Really good content again! The part with the goalkeeper training was reflecting me most! We all see it around the world only gk coaches are kicking the balls from all around the pitch on the goal or only making sprints around cones or jumping over few hurdels. Sometimes I think it must only look like “action” and good looking for videos and social media like an attraction or sightseeing.
Thanks for make me reflecting and hit me up to another level of my own thinking and coaching. I have a lot of change and conclusion for my own training again and it makes me better and even my players in future. Go on working like this Raymond and the team of you. Thanks a lot. Greetings from germany.
Thank you for the great insight into the subject of Game Insight.
Although I work as a supportive activity (athletic coach) in football, it is still important to me to understand the details of a football game in order to optimize my job.
Since decision-making is part of the football campaign, I asked myself which is a good way to find out when a player has problems with it in a game or training. Maybe you could include that in your Q&A.
I am not Raymond nor part of his team. However, I believe I can try to somehow answer your questions on how to find out when a player has problems with decision making. It is possible that Raymond will answer you more clearly than I am able to, but as this is a course where we are supposed to train ourselves I take the opportunity to… train myself!
Decision making is not just a part of football in some isolated way. It is actually an part in EVERY football action. If there is no decision making involved, it is no fotball action. Thus – by definition – it is possible to critically evaluate the quality of the decision making in each and every football action of each and every training and game.
Decision making is the second part (of in total three parts) of every football actions. The first part before decision making is communication (for example: looking around, learning where the opponent has left spaces, get eye-contact with teammates). The third part that comes after the decision making is executing the decision (for example: passing the ball to the player you already decided, shooting to score a goal).
It is not always possible to be sure of which of the three parts in a football action (1 communication, 2 decision making, 3 execution) that is wrong in a certain failed action when observing from the outside, but it is easier by clearly breaking down the parts:
1. Communication is observations of interaction between the player and his opponents/teammates.
2. Decision making is about the player choosing the best possible action compared to the many different options he may have in a specific football situation. Note: the best possible depends on the communication context and the playing strategy of the team.
3. Execution is the execution of the decision in point 2. I.e. passing to where the player intends to hit the pass, shooting to that part of the goal that he intends to, etc.
If you after observing an action from the outside are uncertain about what happened you could reflect with the player afterwards. Try to ask him simple questions to find out how he gathered information (how did he communicate?), how he decided (what was his intended course of action?) and how he executed the decision (did he pass where he intended to?). The player may not be able to fully answer you since many actions are done unconscious, but some players will give you answers that lead you closer to the truth of the matter. Even part-answers could often rule out one or two of the three parts in the action and lead you to the truth like a detective solving a criminal case.
PS. If anyone sees some mistakes in my above reasoning or want to add clarifications, feel free to correct and/or complete it. DS.
Some years ago having coached two teams from the youngest age through high school I observed the teams that stayed together (i.e. kept the same players and had fewer new players) became more dominant in the leagues. The content this month gives the reason behind this. Through staying together the players developed a high level of unconscious communication. As a team they knew their teammates preferences and had a common “language” reference.
Question: when you have a cohesive team like this what have you done to help new players to the team understand this communication?
Second, I have seen teams with a very ridged style of play that were unable to adapt to opponents that used that rigidity against them. Example: I observed one team that was very skilled in playing out of the back and very disciplined in maintaining their spacing and so on. However, when another team played them and moved their line of confrontation back to midfield removing the spacing and compacting their defense the other team was unable to change their style and was beaten easily. Passing the ball was always at 51 or above and attacking with the dribble was always less than 50. I would imagine if I watched a training session there would be a great deal of rondo type games with very little, if any, 1v1 play.
Hello everyone and one big thank to Raymond and his team for making this kind of seminar possible for us.
Following the topics from month to month, I admit that I am also changing my view of the football game.
This seminar pointed out to me some very important things in thinking and understanding the basics, in the football game, to which I may not have paid so much attention before.
I have a question regarding limiting the number of touches in the game in training ( one of the artificial rules). Do I require players to play from 1, 2 or three touches to influence their faster decision-making and do I force them to communicate better and faster, because they have to prepare a better position in the game and do it faster, and then to that in this way I influence both the moment of action and the speed of action. I am aware that the number of touches with the ball of an individual player is also affected by the position in the game, so I can limit the number of touches depending on the position of the player in the team and the position of the player on the field (whether in the middle, on the side, in front of the opponent’s goal ….) and whether it is a player from the back line, a midfielder or a player from the front line. I also understand that it all depends on the abilities of the player (communication, decision making and execution of decisions). Why do I apply such trainings?
