Commentary
Crucial to coaching: Developing skill, not simply teaching technique
- by John O'Sullivan , Jan 15, 2020
Travel to most any youth soccer field in the United States, and you will see the following elements: children standing in lines or dribbling around a coned area, each with a ball, endlessly repeating a technique such as a drag-back turn. They then progress to two lines, ten yards apart, and the players pass to the opposite line and follow their pass to the end of that line. After a water break, the players line back up and pass their coach a ball. He then lays it off square for the child to shoot on goal. The player retrieves her ball and gets back in line. Rinse and repeat.
Ask that coach, “Did you have a good practice today?” and he will likely say, “Yes, those kids got five hundred touches, and we practiced dribbling, passing, and shooting.” Ask the parents eagerly observing, and they might feel the same: “It was great! These kids really need those touches because in the game, they cannot dribble, pass, or shoot.” I used to think that as well. Today I would ask those parents and coaches a better question: “How many decisions did they make today?”
Sadly, the answer to that question is likely, “Not that many.” In spite of getting five hundred touches, the vast majority of those touches took place in the absence of any decisions, defenders, or direction, elements that are required to connect the practice environment to the game conditions in a dynamic game such as soccer. You may be developing technique, but you are not developing skill because those are two very different things. And without skill development, transfer does not take place. These are elements worth explaining.
I realize some people might argue semantics here, so here is how I define these terms: a technique is the ability to perform a physical task while a skill is the ability to deploy it in the competition environment. One thousand touches with no connection to the game would be like hitting one thousand balls off a tee in baseball; you might become a better swinger, but it won’t make you a better hitter. One thousand pitches from an overhand pitcher will not prepare you to face Jennie Finch. One thousand isolated touches a day will give you the technique, but without context in your training, those touches will not develop the skill to play the actual game.
Far too many coaches think skill is the aggregation of various techniques that are then applied in a linear fashion back into the competition.That fundamentally misunderstands the fact that skill is something that requires context to develop. You cannot separate it from context. You need problems to be solved in order to develop skill. In a practice with no game-like activities, with no defenders or direction to force decision-making, there may be technical development, but there is very little skill development. And without skill development, there is no transfer.
Transfer is the ability of a learner to successfully apply the behaviors, knowledge, and skills acquired in a practice environment to the competition. If the training environment does not mimic those game conditions or if it poses decisions and scenarios that are not encountered in a game, then transfer does not occur.
“Transfer does not happen often,” says Andrew Wilson, a researcher from Leeds Beckett. “It is spectacularly task specific. If you learn to perceive a task in one dynamic environment and that environment does not exist in the game, then transfer will not occur. It only occurs when the dynamic principles overlap.”
Wilson uses the example of passing in soccer. Two players passing a ball back and forth may be working on locking their ankle, placing their plant foot correctly, and following through so that the ball is hit in the right direction with the right pace. But that is insufficient preparation for passing a moving ball between moving defenders to a moving teammate in the exact space he needs to receive it at exactly the right time. “Behavior emerges in real time for the information the athlete is given,” says Wilson. “Context governs transfer.”
This is not to say that there is never a time to teach specific movements to one child with one ball. But why would you gather as a team to work alone? Would this group time not be better spent working in groups and working on the dynamic elements of the game, leaving individual work for kids to do at home? Shouldn’t the vast majority of your training sessions be focused on actual transferable skills and not simply technique? I certainly think so, and the research seems to back it up.
Todd Beane hears the argument all the time that you must teach technique before you can teach skill. He sees no reason to separate technical training from true skill development.
“Four things have to happen in milliseconds before you receive the ball,” says Beane. “What we train is how you can master time and space before you receive the ball so you can execute with efficacy.” Beane sees the game of soccer as a constantly repeating series of actions. Players must:
• Perceive the situation.
• Conceive of possible solutions.
• Decide on the best solution.
• Deceive their opponent, if necessary.
• Technically execute their pass, shot, or dribble.
• Assess their choice and prepare for the next
play.
