Chapters 2-12 of 97

Chapter Two

The Reasoning That Can’t Be Denied

Rethinking Soccer Coaching

From time to time all “Training Soccer Legends” coaches have to deal with questions relating to a more team oriented approach to the game of soccer. Therefore, it is important that coaches have the ability to explain their short, mid and long term plans for players and teams. During the course of my career I have coached teams ranging from 4 and 5 year olds to adults. Over the decades this has spanned all standards of play from recreational youth soccer to collegiate teams and has included 22 players that eventually were drafted to play on professional teams. For over 16 years I have directed the KC Legends club and personally coached teams with players ranging from ages 4 to 18. This has allowed me to analyze and test my methods on an ongoing basis and has given me the luxury of identifying weaknesses in the older players that I can coach into strengths in the younger players. It is this background that constantly reaffirms the necessity for an exclusive emphasis on the most difficult individual dribbling and finishing techniques at the younger ages and stages. These skills need to be mastered effectively, therefore the process of improvement should continue throughout a player’s career. However, as players become more technically accomplished the emphasis will gradually switch from the most difficult individual techniques, i.e. dribbling and shooting, to the most difficult team concept, i.e. that of combining deceptive approach play with one and two touch passing and finishing.

If we analyze the logic of this approach we will realize that the total creative individual approach rewards us with maximum dividends when the kids are young because it involves relatively little conceptualization of abstract patterns off the ball. This is an area of great difficulty for the youngster, therefore emphasizing 3D soccer concepts before the young mind is ready will result in great frustration and de-motivation of players. This is analogous to teaching calculus to 1st graders. It is way beyond their immature stage of psychological ability to conceptualize. Obviously, if we battered the calculus into child #1's head over a significant period of time he would learn it quicker than the next child who had spent no time at all on it. However, if child #2 studied calculus at age 16 he would pick it up in a fraction of the time taken by child #1 who learned it at a younger age. This is the case with passing and support play in soccer. As long as the technical ability to hold the ball under pressure, (deceptive dribbling), and strike the ball cleanly with accuracy, (finishing), has been acquired when young, players will learn what to look for and when to look for it as they mature. Therefore, it makes sense to concentrate on the most difficult techniques and skills at an early stage because these can actually be learned more effectively in a shorter period of time when the athlete is younger. Furthermore, these skills provide the platform for subsequent individual and team brilliance. The core coaching priority is attaining maximum economy of training or in other words maximizing individual potential in the minimum time.

With the “Training Soccer Legends” approach we have seen phenomenal development in the all round ability to take players on using the most effective and difficult moves yet invented, plus the ability to finish a greater percentage of our chances with well struck and aimed shots. As coaches our staff have rejected the accepted belief that one should start by coaching simple technical skills and work up to the more difficult technical skills. We begin by learning difficult fakes and shooting techniques as the first priority. This has resulted in teams full of technically gifted players that are the "talk of the town". As the kids mature we have taken this approach one step further because we gradually move from demanding that players hold the ball and perform a fake on each possession, to giving equal value to the performance of penetrating one and two touch passes and shots. This is accomplished by including penetrative dribbling, one and two touch finishing and one and two touch passing in 2 v 2 small-sided games. The logic here is that these skills are the most difficult that a player will ever have to perform. Therefore, once these have been mastered everything else in the game will seem easy by comparison.

The other conclusive justification for this approach is that there are two types of teams that are extremely difficult to defend against. One is the team full of gifted dribblers and finishers and the other is the team with great first time passers and finishers. It is my belief that by working extensively on both methods of penetration during the latter stages of youth development, our coaches will be able to develop players and teams that have mastered them and are virtually unstoppable. However, this will only occur if we first concentrate on the individual technical development and move gradually into combining this ball wizardry with the most difficult combination play tactics and one touch finishing as the players mature.

 

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Chapter Three

The Unique Legends Frame of Reference

As an introduction to this section I would like you to read the following sentence and count the number of F’s it contains. There is no trick to this exercise. All you have to do is read the sentence slowly one time, count the instances of the letter F as you go, and remember the final total.

THE FINISHED FILES ARE THE

RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC

STUDY COMBINED WITH THE

FULFILLING EXPERIENCE OF MANY YEARS

Have you completed the above exercise? If the answer is no, please go back and total the F’s in the sentence before reading on.

If you have completed the exercise, you are in the vast majority if you counted only five F’s. Some of you will have six or seven F’s. Those of you who have the correct answer will most probably have read the sentence more than once. The correct answer is that there are eight F’s in the sentence. One F is contained in each of the words “finished”, “files” and “scientific”, two are contained in the word “fulfilling” while the other three are in the word “of”.

While this is an interesting exercise you may be asking, “what’s the point”? In answer to that question I would like to explain why so many of us fail to count all the F’s contained within the word “of”. The reason we don’t count them is because we read phonetically and an F contained within the word “of” is pronounced with the phonetic characteristics of a V, whereas the other F’s in the sentence are pronounced with the phonetic characteristics expected of an F. Because of this we have erected a subconscious barrier to any F that is pronounced as a V.

This gives us a good example of a barrier erected as a result of lifelong experience.