At least I have applied them so far, although I used to ask myself if I do it in training, why don’t I do it then in the game as well. Why don’t I ask my players at the game that they have to play from, for example, 2 touches. By asking a question, I also get an answer. Haha….
I’m just looking for a way to speed up the game and now after this part of the seminar I’m asking myself if it means I’m doing it wrong and asking for help from you and your staff even though I already know the answer. In training, players should be brought into situations where they make their own decisions to play from 1, 2 or 3 touches. So you need to create such exercises that will bring players into such situations.
Another issue I’m thinking about is working on individual technique with players. So training 1 on 1, coach and player. For example, a coach notices that a player is playing poorly with his left foot, or has a bad header, and then the coach separates an individual player from the group and does individual and isolated training sessions with him to try to improve the player’s perceived shortcomings. Does this type of training help the player to be better in technical performance in the future and to execute the decisions he made in a better way and to participate in the football action in a better way and if such training approaches the situation from the game, individual training without opponents ( although this type of training can be organized with the opponent) can, for example, improve the position of the body and the position of the player tomorrow in the match and thus the communication itself.
So far so good, once again I greet you all from Croatia.
A really complex unit and one that at first listen a lot of the content needed to be paused and repeated and or reflected upon. On one of the videos Raymond talks about “negative internal firepower” are their any coaches who’ve observed players who are emotionally immature making these incorrect game insight decisions in a training session whether it be 4v4 or 6v6 etc more often than a player who is more emotionally mature and is able to handle pressure on and off the field better or have you not noticed any correlation ?
Really enjoyed this section, still processing the information as in my role I am not a football coach but work in a support role (basic action coach). the most thought provoking and internal conflict I have in when I see players on two touch to make them play quickly. Totally understand what Raymond said about this being false, and coaches need to create situations that provoke the correct behaviour change that want in the player, but probably need a bit more time and change my thought process about how I can get a behaviour change that I want without telling them directly. I will certainly look to challenge myself in terms of my thinking, i.e. what do I want them to do? how can I get this without a direct instruction? what constraints can I place (e.g., time, space) to get the behaviour I want?
once again really thought provoking. Paul
Maybe you can put the player in a situation that one or several players (so that the player can’t dribble through them) will press the player who has the ball from a very short distance so there’s very little time and if he/she don’t play one touch pass he/she will definitely lose the ball so they will have to play one touch pass.
Thank you to Raymond for producing such superb content. I had many ‘pop ups’ after listen to the content and the references multiple times again.
Key take aways that I am still processing both personally, professionally and in the context of my players and coaches:
1. We don’t have free will, it is just an unconscious complex process. So logically:
2. Our conscious thinking is not in charge. Human beings might understand something in context X but it does not mean that they can apply in context Y.
3. Instead, what has been taught may be used as conscious fire power to influence my behavior but there is no guarantee.
4. Of course, the only way to guarantee transfer to the game of football is to make training as game specific as possible.
5. For a long time I have understood no4. Numbers 1-3 are what I am processing and thinking over. I am looking at it from a coaches perspective. A players perspective. A life perspective!!
Thank you Raymond, as always you challenge my thinking within and outside of football.
The lecture on Summary Of Unconscious Battle in the Brain Part 4 addressing youth football and youth players thought processes was absolutely enlightening. The explanation of humans choosing between 2 options to purchase (75% likely to buy) and 10 (15% likely to buy) was such a great example for me to understand and explain why small sided is so essential for young players to play in smaller numbers. It helps them to select the right action/s in certain situations and build more and higher quality situation-action patterns. Thanks for all the great info but, that lecture was immensely pertinent to me as a DOC for U8-13!
Thanks for sharing this knowledge in regards to decision making. For me the biggest reflection point was how individual preferences in the opposition can be used to change the decision making and ultimately the execution of football actions. The example you provided was the opponent Left Center Back #4 who prefers to control the ball with the left or right foot. Using this preference to then adjust the decision making process of pressing when defending, is very smart. Thinking about the various ways to tweak the Position, Moment, Direction and Speed to best deal with the given situation will help improve the decision making of the individual players.
I started to think about what other qualities can be observed in opponents, in order to then make adjustments to the decision making of PMDS within the relevant football actions. Some examples i thought of included a) faster or slower passing speed b) faster or slower dribbling c) taking more or less touches when controlling the ball e) faster or slower decision making. I will start adding this level of planning to my training sessions, to help my players create and deal with mismatches.
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12 Comments
Really good content again! The part with the goalkeeper training was reflecting me most! We all see it around the world only gk coaches are kicking the balls from all around the pitch on the goal or only making sprints around cones or jumping over few hurdels. Sometimes I think it must only look like “action” and good looking for videos and social media like an attraction or sightseeing.