“Cognition has been divorced from so much of the training I see,” says Beane. “The thinking player is to be valued, and we need to train it and bring out the potential of every player and every person. Our kids here go home, and everyone will say, ‘OMG! You have become so much better technically.’ But if they find an extra meter of space, they find time, and any extra time increases the likelihood of technical execution. So, yes, we do ball mastery work, but we do it within the context of the demands of the game in a cognitively faithful way."
(John O'Sullivan is the founder of the Changing the Game Project and the host of the Way of Champions Podcast. His latest book, Every Moment Matters: How the World's Best Coaches Inspire Their Athletes and Build Championship Teams, from which this article was excerpted, came out in December of 2019. It is available in paperback and Kindle. His previous books are, Is It Wise to Specialize?: What Every Parent Needs to Know About Early Sports Specialization and its Effect Upon Your Child’s Athletic and Changing the Game: The Parent's Guide to Raising Happy, High Performing Athletes, and Giving Youth Sports Back to our Kids.)
At this week's United Soccer Coaches Convention in Baltimore:
• JOHN O'SULLIVAN: Thursday, January 16, 11:00 am-12 noon What is Your Club's DNA? Developing Your Club's Mission, Vision, and Values, Room: CC 328/329
• JOHN O'SULLIVAN & TODD BEANE: Friday,
January 17, 1:30 pm-2:30 pm Developing a Club Methodology and Playing Style, Room: CC 328/329
• TODD BEANE: Friday, January 17, 2020:
4:30 pm-5:30 pm TOVO Training: Intelligent Position Play, KwikGoal Demo Field 2 Session Number: 256
As these books come out giving better advice on learning skills, all of them recently tend to talk more about kids learning in game situations. I've been saying this for so long that PICKUP soccer(game situation) is the most perfect way for developing players. I,fortunately, grew in the most perfect time of learning which was street/pickup soccer in Holland. It was a time where we learned the intricacies of the game without the presence of licensed 'programmed' coaches telling you what to do, or how to do it. Even though the author makes good points, the book's underlying thrust is still too much coaching involvement in developing youth that street soccer never had.....
I've stated before what should be done is to organize a COMMITTEE, yes, actually a committee,LOL ,whose purpose is improving player development skills. This committee should study ,fully, all the elements of street soccer and apply those elements to current youth training techniques, which is not good and can be so much better. As you see, were beginning to see more suggestions coming from books which talks about some of the pickup soccer element without the author never having lived or experienced real pickup soccer but somehow has come to the conclusion in discovering these elements
John mentions the difference between skill and technique. I think were playing word games here although I understand what he's saying although both are intertwined in its applications. It's not that simple in delineating it. First of all the real definition of technique as explained by Johan Cruyff, is the ability to handle the ball , for example, receiving it with the least amount of touches possible and transporting the ball in the most efficient, and functional manner, giving any situation. That is what Cruyff calls simple soccer, but simple soccer is the most DIFFICULT to play,as he says. For example, a centerhalf #6 is going downfield with the ball, he sees his #9 wanting the ball in space behind the opponent's centerback. The problem is to give the pass with enough velocity,and height without the goallie intercepting it. How do you solve this problem, by passing over the head of the centerback with a BACKSPIN on the ball, allowing the ball to come and slow down to the breaking #9 instead going forwards giving the goalie a chance to get it. THAT'S TECHNIQUE GIVEN A PARTICULAR GAME SITUATION. NEXT POST....
How do you learn to execute this type of pass other than through simply practicing but not in game situation. It first needs to be worked on your own to gain this TECHNIQUE, OR SKILL for it takes skill to execute this pass. What I'm saying there that learning a particular skill it is necessary to first work on the raw elements of the skill without game situation. In sum aspects as John defines it is necessary in the development of the player. And this is why I stated there is still too much influence by coaches saying what method is better for both are necessary.....This is why it's difficult to delineated skill and technique....