The following is another example of how the human mind works from a preset frame of reference:

Don't ignore this just because it looks weird. Believe it or not, you can read it.

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was ardnieg.The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mind. Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amazing, huh?

“Today the world changes so quickly that in growing up we take leave not just of youth but of the world we were young in. Fear and resentment of what is new is really a lament for the memories of our childhood.” - Sir Peter Medawar

Famous and Later Regretted Quotes
The following famous quotes by very intelligent experts within their field, provide a further example of the barriers and boundaries even the most brilliant people erect in their own psyche:

“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” - Thomas Watson, Chairman of IBM, 1943

“But what is it good for?” - Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.

“There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” - Ken Olson, President, Chairman and Founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977

“This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.” - Western Union internal memo, 1876

“Who the hell wants to hear actors talk.” - H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927

“I’m just glad it’ll be Clark Gable who’s falling on his face and not Gary Cooper.” - Gary Cooper on his decision not to take the leading role in “Gone With The Wind.”

“We don’t like their sound and guitar music is on the way out.” - Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.

“Heavier than air flying machines are impossible.” - Lord Kelvin, President, Royal Society, 1895.

“Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.” - Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929.

“Airplanes are interesting toys but are of no military value”. - Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre.

“Everything that can be invented has been invented.” - Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899.

“The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon”. - Sir John Eric Ericksen, British surgeon, appointed Surgeon Extraordinary to Queen Victoria 1873.

“640K ought to be enough memory for anybody.” - Bill Gates, 1981

Dr Stephen Covey the author of “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” talks about paradigms. The word paradigm means “frame of reference”. All of the above people were and, in some cases still are, experts within their field. All made these statements based upon their frame of reference at the time. The weakness in this approach is that a frame of reference or paradigm is history based and, therefore, non-visionary in nature.

Sam Walter Foss, who died in 1911, penned the following rambling rhyme that truly captures the essence of mindless conformity:

“One day through the primeval wood, a calf walked home, as good calves should,
But made a trail all bent askew, a crooked trail as all calves do.
Since then two hundred years have fled, and, I infer, the calf is dead.
But still he leaves behind his trail, and thereby hangs my moral tale.
The trail was taken up next day, by a lone dog that passed that way;
And then a wise bellwether sheep, pursued the trail o’er vale and steep
And drew the flock behind him too, as good bellwethers always do.
And from that day o’er hill and glade, through those old woods a path was made;
And many men wound in and out, and dodged, and turned, and bent about
And uttered words of righteous wrath, because ‘twas such a crooked path.
But still they followed, do not laugh, the first migrations of the calf,
And through his winding wood-way stalked, because he wobbled when he walked.
This forest path became a lane, that bent, and turned, and turned again;
This crooked lane became a road, where many a poor horse with his load
Toiled underneath the burning sun, and traveled some three miles in one,
And thus a century and a half, they trod the footsteps of that calf.
The years passed on in swiftness fleet, the road became a village street;
And this before men were aware, a city’s crowded thoroughfare;
And soon the central street was this, of a renowned metropolis;
And men two centuries and a half, trod in the footsteps of that calf.
Each day a hundred thousand rout, followed the zigzag calf about;
And o’er this crooked journey went, the traffic of a continent.
A hundred thousand men were led, by one calf near three centuries dead.
They followed still his crooked way, at least one hundred years a day;
For thus such reverence is lent, to well established precedent.
A moral lesson this might teach, were I ordained and called to preach;
For men are prone to go it blind, along the calf-paths of the mind,
And work away from sun to sun, to do what other men have done.
They followed in the beaten track, and out and in and forth and back,
And still their devious course pursue, to keep the path that others do.
But how the wise old wood-gods laugh, who saw that first primeval calf!
Ah! Many things this tale might teach, but I am not ordained to preach.”
- Sam Walter Foss

“Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

What Has This To Do With Soccer?
The purpose of this is to challenge the reader to accept that even the most brilliant minds in their fields of expertise have preset frames of reference that are incorrect and have made horrendous errors of judgment. I hope that the modern day proponents of the “Flat Earth” theory of soccer coaching will recognize that, while much of what is written here is very controversial, it makes ultimate logical sense and has been proven to work by the successes of Kansas City Legends players trained in this way. By beginning with the 5F exercise, the misspelled words and the famous foolish quotes, my goal is to get the reader to understand that, while we don’t realize that we have irrational biases, or ways of seeing things, we are all socially conditioned products of our environments, and have been brainwashed to think in certain conventional ways. Unfortunately for most soccer cultures, (except perhaps Brazilian and many African), most modern day coaching and even pick up soccer environments have been heavily weighted toward passing and team play, instead of the development of individual brilliance.

In life there are many similar paradigms and barriers. We are all conditioned by the environment, and society we grow up in, plus our role models. Because of the pressures and expectations we have been subjected to on a daily basis throughout our lives, we sometimes reject things that are extremely rational and believable. Many of us have been conditioned by our personal societal training to think only in the terms dictated by that conditioning. Just as most individuals brought up in a traditional religious environment believe in the existence of God, so most individuals born and brought up in an atheist or agnostic society, such as modern day Cuba, do not believe that God exists or in the existence of any type of all knowing deity.