Thanks for make me reflecting and hit me up to another level of my own thinking and coaching. I have a lot of change and conclusion for my own training again and it makes me better and even my players in future. Go on working like this Raymond and the team of you. Thanks a lot. Greetings from germany.
Hello Raymond and team,
Thank you for the great insight into the subject of Game Insight.
Although I work as a supportive activity (athletic coach) in football, it is still important to me to understand the details of a football game in order to optimize my job.
Since decision-making is part of the football campaign, I asked myself which is a good way to find out when a player has problems with it in a game or training. Maybe you could include that in your Q&A.
Thank you and Merry Christmas everyone
Dirk
Dirk Stelly,
This is a reply to your reply comment.
I am not Raymond nor part of his team. However, I believe I can try to somehow answer your questions on how to find out when a player has problems with decision making. It is possible that Raymond will answer you more clearly than I am able to, but as this is a course where we are supposed to train ourselves I take the opportunity to… train myself!
Decision making is not just a part of football in some isolated way. It is actually an part in EVERY football action. If there is no decision making involved, it is no fotball action. Thus – by definition – it is possible to critically evaluate the quality of the decision making in each and every football action of each and every training and game.
Decision making is the second part (of in total three parts) of every football actions. The first part before decision making is communication (for example: looking around, learning where the opponent has left spaces, get eye-contact with teammates). The third part that comes after the decision making is executing the decision (for example: passing the ball to the player you already decided, shooting to score a goal).
It is not always possible to be sure of which of the three parts in a football action (1 communication, 2 decision making, 3 execution) that is wrong in a certain failed action when observing from the outside, but it is easier by clearly breaking down the parts:
1. Communication is observations of interaction between the player and his opponents/teammates.
2. Decision making is about the player choosing the best possible action compared to the many different options he may have in a specific football situation. Note: the best possible depends on the communication context and the playing strategy of the team.
3. Execution is the execution of the decision in point 2. I.e. passing to where the player intends to hit the pass, shooting to that part of the goal that he intends to, etc.
If you after observing an action from the outside are uncertain about what happened you could reflect with the player afterwards. Try to ask him simple questions to find out how he gathered information (how did he communicate?), how he decided (what was his intended course of action?) and how he executed the decision (did he pass where he intended to?). The player may not be able to fully answer you since many actions are done unconscious, but some players will give you answers that lead you closer to the truth of the matter. Even part-answers could often rule out one or two of the three parts in the action and lead you to the truth like a detective solving a criminal case.
PS. If anyone sees some mistakes in my above reasoning or want to add clarifications, feel free to correct and/or complete it. DS.
Merry Christmas Dirk
/Simon
Many thanks for the support Simon,
Some years ago having coached two teams from the youngest age through high school I observed the teams that stayed together (i.e. kept the same players and had fewer new players) became more dominant in the leagues. The content this month gives the reason behind this. Through staying together the players developed a high level of unconscious communication. As a team they knew their teammates preferences and had a common “language” reference.
Question: when you have a cohesive team like this what have you done to help new players to the team understand this communication?
Second, I have seen teams with a very ridged style of play that were unable to adapt to opponents that used that rigidity against them. Example: I observed one team that was very skilled in playing out of the back and very disciplined in maintaining their spacing and so on. However, when another team played them and moved their line of confrontation back to midfield removing the spacing and compacting their defense the other team was unable to change their style and was beaten easily. Passing the ball was always at 51 or above and attacking with the dribble was always less than 50. I would imagine if I watched a training session there would be a great deal of rondo type games with very little, if any, 1v1 play.
Hello everyone and one big thank to Raymond and his team for making this kind of seminar possible for us.
Following the topics from month to month, I admit that I am also changing my view of the football game.
This seminar pointed out to me some very important things in thinking and understanding the basics, in the football game, to which I may not have paid so much attention before.
I have a question regarding limiting the number of touches in the game in training ( one of the artificial rules). Do I require players to play from 1, 2 or three touches to influence their faster decision-making and do I force them to communicate better and faster, because they have to prepare a better position in the game and do it faster, and then to that in this way I influence both the moment of action and the speed of action. I am aware that the number of touches with the ball of an individual player is also affected by the position in the game, so I can limit the number of touches depending on the position of the player in the team and the position of the player on the field (whether in the middle, on the side, in front of the opponent’s goal ….) and whether it is a player from the back line, a midfielder or a player from the front line. I also understand that it all depends on the abilities of the player (communication, decision making and execution of decisions). Why do I apply such trainings?