Another example was when Cruyff coached the Barcelona "Dream Team". He wasn't happy with execution of the short passes in the game. In practice he decided to split the team in half with each player having a partner facing each other 10meters away. They passed to each other continually or stopping and then passing for about 20 minutes. The Dutch coach Hans Kraay who visited the practice couldn't believe what he saw which was a drill you would have 13 year olds do.
According to John this drill has nothing to do with game situation or thinking and sees lack of purpose. Apparently Cruyff sees it differently for that there is a lot more to this drill than what John sees. Again this is why I state, we still have too many coach influence involved in saying this and that is not necessary or purposeful....I say leave it alone and just follow what is done in street soccer without coaches.
One of the structural problems in youth soccer is the lack of PICKUP soccer that is played with MIXED ages. Playing with OLDER players is the SECRET ingredient whereby the younger players learn the insights of the game. A particular younger player when developed enough to see, understrand will become aware of those insightful aspects that can help his game. That happens only when the players grows in technical ability, for the more skills the more he begins to identify when to use those skills through watching the older players.. We currently use a coach involvement, but with pickup MIXED soccer, which is the substitute for a coach for the older youth set the example to watch and learn from how it is done through playing in the most natural setting without having someone telling you , 'don't do this or that or this is how you do it.
JOHN, PLEASE ASK TODD BEANE IF THEY COULD TRANSLATE THE DUTCH BOOK " VOETBAL" BY JOHAN CRUYFF INTO ENGLISH.
To me it is the bible for every youth soccer coach and it is not in English, UNBELIEVABLE. It is best book written about soccer......
I respect John a lot, but...I don't recall ever seeing a coach devote an entire session to unopposed technical exercises. I suppose somewhere coaches are doing just about everything immaginable, but I suspect that the biggest problem with decision making is that some coaches may not allow decision making. Instead they require players to follow coaching instructions like mindless puppets.
There is a difference between teaching someone to play and telling them how to play.
While I am at it, there is absolutely nothing wrong with "lines". The problem is coaches who don't see the session as interval training and therefore don't manage the work and rest periods.
Especially in technical and speed training, coaches should be managing the rest intervals so that players actually recover before the next work interval. Otherwise it becomes endurance training instead of technical or speed training.
When people say "no laps" the real problem they are trying to avoid is players idle after they have recovered their oxygen debt. Unneeded rest time is inefficient. So it is important for efficiency to get the right balance of work and rest for your players. To do it right coaches must watch their players and adjust the exercises to the circumstances. Personally, I think having everyone resting at the same time until everyone has recovered is more inefficient, but then it is less work for the coach.
John O'Sullivan's argument of skill versus technique has its limitations. One can argue that if a player does not have respectable technique playing with skill is a challenge. The question then becomes how best for players to learn both technique and skill, and the answer depends very much on the age and level of ones players. Similarly, expecting kids to work on their technique at home, away from the training field, may be expecting too much for less motivated players at a more recreational level.
This past fall, I coached a lower tier boys U12 rec team and made great progress in having my players play with a lot of skill, while at the same time recognizing that all but a couple of them could not easily maintain possession of the ball under pressure, for lack of simple moves and cuts. The kids learned a lot about spacing and movement to compensate for dealing with the pressure on the ball. If I have the same kids in the spring, when we lose some to lacrosse and baseball, you can bet I will emphasize fluid movement with the ball, first for a few minutes with everyone executing different moves, but after that, under competitive pressure, which the kids like more anyway.
Ben you're doing just fine. I wouldn't worry about Technique vs Skills thing...Water always seeks it's own level. A player who not that great in skills will find a position on the field where he is more comfortable, two, he will probably not get into crowded areas but more into open. As he gets older and plays more he still might be behind some other better skill players in development, which is fine. He has to learn his limitations and his abilities and once he's good at his level he can actually be the best on the team, functionally.
One of the problems of good technical players is that they don't know their limitations and go beyond what they are good at. A good example was in the game against Canada. I don't know if you remember but Pulisic ,let us say, one of the best technical players on the team twice or three times ran into a crowd of Canadian around midfield. Then you have to ask yourself what good is technique if you're smart or use your skill in the most functional matter.