"The creative individual has the capacity to free himself from the web of social pressures in which the rest of us are caught. He is capable of questioning the assumptions that the rest of us accept." - John W. Gardner

Soccer is a classic study of the power of this conditioning process. In most Northern European nations there has been an over-riding coaching emphasis on the tactical ways to win the game. In South America and most African nations there has been a far greater emphasis on creative technical development. In Northern Europe most technical training has focused on the teamwork and cooperation skills of passing and receiving. In South America and many African nations there has been more focus on dribbling and finishing. This may have much to do with the more creative and eclectic nature of South American and African society. Or it may be that players have been left to develop naturally without analysis and coaching of how to win games interfering with the creative, developmental process. The reality probably involves a number of factors. However, it is a fact that social conditioning of some form or other encourages a more creative style of play in South America and Africa and a more disciplined, team oriented, style of play in Northern Europe. As more and more players are imported into the Northern European game from South America and Africa, the extreme differences between the two soccer cultures may well begin to disappear. However, due to the force of historical habit, it will be many decades in all soccer cultures before the coaching community has a full understanding of, and experience in, developing players of creative brilliance.

“To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day.” - Sir Winston Churchill

I was brought up in a classic British receive and pass coaching mentality. No focus at all was given toward individual creativity. Dribble was a dirty word. Players that held the ball and used dribbling moves were “Posers”. In the U.S. they are called, “Hot Dogs” or “Ball Hogs”. On all of my British teams every player had a distinct and limited role to play. My role as a full back was to operate almost totally as a destroyer. Therefore, I spent no time on shooting or dribbling practice because it was rarely if ever going to be a “needed” skill for my position. This is a classic example of a set frame of reference that rendered me permanently incapable of ever playing with great creativity and, for a while, of appreciating the value of each player needing the ability to dribble creatively when appropriate.

Luckily I became a decent player because of my non-coached soccer experience. Here’s a post from Mike Saif’s World Class Coaching website (www.worldclasscoaching.com) that best describes the soccer learning situation that most influenced my career.

“The good things about street football were....

• E veryone was included (THAT CHANGES WHEN ADULTS GET INVOLVED)
• Loads of playing time and touches of the ball.
• Free-play, creativity.
• Playing in loads of different positions so you see the games from many angles.
• No proper goals, kit etc so you used your imagination.
• Games from 1 a side to 20 a side.
• Play on different surfaces, grass, tarmac, concrete, dirt, carpet and sand.
• Play with and against lots of different kids and different ages (had to use technique and insight against the big kids)
• Lots of different balls, leather (lace up) plastic, rubber, tennis balls, balloons, stones, cans.
• Street games, kerbies, 3 and in, spot, cross bar challenge
• ENJOYMENT so kids kept playing
• Kids agenda not adults.”

  - Cooperman

In North America the Northern European influence in soccer has been significant. Perhaps to the detriment of the game, the Northern European model of play is the example that most North Americans have copied. The reasons for this are obvious. Firstly, English is the primary language. Secondly, there has been a tremendous influx of European professional players and coaches into the U.S. over the last four decades since the inception of the NASL and the boom in summer soccer camps. These days it is rare to find a College or youth club coach who wasn’t influenced significantly by a Brit’ or Northern European at some stage of his or her development.

The problem with this situation is the same one as the above sentence with the 8 F’s. Most of the North American and Northern European game is over coached and has been conditioned to accept that the two primary technical skills of soccer are receiving and passing. In accepting this we are all missing a lot of the F’s. In other words we are forgetting the importance of dribbling and finishing. If the game in North America and Northern Europe is eventually going to rival the South American model of at least four decades of dominance, we must overcome our “societal conditioning” and incorporate the developmental factors that have made the South American game more successful into our system or perhaps change the system completely to promote more creativity. While on this subject, it should be recognized that South American success has been achieved with the involvement of far fewer countries and total participants than Europe.

“Man is a creature of hope and invention, both of which belie the idea that things cannot be changed.” - Tom Clancy (Debt of Honor) I hope that this introduction is beginning to break down some of the barriers you may have toward a truly creative coaching methodology. Let us begin with the hypothesis that, from a developmental perspective, the South American model is better than that found in Northern Europe. But, let us strive to improve upon that model by combining the South American model, with the strengths of the North American system. The North American system develops the most coachable and self disciplined player in the world. However, there is no reason why that coachability and self-discipline cannot be retained while being enhanced by a more creative developmental approach.

As Danny Cox, the author of “Seize the Day” notes, “We would do our children, our fellow human beings, our students, our employees and ourselves a better service if we acknowledged the value of creativity and invested the extra effort to make room for creativity in our daily lives. By creating an environment that encourages and supports uniqueness, creativity becomes part of our lifestyle at home, at school, at work and at play. The high-performance person seeks to maintain a creative flow in his or her life at all times. When creativity is part and parcel of your everyday affairs, life is never dull and you’re usually much more productive. Creativity fuels performance by drawing constantly on that reservoir of undeveloped strengths that each of us has within us. Creativity flourishes in an environment of experimentation, playfulness & spontaneous behavior.”