At least I have applied them so far, although I used to ask myself if I do it in training, why don’t I do it then in the game as well. Why don’t I ask my players at the game that they have to play from, for example, 2 touches. By asking a question, I also get an answer. Haha….
I’m just looking for a way to speed up the game and now after this part of the seminar I’m asking myself if it means I’m doing it wrong and asking for help from you and your staff even though I already know the answer. In training, players should be brought into situations where they make their own decisions to play from 1, 2 or 3 touches. So you need to create such exercises that will bring players into such situations.
Another issue I’m thinking about is working on individual technique with players. So training 1 on 1, coach and player. For example, a coach notices that a player is playing poorly with his left foot, or has a bad header, and then the coach separates an individual player from the group and does individual and isolated training sessions with him to try to improve the player’s perceived shortcomings. Does this type of training help the player to be better in technical performance in the future and to execute the decisions he made in a better way and to participate in the football action in a better way and if such training approaches the situation from the game, individual training without opponents ( although this type of training can be organized with the opponent) can, for example, improve the position of the body and the position of the player tomorrow in the match and thus the communication itself.
So far so good, once again I greet you all from Croatia.
A really complex unit and one that at first listen a lot of the content needed to be paused and repeated and or reflected upon. On one of the videos Raymond talks about “negative internal firepower” are their any coaches who’ve observed players who are emotionally immature making these incorrect game insight decisions in a training session whether it be 4v4 or 6v6 etc more often than a player who is more emotionally mature and is able to handle pressure on and off the field better or have you not noticed any correlation ?
Really enjoyed this section, still processing the information as in my role I am not a football coach but work in a support role (basic action coach). the most thought provoking and internal conflict I have in when I see players on two touch to make them play quickly. Totally understand what Raymond said about this being false, and coaches need to create situations that provoke the correct behaviour change that want in the player, but probably need a bit more time and change my thought process about how I can get a behaviour change that I want without telling them directly. I will certainly look to challenge myself in terms of my thinking, i.e. what do I want them to do? how can I get this without a direct instruction? what constraints can I place (e.g., time, space) to get the behaviour I want?
once again really thought provoking. Paul
Hi Paul,
Maybe you can put the player in a situation that one or several players (so that the player can’t dribble through them) will press the player who has the ball from a very short distance so there’s very little time and if he/she don’t play one touch pass he/she will definitely lose the ball so they will have to play one touch pass.
Hello to everyone,
Thank you to Raymond for producing such superb content. I had many ‘pop ups’ after listen to the content and the references multiple times again.
Key take aways that I am still processing both personally, professionally and in the context of my players and coaches:
1. We don’t have free will, it is just an unconscious complex process. So logically:
2. Our conscious thinking is not in charge. Human beings might understand something in context X but it does not mean that they can apply in context Y.
3. Instead, what has been taught may be used as conscious fire power to influence my behavior but there is no guarantee.
4. Of course, the only way to guarantee transfer to the game of football is to make training as game specific as possible.
5. For a long time I have understood no4. Numbers 1-3 are what I am processing and thinking over. I am looking at it from a coaches perspective. A players perspective. A life perspective!!
Thank you Raymond, as always you challenge my thinking within and outside of football.
Andy Thomson.
The lecture on Summary Of Unconscious Battle in the Brain Part 4 addressing youth football and youth players thought processes was absolutely enlightening. The explanation of humans choosing between 2 options to purchase (75% likely to buy) and 10 (15% likely to buy) was such a great example for me to understand and explain why small sided is so essential for young players to play in smaller numbers. It helps them to select the right action/s in certain situations and build more and higher quality situation-action patterns. Thanks for all the great info but, that lecture was immensely pertinent to me as a DOC for U8-13!
Raymond,
Thanks for sharing this knowledge in regards to decision making. For me the biggest reflection point was how individual preferences in the opposition can be used to change the decision making and ultimately the execution of football actions. The example you provided was the opponent Left Center Back #4 who prefers to control the ball with the left or right foot. Using this preference to then adjust the decision making process of pressing when defending, is very smart. Thinking about the various ways to tweak the Position, Moment, Direction and Speed to best deal with the given situation will help improve the decision making of the individual players.
I started to think about what other qualities can be observed in opponents, in order to then make adjustments to the decision making of PMDS within the relevant football actions. Some examples i thought of included a) faster or slower passing speed b) faster or slower dribbling c) taking more or less touches when controlling the ball e) faster or slower decision making. I will start adding this level of planning to my training sessions, to help my players create and deal with mismatches.