Football Training

[wookey]

I have little idea what Football Training is supposed to acheive other than to get you fit and enable you to recognise the shirt colour of your fellow player; however I suppose it should include personal skills development.

Nicky Maynard has had an up and down season with some good goals and terrible misses. Against the Forest on at least 2 occasions he had the ball under control with just one defender and the goalie to beat. Each time he failed to beat the single defender, was tackled and had the ball taken away from him.

Now, is it possible, with coaching, to teach Nicky how to beat a single defender in his way. Is it possible to instill techniques which he could use in these situations which he will face time and again?

Gary Player memorably said "the more I practise the luckier I get." And Beckham all though his career has spent many afternoons on his own practising his dead ball skills.

Could Bradley Orr, for example, be taught to distribute the ball better and could he be encouraged to practise his throw ins until they reach near Delap distances?.

A footballer must have natural talent but can these valuable extra skills be learnt?

Has anyone any experience?

[Riaz]

Your having a laugh aint you? Maynard beat several defenders on several occasions against forest - he was alos unlucky not to score.

[wookey]

Your having a laugh aint you? Maynard beat several defenders on several occasions against forest - he was alos unlucky not to score.

No!! I was asking if players can be improved by training and have you any specific examples?

[BigP]

I'm no expert or owt, but i firmly believe that the more you train/play the better you will become, however I think training will improve players by X%, but you cannot train something thats not there, for example you could never train someone that can run the 100 meters in 20 seconds to run it in 10.

Football is game that relies on instinct and talent, so the majority of what a player needs has to be within him already, but training squeezes out that little bit extra out of you.

[Guest DanC]

I have little idea what Football Training is supposed to acheive other than to get you fit and enable you to recognise the shirt colour of your fellow player; however I suppose it should include personal skills development.

Nicky Maynard has had an up and down season with some good goals and terrible misses. Against the Forest on at least 2 occasions he had the ball under control with just one defender and the goalie to beat. Each time he failed to beat the single defender, was tackled and had the ball taken away from him.

Now, is it possible, with coaching, to teach Nicky how to beat a single defender in his way. Is it possible to instill techniques which he could use in these situations which he will face time and again?

Gary Player memorably said "the more I practise the luckier I get." And Beckham all though his career has spent many afternoons on his own practising his dead ball skills.

Could Bradley Orr, for example, be taught to distribute the ball better and could he be encouraged to practise his throw ins until they reach near Delap distances?.

A footballer must have natural talent but can these valuable extra skills be learnt?

Has anyone any experience?

Did you not see Maynard get the ball deep in our own half and run with it beating several players on route?

[Barrs Court Red]

No!! I was asking if players can be improved by training and have you any specific examples?

Skuse, Matt Hill and Steve Phillips.

[redsapper]

To add to this post.

I'm a level 2 football coach currently working towards my level 3 (the min level to work at a pro club).

During the courses that I have attended several facts that has come out is that it takes 10,000 hours of training to become a pro player. You only go to school for 15,000 hours from the age of 4 to 16.

Also that 85% of 16 players at pro clubs do not play any football by the time they are 21.

As a club we have seen go young players not make it.

Training is used to work on set points that is deamed in need of improvment either for the team or the player. In training a player can look top rate then in a game which is 15% faster/harder he can be avearge!

[Tunley Legend]

I have little idea what Football Training is supposed to acheive other than to get you fit and enable you to recognise the shirt colour of your fellow player; however I suppose it should include personal skills development.

Nicky Maynard has had an up and down season with some good goals and terrible misses. Against the Forest on at least 2 occasions he had the ball under control with just one defender and the goalie to beat. Each time he failed to beat the single defender, was tackled and had the ball taken away from him.

Now, is it possible, with coaching, to teach Nicky how to beat a single defender in his way. Is it possible to instill techniques which he could use in these situations which he will face time and again?

Gary Player memorably said "the more I practise the luckier I get." And Beckham all though his career has spent many afternoons on his own practising his dead ball skills.

Could Bradley Orr, for example, be taught to distribute the ball better and could he be encouraged to practise his throw ins until they reach near Delap distances?.