Talk about water seeking its own level and relating it to player skills. Notice how slow or heavy if smart uses his body more to shield the ball. As compared to a fast , perhaps better skilled player who doesn't.
Ben, I suspect you misunderstood what John meant by technique and skill. Technique is how you perform a particular movement. Skill is competence in performing the movement.
As an example, some coaches teach the instep drive technique as a 4 step process. Once the technique has been taught, sessions progress to developing skill to perform the instep drive flawlessly with both feet in all game conditions--such as volley, half-volley, rolling and dead balls-- under pressure. During skill training, the coach is observing technique and correcting bad technique as needed.
Another way to think of it is that technique is about form and skill is about execution.
By the way, John's argument is not about skill verus technique. It is about wasting training time by practicing skills outside the context of game-like conditions.
So his point is the difference between practicing movements in isolation, which anyone can do alone, versus using those movements in game conditions to solve tactical problems which cannot be done alone.
It is a waste of contact time to have players performing ball mastery exercises and practicing "moves". I did some of that as a warmup, but the objective was to teach players how to practice on their own.
My 11 year old son began playing with Barcelona in Chicago. I have been amazed at the skill level the team has commanded over the past 6 months. The entire 1.5 hour practice is devoted to rondos which is exactly skill building. Many directional decisions at a high volume and pace. There is NO emphasis on individual technical skill building. That, in my opinion should be done by the individual away from group training. The US style needs to adapt or we will continue to fall further and further behind.
David, Rondo's??? Do you mean standing a circle and passing the ball around and playing keep away from a couple players in the middle. That is not technical skill building. As a matter of fact, Rondo's ,which is right now since Guardiola came on the scene with Bayern doing Rondo in practices is the current fad or latest trend in Soccer with the youth training. What they should be doing is playing 4v2 keep away in a rectangle which Ajax teaches their youth for that takes thinking but not Rondo.
At 11 years old these kids need to work on techniques and lots of playing. What these kids needs is seeing lots ball skill moves in order to build their arsenal of ball moves. Again no individual emphasis on skill building is wrong. These kids need to experience everything especially at this young age. Again as I state coaches still have the influence we don't do that but this is still there.
You state that individual skill training should be away from the group, again it is either or but both. It is fine if your kid works out on own on skills, more power to him ,all kids should, but there is nothing wrong with group skill training for there are other things that come into play when training skills in a group as well that you don't experience individually. It is all about exposure to different things and the more the better when young
Frank for decades I refused to use the word rondo until a few years ago I learned it is Spanish slang in soccer for small sided games, especially keep-away games. The 4v2 game you described is a rondo.
I think rondo is a metaphor for the musical term "rounds" (the English word).
Bob, Rondo in Dutch pertains basically to keep away. And playing no matter how many players are involved, full team or less, is not Rondo. If you say that Rondo means small sided games in Spanish what do they call Rondo where you just play keep away.....
You're right 4-2 is a form of Rondo, which we also call in Dutch 'lummelen'. The Rondo as we understand it ,not in Spanish, is very popular and trendy, and it fine for just warming up I suppose, but it has little application to soccer. Van Hanegem in his book stated that 4-2 is the best game if you want to learn the game, and Cruyff stated if you can play 4-2 then you can play soccer. Van Hanegem's criticism of the Rondo we see a lot with a bunch of guys one-touching fast, trying to keep it away, is not effective tool for kids to learn.....
Brian, made the perfect definition of technique and skill. In Holland we don't have the word Skill but use Technique only. So when we say he is very technical player, in other words he is a very skillful player...
I had it explained perfectly to me by my first coaching mentor.
Technique is being able to do something. Skill is being able to do it at the right moment.
Frank, pick up games are great but the bulk of the US is not going to play that. Skills vs technique is a problem in that as the auther stated the transfer usually does not happen. I have used keep away games with even numbers just like in your pick up games and reward points to the players who perform the new technique under pressure. This helps me as a coach to transfer the new skill into game conditions.
