stretch, hydrate and eat correctly. I often now find myself stretching when the players are, although mine is currently for maintince and prevention rather than productivity!

These players that go for a light jog or an alternate sport in their downtime are always more successful than their Netflix-watching-Cheeto-eating-soda-guzzling counterpart!

http://www.kheljournal.com/vol1issue3/PartA/pdf/29.1.pdf

4.     Love Football

Not just playing it.

Football is culture rich in history and a thousand million stories that echo to past and foretell the futre game. They are woven into our everyday training as much as they are laid in the past. Read about the passion and fall in love with the fine through ball or last ditch tackle. The soul crushing missed penalty and the last minute ball call that determnines a season has just as much place as the 30 yard volley the stays etched in your mind. A fine player at the lowest level is still a fine player. A passionate crowd pleasing player is as valuable as the wily center forward that doesn’t defend. It is all as Pele said “the Beautiful game”.

Some leagues have 100 plus years of history and others not so much. It takes my breath away to see how far the women’s game has come in such a short period. 

My dad once told me “Don’t be so down on the game, it’s the longest relationship you’ll have outside of your mopther and I”. He was right.

________________

Of course, this is my perspective, my truth based on my education, perception and experience over years. 

I still love the smell of the grass, the air of competition and the sheer joy of watching players progress.

https://www.sportskeeda.com/football/unbelievable-football-stories-7-of-the-best

A final thought…….the only thing I have seen that conquers the above is absolute, once in a generation talent. And that might not be enough anymore.

Lee Cullip