A footballer must have natural talent but can these valuable extra skills be learnt?

Has anyone any experience?

Frank Lampard spent hours and hours of extra time on the training ground as recently as two years ago working specifically on his free-kick taking technique. Whilst most training is working more on the fitness and tactical side of the game plus "topping up" your technique it is clear that the very best players will use training to actually improve key aspects of their game. That is my one question mark over Bradley Orr - defensively he is Premier League standard in my view (he does many "ugly" things such as giving excellent cover to our centre halfs that simply go un-noticed by a lot of our supporters), he has an excellent first touch which he has clearly worked on and yet his distribution is patchy to say the least - does Bradley work on his distribution? If he doesn't do extra afternoons to improve this obviously weaker aspect of his game then he should be strung up because he has a Premier League career waiting for him together with the earnings that could set him and his family up financially for life.

[screech]

Frank Lampard spent hours and hours of extra time on the training ground as recently as two years ago working specifically on his free-kick taking technique. Whilst most training is working more on the fitness and tactical side of the game plus "topping up" your technique it is clear that the very best players will use training to actually improve key aspects of their game. That is my one question mark over Bradley Orr - defensively he is Premier League standard in my view (he does many "ugly" things such as giving excellent cover to our centre halfs that simply go un-noticed by a lot of our supporters), he has an excellent first touch which he has clearly worked on and yet his distribution is patchy to say the least - does Bradley work on his distribution? If he doesn't do extra afternoons to improve this obviously weaker aspect of his game then he should be strung up because he has a Premier League career waiting for him together with the earnings that could set him and his family up financially for life.

I agree with that, for my money Bradley Orr is the best right back in the division bar none. He needs to work on his distribution when going forward but he's got time on his side for this.

The best right back I've seen down the gate in recent times is Glenn Johnson, Orr would need to add that kind of attacking threat for someone to pick him up for the premier league, but Orr certainly is as good as him defensively.

[Robbored]

When Steve Davis was top of the snooker world in the 80's I remember seeing him interviewed and he revealed that he had no natural abity to play snooker and that all his skill had developed through hours and hours of practice - trianing if you like. Players like Mark Williams and Ronnie O'Sullivan are the complete opposite to Davis.They have lots of natural talent thats been honed by practice. I remember Ronnie saying that he found snooker an easy game to play from the first time he picked up a cue.

There must be footballers that compare. Obviously the two sports are miles apart in terms of fitness and so on but some footballers have average abilty but through hard work and hours of practice they make the most of their talent and some make it to the PL.

Practicing particular parts of the game can make a difference but how do you practice improving your distribution? Practice games are ok but lack the edge of a competitive game when there is added psycological pressure. Why does McAllister hoof the ball so much? How can training teach him that he doesn't need to do it?

Honing particular skills like dead ball skills is one thing but teaching more enegetic skills like passing or crossing is a different matter. I'd like to know if the City players do actually work on the weaker elements of their game and if they do - how they do it.

One thing is for sure McAllister has been hoofing the ball all season and Orr's passing has been dodgy all season as well. I wonder what that tells us?

[Economou]

I agree with that, for my money Bradley Orr is the best right back in the division bar none. He needs to work on his distribution when going forward but he's got time on his side for this.

The best right back I've seen down the gate in recent times is Glenn Johnson, Orr would need to add that kind of attacking threat for someone to pick him up for the premier league, but Orr certainly is as good as him defensively.

The curios thing about Brad is he's a converted midfielder where you'd have thought accurate passing/distribution is a must. Maybe it's been coached out of him !

[Spike]

Guys I think you're missing the point of the thread. It is not a defend or attack player thread, they were just examples of asking if training can improve a player which is what the thread is about.

Personally I think it all depends on a player and I also think the best training is a training match as it puts players into a more realistic situation to perfect their weaker parts of their game.

A great way for example to train maynard would be to play a practice match where he plays as a solo striker so he's forced to take players on. Maybe Gary could tell the defenders to play a high defensive line so they can practice covering break away chances and at the same time give maynard a few chances to practicing his 1 vs 1 with keepers etc

Training definetly can make a difference but it all depends on the coaches and how they decide to implement their training.