The Latino areas older players bring the youngsters along and help teach the game.
The point of the transferanse is to help the player feel comfortable on the ball under pressure. 4 v 2 rondo is nice but the game is always played with even teams. Frank In your pick up games someone older usually adjusted the players to create competitive games - something the modern coach needs to learn.
Too many coaches thinking like adults and forgot how they learned to help create an environment for thier players to learn and get better. You do that as a coach and you have succeeded.
Clubs at all levels need to introduce or re-introduce pickup soccer among mixed age groups and genders. Long ago, I ran summer evening soccer pickup for a club. Anybody could show up and play from little U8s to high school to adult. Everybody had a lot of fun, the younger kids learned from the older ones and the skilled adults, and the overall level of play improved. When I moved on from a top position at the club, nobody picked up the tiny responsibility of publicizing and coordinating summer pickup soccer for those who were around. Of course, more rigorous insurance and legal requirements have also helped to put the kibosh on open pickup play. So, too, has an MBA-style of club management that has seeped into some clubs, wherein people away from the game make important decisions in a vacuum.
Ben, you've got it exactly right.
Frank, pick up games are great but the bulk of the US is not going to play that. Skills vs technique is a problem in that as the auther stated the transfer usually does not happen. I have used keep away games with even numbers just like in your pick up games and reward points to the players who perform the new technique under pressure. This helps me as a coach to transfer the new skill into game conditions.
The Latino areas older players bring the youngsters along and help teach the game.
The point of the transferanse is to help the player feel comfortable on the ball under pressure. 4 v 2 rondo is nice but the game is always played with even teams. Frank In your pick up games someone older usually adjusted the players to create competitive games - something the modern coach needs to learn.
Too many coaches thinking like adults and forgot how they learned to help create an environment for thier players to learn and get better. You do that as a coach and you have succeeded.
Ron, long time ago I explained how to play 4v2. I would be more than happy to go over it again if you want and why 4v2 was chosen. Let me just say that in a game it is never even, even though you have even amount of players. For example you always outnumber the opponents in your own half. Also you can outnumber the opponent my moving off the ball, a simple example is what some call 'flooding' an area. But actually the team with the ball always outnumbers the opponent(I had explained that a couple of years ago).
The transfer of Skill v Technique does happen and it happens in a natural way. Kids watch each other and especially if a kid sees another kid do a move ,for example, beating a player and he sees the success rate , other kids as a result will copy that and try it as well. That is how transfers occurs, success breeds copying. As a kid ,I would learn for example a new move by going to game, then coming home try it out and then try it out in a small sided game.
Don't get hung up on having even teams...it is not necessary. You think in the street soccer days ,when I played ,kids show up to play and the odd number kid couldn't play. What about if the odd number kid is the owner of the ball , you think he won't play, LOLOLOL. Everybody plays, no matter what. And you know what, especially when you have a low numbers like 4v3 or 3v2 ,5v4, the team with lesser players are forced to think more like about defensive options and positions, and more importantly have to think ahead of time and anticipate more,for example. That in itself is a great learning experience. Also when they choose up teams the one with second pick has to think already the kind of players he needs to pick to adjust for the lesser player. You just wouldn't how kids in street without a coach were learning by themselves, instintual and natural aspects of the game. NEXT POST
Bob Ashpole, I understood Sullivan's argument well. Yes, skill is being able to make the most of ones technical ability. And my rejoinder remains the same. Absent respectable technique, playing with skill becomes a lot more difficult. I know this just as well from my own playing days, because I was less than comfortable with the ball at my feet. So I had to make decisions while still playing within my own technical abilities. My skill at execution was limited by my technique.