The game in North America has never known the phenomenon called “street soccer” that is folklore in the older soccer generations from other countries. Here in the U.S. the game is more organized. Practices are scheduled events not spontaneous gatherings. Because of this there has been a loss of creativity. Players are always expected to conform to the wishes of the coach. And, as we have discussed above, those wishes have been overly biased toward passing and teamwork.

“When Alexander the Great visited Diogenes and asked whether he could do anything for the famed teacher, Diogenes replied: 'Only stand out of my light.' Perhaps some day we shall know how to heighten creativity. Until then, one of the best things we can do for creative men and women is to stand out of their light.” - John W Gardner

Natural individual creativity in this atmosphere has been restricted and in many cases, completely stifled. However, it doesn't have to be this way. It is possible to run practices that, with the help of the coach, are more creative, more fun, more developmental and more motivational than previously conceived. All that is needed is a change in perception, a desire to emphasize the more difficult creative skills, a willingness to allow young players the opportunity to take risks and lose the ball while learning how to dominate it, and a commitment to the long-term goal of incredible individual skill and tremendous speed of play.

“You cannot step twice into the same river; for other waters are continually flowing in.” - Heraclitus

“Progress is a nice word. But change is its motivator. And change has enemies.” - Robert F. Kennedy

Important Quick Note: As a conclusion to this section I would like to end the beginning of this book with a vision. My vision is North American soccer combining its current strengths of organization, strong youth infrastructure and recognition of the importance of coaching, with the best methods of developing the complete creative and disciplined player. My contention is that we can emulate and incorporate the best from the rest of the world and, because we are open minded, highly educated and developmentally motivated, we can structure a program that will promote and teach the more difficult creative components of the game. This will result in individual and team excellence, leading eventually to success at the highest levels of world soccer.

“Man needs, for his happiness, not only the enjoyment of this or that, but hope and enterprise and change.” - Bertrand Russell

“Change is not made without inconvenience, even from worse to better.” - Richard Hooker

 

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Chapter Four

Creative Team Unity and Harmony

 

To stimulate thought I’d like to challenge you, the reader, with some thought provoking quotes as follows:

“Soccer is like a short blanket. When you cover the head you expose the toes. When you cover the feet you uncover the head. If you commit to the attack you expose your defense if you focus on defense you rob your attack.” - Jorge Valdano – Technical Director – Real Madrid

Now this is the law of the jungle as old and as true as the sky

And the wolves that keep it may prosper but the wolves that break it must die.

As the creeper that girdles the tree trunk the law runneth forward and back

And the strength of the pack is the wolf and the strength of the wolf is the pack.

Rudyard Kipling - English Poet/Novelist

“Go for broke” is usually associated with taking a risk, of gambling on the unpredictable situation, of shooting the works, even of putting one’s own pride and reputation on the line. Consistent winners refuse to wait for breaks to happen. The unexpected is part of their game plan and they thrive on the element of surprise. They’ll “go for broke” anytime, anywhere. Their performance implies that there is no tomorrow.

- Jack Whittaker - Sports Broadcaster

“When I first started coaching, I had an idea on how to produce winners. I had my mind set on having our wrestlers practice the moves our way. We would pick out certain high percentage moves and practice them over and over. Our wrestlers learned the moves. In matches, we’d allow them to perform only this short check-list of high-percentage moves. It sounded good in theory and for some of our wrestlers it worked. But for the most part, we were restricting our guys, for we didn’t allow their individual talents to develop. In short, we made them robots. So we changed. We realized that many, (probably most), of our wrestlers had more ability, and we were more talented than our coaching staff had ever been in school. We still taught our wrestlers the high percentage moves, but at the same time we allowed them to develop winning styles, based on instinct of their own. We let them have fun and told them to “Go For It”. It worked tremendously. Now the matches were no longer high-pressure events done “our way”. They became “Show Time” performances based on gut instinct with each wrestler’s unique talents and abilities dominating. The results were amazing. We became winners and morale was never higher. We’ve coached young men who have become better athletes and wrestlers than we ever deemed possible since we made the decision to “Go For It.”

Howard Ferguson Wrestling Coach – St Edward High School, Lakewood, Ohio, Winner – 7 National High School Championships

Creation Versus Reaction
Creation and reaction have the same letters. They are anagrams. Each step along our journey we are faced with a choice either to create or react. Many coaches teach their players to spend the whole game reacting. Like defenders playing against a skillful team under pressure they react. In life we react to circumstances, headlines, events, family problems and challenges. However, there’s a better way to exist. This encompasses choosing ones path, planning ahead and adhering to the plan. It demands a conscious choice to create. Creation occurs when we envisage, predict, plan and act. Great coaches grasp that setting goals, developing a vision of the future and establishing a curriculum that achieves the ultimate objectives, saves time. Yet most coaches change their practice content and plan weekly based on what occurred in the previous game and their desire to win quickly. Great coaches who think about development strategically are able to picture a range of actions that guarantee the achievement of the long-range goal. The vision developed leads to the teaching of creative techniques, tactics and strategies that the players will need and use at the very highest levels of performance. Great coaches are future focused and will work strategically by investing their efforts in the development of players who are individually capable of playing at the highest levels and collectively capable of making a positive contribution to the future success of any team they play for. Failing to have a long-term creative curriculum and falling into the trap of reacting dissipates focus and energy on trivial items, mistaken agendas and hopeless crusades. The coach who does this becomes a dabbler and wastes time on the trivia instead of solid, well planned, rewarding, personal and team growth.