[BCFC_Dan]

It's possible for players to overtrain as well. Sometimes they can obsess over improving details of their game that they forget about what comes naturally.

Apparently Peter Shilton used to have this problem and would spend hours and hours of extra time practising taking crosses, until he moved to Forest and Clough told him to stop it, whereupon he improved massively as a goalkeeper.

[WhistleHappy]

Sorry, bit off topic, but kind of training related.....

Can anyone (need to be an oldie like me!) remember when 'Big Mal' Allison had a brief management spell at the Gas in the early 80's?

Seem to remember him saying something along the lines of 'most pro-players not being able to strike a football correctly' (anyone recall exactly what he said?..).. anyway he was going to share his 'secret knowledge' with his new Rovers team & I presume turn the Gas into a team who knew how to kick a ball! - Well, I dunno what went wrong, he didnt stay there long, perhaps he left before passing this valuable information onto 'em!! .

Anyway, just out of interest, did anyone ever get to know 'Big Mal's' supposed secret?? ... if it worked? - & would it benefit any of our present lads - maybe one or two could learn how to take a decent free kick a bit more often, or to put a good cross in from the bye-line maybe even put a few more effective 'Come On You Reds' corner kicks into the box.

(ps.. I believe the once flamboyant, larger than life character that was 'Big Mal' now in his 80's now suffers ill health & dementia, a sad ending for one of the games true 'characters'... either loved or hated in his time - he always made headlines.. so, despite his brief fling with the Gas, before you finally hang up your famous hat, cheers Mal, you knew how to hit a ball, characters like yourself & Cloughie are few & far between in the modern game, & sadly missing from it)

[Guest Pepsi]

Sorry, bit off topic, but kind of training related.....

Can anyone (need to be an oldie like me!) remember when 'Big Mal' Allison had a brief management spell at the Gas in the early 80's?

Seem to remember him saying something along the lines of 'most pro-players not being able to strike a football correctly' (anyone recall exactly what he said?..).. anyway he was going to share his 'secret knowledge' with his new Rovers team & I presume turn the Gas into a team who knew how to kick a ball! - Well, I dunno what went wrong, he didnt stay there long, perhaps he left before passing this valuable information onto 'em!! .

Anyway, just out of interest, did anyone ever get to know 'Big Mal's' supposed secret?? ... if it worked? - & would it benefit any of our present lads - maybe one or two could learn how to take a decent free kick a bit more often, or to put a good cross in from the bye-line maybe even put a few more effective 'Come On You Reds' corner kicks into the box.

(ps.. I believe the once flamboyant, larger than life character that was 'Big Mal' now in his 80's now suffers ill health & dementia, a sad ending for one of the games true 'characters'... either loved or hated in his time - he always made headlines.. so, despite his brief fling with the Gas, before you finally hang up your famous hat, cheers Mal, you knew how to hit a ball, characters like yourself & Cloughie are few & far between in the modern game, & sadly missing from it)

It was early 90s..

I remember him saying it, as he'd been managing on the continent and decided he knew how the ball should be struck..

Unfortunately I have no idea what is exact words were but here's a link with 4 goals saying he knew what he was on about chaps...enjoy

you wont get many games with 4 goals as good as that in.. perhaps he did know something eh

[Red_Robin]

By the time players get to first tea level nowadays they rarely work on improving thier individual skills/attributes. Look at McCombe and Orr if they really wanted to improve their passing they could do but they don't. At training players generally go through the motions. When your young you get taught numerous turns and skills, but you wouldn't see that being taught at first team level.

[exiledinwatford]

Obvious case in point is Basso and his kicking. He was a liability for his first season at least. It still frightens me when he goes to kick but he has improved that part of his game a whole lot.

It annoys me that we don't have a long throw expert - OK carp football but damn useful if you are stuck by your own corner flag and need to get a bit of distance let alone an attacking threat now and again.

I'm also disappointed that our direct free kicks rarely if ever test the opposition keeper. (I actually thought that when Trundle arrived he would score 5 or 6 a season!)

Throw-ins and free kicks are obvious examples of skills that can be "practised".