The usual progression in working with players is to start with something even mindlessly simple with no pressure. Do it for a short interval, maybe 2-3 minutes, then move into exercises in which the players needs to execute against a defenders. The kids always want the latter, and they are 100% right. The whole point of an exercise without pressure is to help players visualize what needs to be executed without the distractions of defenders in players' faces. Visualization of what needs to be done, either by demonstration and/or by a few simple repetitions, is an important step.
Ben, I don't think or talk about either playing or coaching at all like you do.
For example, skill and technique are nouns. Skill varies in degree and over time while technique is specific. A technique is still the technique regardless of whether any particular individual knows it or not.
Striking is an example of a skill and the instep drive is a striking technique. If I say a player striking the ball is skilled, skillful or technical, I am describing the player with an adjective.
When you in essence said that "respectable technique" was necessary to "play with skill" I had no clue as to what you meant and still don't. I do agree that bad technique increases the risk of failure in execution of a movement, if that is what you meant. That is true of both general athletic and soccer specific skills. Bad technique may even lead to injury. An example is bad jumping technique may lead to knee injuries.
Ron, I like what you're doing- giving points to kids if they do a move. That's what I did which you need to do with the younger players, which Bob has a lot of experience with. Giving points is how you break the ice. Also in keep away it doesn't matter if teams are even. I set off an area, divide the team odd or even, for it doesn't matter, then I make them pass the ball around to their teammates and the other team tries to get the ball. I give a point for each pass made and the team that reaches 20 first, for example wins...ofcourse not 20 passes in row, mind you, LOL.
You mention the older Latino players bring their younger players along is perfect. That's why I want pick up game set up with MIXED AGES. As long as the soccer associations don't restructure their training development to more MIXED playing, these kids will have a tougher time of it in developing if there aren't older players to learn and experience. The Latino kids will learn more by being brought by their dad to his pickup games than going to practice with some Soccer Association team practices. A young latino kid will experience so many factors of soccer that he'll never get from the way a Soccer Association deals with their youth....
I took a 13year old on my men's amateur team , the kid in 2 years playing men's ball became all Met in the DC in high school ,got a soccer scholarship, and ended up playing later for George Mason under Gordon Bradley.
I would in practice teach him to pass with the outside of the foot and we did this by having to pass back and forth with a telephone pole between us which forces you to curve the ball....
"someone older usually adjusted the players to create competitive games - something the modern coach needs to learn." You are so right Ron, good point. You are aware of that and so many coaches aren't. See if you can bring some older players to play and practice with your boys, give them some Youtube videos to watch of good players. Tell them in games , do a move and don't worry about failure. All you expect ,If you lose the ball , go after him...Encourage your players, tell them to try a nutmeg....The important thing is not to worry about failure, which street soccer players of my generation never knew and therefore tried anything and everything; and therefore their mindset was 'can do'.
One point - when I said even teams some times that is in numbers even other times it's skills in the numbers. So a 5 v3 game can be even if the 3have the 2 best skilled players and as you watch it's an "even" game of keep away.
The point is coaches need to find ways to help transfer newly taught techniques into game type scenarios. The coaches need to understand the players they are coaching and how best to teach the game to them.
I also like getting to coach the 3rd or 4th child in a family - those players have been playing with older kids for years and you can see the fruits of thier labors. They also don't like/accept losing and will find ways to try and win....
Great discussion and many good ideas exchanged!
Ron, Right On!! Good point about having the best skilled players on the lesser team. But let me suggest also to let them also choose teams on their own only for purposes of letting them think about choosing the disadvantages vs advantages to their team of picking a player.
There is a nice Youtube video called. Gerald Vanenburg-Van straat tot stadium(1984)
He was only 17 playing for Ajax. It is was very inspirational, I showed it so often to the kids in camp. In the beginning watch the kids play street soccer, a whole bunch of them in a small area. Ofcourse I edit it but you can always fast forward through some of the talking. Watch the whole thing first then mark where you can fast forward. Watch his footwork. It is in Dutch and he learned his game playing street soccer and practiced moves...Let your kids watch this , they will definitely like it...ENJOY.....
It is players like that get kids excited....Let me know how you like.