Building Creative Team Unity and Harmony
When properly understood, creative team unity and harmony are two of the most important components of the “Training Soccer Legends” philosophy. Putting all the individual brilliance together to create a team of truly unique individual creative talent and team cooperation is the ultimate objective. The highest forms of creative unity and harmony utilize the four “Training Soccer Legends” soccer components of creative technical, chaotic tactical, specific physical and clutch psychological to exploit new opportunities that didn’t previously exist. The Legends philosophy of building toward creative unity and harmony triggers and releases the highest powers of the individual and the team. It allows the team to achieve things not previously deemed possible by solidifying a highly talented and prepared group of individuals into a team of brilliance where the sum of the whole is much greater than the cumulative addition of its parts. This is the most electrifying yet frightening aspect of the “Training Soccer Legends” approach because the coach doesn’t know what is going to happen. It is the players who conquer the challenges in their own unique, improvisational ways. Meanwhile the coach gradually makes practice more complicated and challenging without restricting creative options. The “Training Soccer Legends” approach is unscripted freedom of thought and action. It takes an amazing amount of self-confidence and security on the part of both players and coaches to allow this to happen because this approach defines the risk of pioneering, the spirit of adventure, the joy of discovery and the establishment of new horizons. The player trained in this method becomes a swashbuckling pirate of the soccer field, robbing defenders of their security and exposing their weaknesses by the most adventurous and creative means possible. Creative unity and harmony floods through a team prepared in this manner, thereby building a fluid structure that allows each individual to share in flair based leadership that totally confuses their opponents. Better still, its effectiveness is not reliant upon defensive errors because an offense that combines technical brilliance with phenomenal tactical speed can score against a defense that makes no mistakes. All this flows from the creative independence inherent with the Legends method, plus the elevated level of confidence and high self-concept that goes hand in hand with a tremendous level of individual skill and tactical speed. Because of the tremendous independent creativity and deception of the players they can mature into a team of incredible interdependence and perform tasks as a group that are far beyond the ability and concept of teams trained in the outdated, antiquated, purely pass and receive mentality favored by the protective, fearful, low risk, win oriented coach. It is time we all adopted an approach that is less defensive, apprehensive, judgmental and conservative in favor of a methodology that is more progressive, creative, liberating and unifying. Through this approach we can truly create the “Team of Brilliance”.

“The nature of innovation—the inherent definition of innovation—has changed today from what it was in the past. It’s no longer individuals toiling in a laboratory, coming up with some great invention. It’s not an individual. It’s individuals. It’s multidisciplinary. It’s global. It’s collaborative.” - Sam Palmisano, Chairman, President and CEO, IBM

Only when players have experienced long-term practice in the high-risk stages of the Legends approach can they hope to interact with creative harmony and unity. Getting to this point in the developmental process involves constant loss of possession and negative statistical game results. However, without these essential possession and statistical risks and negative game results there can be no ultimate reward. One cannot discover new continents and enjoy new horizons without leaving the comfort of the home shores, encountering the occasional storm and experiencing regular setbacks. When playing with creative unity and harmony the coach and players are not sure how things will work out, what the result will be or whether they will achieve their statistical goals. However, they will experience the reward of constant improvement and their play will confuse, intimidate and frighten their opponents. In the tradition of Brazil they may, as they mature, lose the odd game to a lesser skilled or less creative opponent, but it will be the exception rather than the rule.

“Many people know so little about what is beyond their short range of experience. They look within themselves--and find nothing! Therefore they conclude that there is nothing outside themselves either.” - Helen Keller

Players trained to enter the “Zone of Altered Consciousness” through the Training Soccer Legends method will enjoy vastly improved vision and greater motivation generated by a higher level of mutual learning and perception. As with most processes of discovery this will, in turn, result in further learning and perceptual development. Most teams experience little creative harmony and unity due to the training methods employed by their coaches and their regimented interaction with teammates. They have been rote brain washed into a safe yet stilted passing and receiving approach where individualism and risk are sins of the highest order. Such players reach a point of inertia where they are totally dependent on their teammates and individually inadequate. Their self-concept and spirit breaks apart on the barriers to creative development erected by their win-oriented coaches. They get little opportunity to experience even a modicum of creative individuality, therefore, creative harmony is but a ship passing in the night or a unrealistic fantasy that is the preserve of the ultra-gifted athlete lucky enough to be endowed with genetic talents beyond the reach of the average mortal. However, the truth is that there are thousands of children worldwide who are capable of reaching the heights of a Pele, Maradona or Ronaldo. Unfortunately they are robbed of their potential by well meaning adults who do not understand that creative harmony and unity has to be preceded by extreme levels of independent individualism. These coaches have never conceptualized the amazing sporting opportunities that can be enjoyed by rejecting the importance of the team win and first embracing the individual developmental win. Because so much latent potential remains dormant, stunted and redundant, this represents the greatest tragedy and waste in sports. Enthusiastic, well meaning, but ineffective coaches, limit and restrict the potential of their players day after day, with a total lack of awareness of the damage they do and the opportunity their players are missing. They may regiment a degree of synergy into their teams by drilling and grilling the passing game but they are at war with a limited arsenal of weapons, therefore when faced with the Brazil’s of the international soccer world, or the “Legends” trained teams of the youth soccer world, will be forced to wave the white flag in abject surrender to the creative weaponry developed by a more flair based ethos aligned with superior positive teaching methods and philosophies.

