Thoughts on Charlie Francis and soccer

Not what you know more who you know.

N2, I’m pretty familiar with the selection procedure, and as I said in a previous post there are much more than a few pretty much incompetent professionals around. But I personally do not jump to conclusions without all the elements. Here is a case.
The S&C coach of Juventus last year was the one of Roma this year.
He is 64 yo, so I presume his ideas are pretty much set. Last year (and this year also), Juventus was plagued by injury. This year Roma was not. Last year he was the responsible of injuries. A few weeks ago he was judged by his fellows the best S&C of the year. What happened?
I present a real case, and not whispers. Anyone with an explanation?

This isn’t based on soccer, but a situation locally in another team sport.

The head organisation wanted a S&C to oversee the elite elements of the sport in the state, and you needed degrees and the like. A friend of mine who applied for the position, doesn’t have the degree, but coaches arguable to the fittest team in the league basically speaks everyday to the person who got the job as S&C coach about training as the S&C has the theory background but little experience in technique and training/coaching.

Be very careful drawing conclusions from (so-called) injury lists, rumours and physical appearances without knowing the actual background or situation.

Also, the S&C staff are not the only decision making people in soccer, so injuries etc are not a sole reflection on the fitness department.

If people knew the truth about some of the medical and S&C programs in Premiership soccer or the knowledge and approach of some of the staff and treatment of top players they’d not believe it.

I do believe it. I am close to a chiropractor who worked with NFL team for 10 years. He tells me stories all the time. In fact, after all that time, he told one physio he didnt know what he was doing, and was fired on the spot.

There isn’t a cause and effect between S&C and injury history or S&C and teams performance. It’s an entire organization approach as you could have different scenarios of the owner, coach, physio, S&C all playing a role that could negatively impact a player/team.

Maybe many of these injuries have re-occurred because of their high salaries, that the owners demanded they play and over rode the phyio and team Dr’s advice??? We don’t know the entire story, but what is known in most cases is that a player(s) misses a game(s).

Yeah!. Many of the metatarsal injuries that occurred were from being stamped on by a member of the opposing team, poor boot design? & the upper part of the boot not being very protective.

That is the brilliance of Charlie’s sequencing for sports performance. He was the first to understand this relationship. Work on your aerobic power on off days. This will help recovery and your ability to recover your heart rate.

Instead of mixing the two and training unnecessary systems and ruining the intended training effect.

Extensive work can be sport specific.

could you or someone else explain this? How does one work at aerobic power?

Thanks

I would say aerobic capacity is more important than aerobic power

things from a simplicity standpoint. Speed builds endurance, endurance builds no speed. With that said, none of my athletes do anything other than tempos and speed. Football, I worry more about recovery. Hockey, they play 80+ games and skate 2 + times per week practice. As is often the case, they play their way into shape. The less I do, the better. I know ESTI has done some out of the box soccer training and his girls were blowing through collegiate conditioning without doing and distance work that so many coaches base their programs on. The problem we face in the private sector is that you can have the best plan and peak your athlete perfectly, then he reports to camp. Two weeks later, he is smashed by someone who hasn’t considered if the guy is already in shape and just needs to hold his fitness.

Exactly. Some people here are putting 2+2 together and getting 5. The situations are multifaceted and unless you know all the details, and the all the history, the rest is just speculation.

I was wondering that last night after seeing those injuries. Im curious if they still favor the soft animal skin boots over the traiditonal syntheitic leather cover.

Kangaroo is the most likely.

Boot design may be one very small factor for the occasional metatarsal injury but blaming it solely on the boot is incorrect.

It is possible that the boot is a contributing factor, as is the duration and intensity of the premiership season and condition of the pitches .

Modern lightweight boots have been blamed by some experts for the spate of metatarsal injuries, which used to be relatively rare. “They are not offering the protection they once did,” said Exeter University’s Sharon Dixon, an expert on the biomechanical aspects of sports injuries. Adidas tweaked the design of its Predator boot in 2004 to provide better cushioning at the front of the foot and give the metatarsals more protection.

Over the past 7 years in soccer there have been …
[ul]
[li]Increased training loads[/li][li]Greater loads at a younger age[/li][li]Greater volumes overall[/li][li]Poor preparation more games[/li][li]More artificial turf[/li][li]Greater deceleration loading[/li][li]More traveling[/li][li]Poorer nutritional habits[/li][li]Poorer quality foods[/li][li]Longer seasons[/li][li]Greater increase in injury overall & worsening biomechanics[/li][li]Etc [/li][li]etc[/li][/ul]

But of course it’s the boots
:cool:

Agreed with above list. So back to earlier discussions, it appears most of those can be helped with proper training??? Also, I would agree this is true for US players as well. Not sure what the US injury rates are. Would be interesting to compare. Also compare within the different leagues.

Sensible training and good approaches would work wonders in soccer, but it will take time.

Like I said, there is an excellent chance for the US to make improvements, maybe even prepare better than European teams if it can combine a progressive approach physical conditioning program with good technical and tactical knowledge.

The demand in Europe is the inverse.

But still have the top teams & far greater technical and tactical knowledge from players & coaches.

Can a physical conditioning program override technical and tactical knowledge. Not IMO. Don’t get me wrong, physical conditioning is extremely important.

A team of Usian Bolts with mediocre technical ability would get the run around from teams with the greater passing/first touch/composure ability (Manchester United/Barcelona/Real Mad etc) with mediocre/to good conditioning.

(I can’t understand the first line buddy)

To answer the 2nd part I go back to what I said previously…

The outcome of a soccer match is 70% determinable by the skill levels of the players involved.
Physical conditioning has an approximate 30% influence.