"Habit is the denial of creativity and the negation of freedom; a self-imposed straitjacket of which the wearer is unaware." - Arthur Koestler

Traditional coaches may have memories of arenas in which they enjoyed great harmony and unity of purpose for a short while. They may recall team experiences and work projects that for a brief time gave them a feeling of belonging and working for a team goal that transcended anything they had ever felt as an individual. Consequently they attempt to reproduce these nebulous positive memories by spending weeks, months and years grilling and drilling the team aspects of the game without understanding that creative individualism precedes inter-dependence and must be developed to a tremendous level of acuity before the creative unity of team brilliance can become believable and achievable. To a great percentage of these coaches their brief memories of team unity and positive group achievement make these experiences unusual anomalies and therefore whims of fate rather than planned and regularly attainable occurrences.

However, players can enjoy these positive, defining, soccer and life experiences on a daily, weekly & monthly basis with the right training and example if their coaches are brave enough to pursue the “Training Soccer Legends” high risk strategies and curriculum. This enlightened approach develops great individual feelings of personal achievement and worth, plus an associated appreciation of higher personal potential. This motivates every player to further effort and pursuit of soccer excellence.

“When one has finished building one's house, one suddenly realizes that in the process one has learned something that one really needed to know in the worst way--before one began.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

Following the creative risk path to higher achievement is a trial and error, hit and miss approach to problem solving. Most coaches find it frustrating, unpredictable and, to a certain degree, frightening. Most humans need conformity, routine and established habit in their daily lives. This “comfort zone” approach provides a security blanket to help them face the world. Unpredictability makes them nervous and insecure so they choose the “stay at home” methods of the conservative masses. Thus, even when confronted with a shining example of the creative individualism and later team unity, harmony and success inherent within Brazilian soccer, they experience a negative “knee jerk” rejection of the lessons of Brazil’s creative soccer culture.

"There is an artist within each person, and everybody has the capacity to find creative genius in themselves." - Annette Moser-Wellman, founder of FireMark

I have come to believe that truly great practice sessions teeter on the very edge of anarchy and resemble a form of semi-organized chaos. At the start of the “Training Soccer Legends” curriculum comes structured technical learning of the game’s most creative and difficult skills, then comes a period of experimentation in practices and games under ever increasing 1 v 1 pressure. Eventually the players graduate to incredibly difficult and chaotic “speed chess on grass” involved in multiple simultaneous games of 2 v 2 soccer with a myriad of complicating conditions in very crowded areas. Gradually the creative unity and harmony transformation evolves into a collective elevation of both the individual and team perception and performance.

“Creativity is fostered in organizational cultures that value independent thinking, risk taking, and learning. They are tolerant of failure and they value diversity. Open communication is reinforced and there is a high degree of trust and respect between individuals.” - Rose

The end result is a realization of personal and group superiority and a belief on the part of the players that they are better prepared in every way to both individually and collectively dominate opponents. Teams that once thrashed you will eventually be on the receiving end of a statistical beating. However, it is not the statistical result that matters! It is the degree of changing and growing individual and team domination of opponents, leading to the positive statistical result, that really counts!

"If you're not riding the wave of change…you'll find yourself beneath it." - Winston Churchill

As a result of the ongoing focus on creative unity and harmony the “Team of Brilliance” becomes a reality. Players who have experienced elite creative team synergy are never the same again. They understand and look forward to having other cooperative illuminating team highs in the future. While it is impossible to go back and re-live past creative situations these individuals better appreciate their potential to develop a positive creative dynamic in future enterprises. As a consequence, players who have enjoyed these creative forward thinking training methods are more open to seeking better and often original solutions, to challenges in other life arenas. Creativity is exciting. Playing without barriers to risk and without roadblocks to the highest levels of team synergy is energizing. It is incredible what can be achieved when the coach demands and insists upon adventure, risk and creativity as the goal of each and every practice and game.

 

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Chapter Five

15 Great Reasons For Playing

Soccer “Legends” Style

 

While at University studying for a degree in Physical Education one of my classes embarked upon an interesting study. It was a comparison of the benefits of the Britain’s major sports. The goal was to identify which sport was the most beneficial to all round development. For the purposes of this study the 15 major developmental and participatory components of sport were identified as follows:

• Speed & Power Fitness
• Strength/endurance fitness
• Aerobic fitness
• Coordination, Balance & Agility
• Skill
• Intelligence
• Character development
• Social skills
• Equality of opportunity – no physical elitism
• Constant action & involvement
• Number permutations for practice and play
• Simplicity
• Economy
• Safety

All the sports in the British school system were evaluated and each was ranked for the degree to which they involved the above components. The Physical education students conducting the study included many elite performers from a wide variety of different sports. After much passionate discussion, during which each individual fought hard to justify a high ranking for their favorite sport, all the sports were ranked by vote. When the scores for all the categories were combined soccer earned the highest positional ranking, making it arguably the most beneficial all round sport. The multi-faceted nature of soccer allows it to challenge and reward the player in many different ways. This goes a long way toward explaining why soccer is the most played and watched of all the world’s sports.

In the two decades since my days as a Physical Education student, I have coached a minimum of two and a maximum of eight youth soccer teams at one time. As a result of countless thousands of hours of study, practice and games it has become obvious that, even though soccer is the most beneficial of all sports, it can be coached the “Training Soccer Legends” way to make the experience vastly more rewarding. I’d like to share with you how the “Training Soccer Legends” philosophy utilizes and enhances the major developmental and participatory components of sport to maximize the potential of every player.

The following is a description of how the “Training Soccer Legends philosophy enhances the beneficial affect of the 15 major developmental and participatory components of sport.

 

Speed & Power Fitness

Soccer develops the primary anaerobic fitness system, i.e. the ATP, (Adenosine Tri Phosphate), system for short bursts of speed and power, (0-10 seconds duration). The “Training Soccer Legends” approach maximizes the usage of the primary anaerobic fitness system because the highly pressured 1 v 1 and 2 v 2 stages involve the greatest degree of short burst, high intensity, energy sapping actions such as tackling, accelerating and decelerating quickly, changes of direction, dynamic fakes etc. Additionally, the high intensity, competitive cauldron of Legends soccer does far more to stress and develop the body’s plyometric capabilities, (the rebound capability of connective tissue), than traditional coaching methods.

 

Strength/Endurance Fitness

Soccer also develops the secondary anaerobic fitness system, i.e. the lactic acid system. This is the system utilized during intermediate length power activities. This system sustains the player for intense periods of activity ranging from 10 seconds to 2 minutes. The “Training Soccer Legends” system incorporates a 2-5 minute round robin competition structure that demands a sub maximal, yet high intensity continuous effort. The stressful effort needed in 1 v 1 and 2 v 2 trains a tremendous degree of secondary anaerobic capacity by gradually forcing back the anaerobic threshold, i.e. the point at which the involuntary shutting down of muscle function begins.

 

Aerobic Fitness

The “Training Soccer Legends” approach also develops the aerobic system for athletic endurance. This system encompasses sub-maximal, non-overload type activity from 2 minutes upwards in duration. With between 45-60 minutes of this type of activity in each outdoor 1 v 1 and 2 v 2 session, Legends trained players enjoy greater stamina and endurance growth than players in other, more traditionally coached, programs.

“Hard training easy combat, easy training hard combat.” - Marshal Suvorov

Important Quick Note: The “Training Soccer Legends” approach utilizes all three physical systems to a high degree in all practices. In this way it provides a well-rounded, yet intense, program of fitness development, while distracting players from the pain of physical stress with a myriad of other technical and tactical challenges. As a consequence Legends trained players enjoy greater specific physical system development without the usual de-motivation and effort avoidance that accompanies traditional fitness training without the ball.

 

Coordination, Balance and Agility

The various situational and positional challenges in soccer encompass eye to foot, eye to thigh, eye to chest, eye to head and hand/eye coordination, (for goalkeepers). There is no other sport with this total body range of technical components. In addition, the need for split second body position adjustments in contact situations, puts great pressure on the components of coordination balance and agility. None of soccer’s techniques challenge and develop these physical skills like deceptive dribbling and goal scoring. The incredibly complex moves and shooting techniques involved with the Legends approach are some of the most difficult neuromuscular actions in sport and have to be performed under intense defensive pressure. Achieving consistent successful performance of these fakes and moves under pressure, at the highest level of competition, demands amazing coordination, balance and agility. Therefore, the “Training Soccer Legends” philosophy is the very best for maximizing each player’s potential in these three key physiological areas.

 

Skill

No sport uses as many of the body's parts in direct contact with the ball as soccer. Soccer players use their feet, thighs, chest, head and hands, (for goalkeepers). Furthermore, these areas can be used in many different ways with an endless permutation of effects. The “Training Soccer Legends” approach maximizes the development of all-round physical ability by focusing on the two most difficult skills that carry over or “transfer” into 3 of the other 4 field skills of the game i.e. passing, receiving & tackling. By focusing on the two most difficult and decisive skills five key technical areas of the game can be developed in a fraction of the time. This “5 skills for the price of 2” benefit makes Legends trained players far more technically astute than their counterparts in other programs.

“Skill without imagination is craftsmanship and gives us many useful objects such as wickerwork picnic baskets. Imagination without skill gives us modern art.” - Tom Stoppard

“An apprentice carpenter may want only a hammer and saw, but a master craftsman employs many precision tools. Computer programming likewise requires sophisticated tools to cope with the complexity of real applications, and only practice with these tools will build skill in their use.” - Robert L. Kruse

 

Intelligence

The situational variables in soccer are more numerous and demand faster analysis than in any other sport:

• First, soccer is a totally fluid sport with very few pre-planned situations. Therefore, nearly all actions depend on split-second analysis of constantly changing circumstances.
• Second, there are 11 opponents and 10 teammates to be taken into account at all times.
• Third, players must react to stimuli from all angles because soccer is one of the few ground based and aerially contested three hundred and sixty degree games.
• Fourth, players are subjected to numerous visual, sensual and audio cues during play.
• Fifth, in every decision there are a myriad of environmental variables to be taken into account i.e. weather, surface, temperature etc.
• Sixth, the plethora of available skills creates a confusing array of technical options with which to solve the problem.

“Skill, intelligence and confidence are an unconquered army.” - George Herbert

The combination and interaction of these six factors creates a constantly changing equation where every player must analyze and decide from a greater number of available options in less time, than in any other sport. The “Training Soccer Legends” approach adds to these game challenges by creating the most difficult mental training circumstances possible and imposes ever more complicated conditions upon players as their abilities grow. In practice, Legends players learn to assess the situational variables, plus select and perform the chosen techniques much faster than they will ever have to in a game. As a direct consequence of challenging players to overcome more situational variables and make decisions in less time than other coaching methods, the “Training Soccer Legends” approach develops, nurtures and rewards greater levels of functional intelligence.

 

Character Development

One of soccer's major benefits to the player is the development of important character traits for life. Qualities of perseverance, individual responsibility, application, drive, leadership, controlled aggression, concentration, teamwork, self worth, creativity and confidence are all developed to a tremendous degree by soccer. The “Training Soccer Legends” approach demands and enhances these personality traits to a greater degree of refinement than any other approach. This is because the difficult circumstances necessary for the attainment of these characteristics occur more often as a result of the unique developmental challenges in the Legends methodology.

“The greater difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests.” - Epicures

Some of the character maximizing circumstances, inherent within the Legends approach, are as follows:

• Risk
• Constant need for 100% mental and physical effort
• Great emphasis on the individual
• Complicated fast changing situations
• High level of physical contact
• Elevated emphasis on communication
• Numerous transitions from offense to defense
• Crucial need for support of teammate, (in 2 v 2)
• Greater opportunity for personal accomplishment
• Mandatory performance of creative skills

 

Social Skills

Soccer both helps develop and reward extrovert characteristics. It is beneficial for improving social skills in a serious, meaningful environment where individuals are interacting under both high pressure, (during game or training), and low pressure, (pre or post game), conditions. The “Training Soccer Legends” method creates an atmosphere of resourceful problem solving under far greater stress than found in traditionally coached programs. This is debatably the most important social skill, therefore will have the greatest positive impact on that individual’s capability of achieving success and leadership prominence in other life environments.

“Men make history, and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.” - Harry S Truman

 

Equality of Opportunity

The all round physical requirements of soccer allow individuals of a great many shapes, sizes and genetic characteristics to develop excellence and become valuable team members at elite levels of competition. Because leg and foot coordination are the major factors in attaining soccer proficiency even the smaller player can participate on an equal basis with bigger and stronger individuals. You do not have to be 280 lbs. or 6'8" tall to achieve professional soccer status. The “Training Soccer Legends” style enhances the integral fairness of the sport with equal and fair treatment of each player. This is because all participants are expected to learn and perfect the most difficult, innovative skills of the game. It combines equality of opportunity with the pursuit of creative excellence in ways alien to conventional coaching schemes. As a consequence, a greater cross section of players can experience positive reinforcement and success. In traditional coaching, where players aren’t as skillful, the influence of pure genetic physical prowess plays a much larger role.

 

Constant Action and Involvement

By nature, soccer is a game of constant action with very few breaks in play. This keeps both the player and spectator entertained, captive and absorbed for long periods of time. The “Training Soccer Legends” system teaches all players to master crucial creative and vital destructive aspects of the game, in the clutch, to the greatest possible degree. This method demands more repetition of complicated and creative “big play” offensive and defensive actions than any other coaching system in the history of the sport. It, therefore, keeps players engaged and learning plus entertains spectators to a far greater extent. 

 

Any Number Can Play

Because soccer uses a round bouncy ball, even one person can enjoy such activities as juggling or dribbling in a very limited space, e.g. garage or basement, without a partner. Other skills such as shooting, passing or heading can be practiced using walls. When partners are involved the permutations for practice and fun with a soccer ball become endless. The “Training Soccer Legends” approach is the most effective at accommodating any number of participants while involving them in very specific and creative techniques for excelling at the highest levels of the game. In other conventional “pass and receive” philosophies the coach needs a specific minimum or maximum number of players at practice if he is to pursue a viable team agenda. With the Legends approach any number of players can be optimally developed.

 

Easy to Understand

The objectives and rules of soccer are simple. The object is to score in the opponent's goal and stop them scoring in yours, with a ball that can be propelled in any direction, at any time. This is a concept even the very young can understand, thereby making