Agreed on all points above. Watching younger players, it is quite humorous to see the outside mid run up and down the sidelines open on runs and the center mid, head down, misses opportunity after opportunity, or just running up and down the sidelines when the ball isn’t in a playable range, in which case you are wasting energy. These two examples are relatable and help show your points above.
As I posted earlier, after individual analysis of actual ball possession time of an athlete, it helped prove point that in her specific instance, she did nothing but one touch pass the ball, and the rest of the time was specific “fitness.”
I’ve stories, that I won’t bore you with, from personal experiences of well known players running numbers up to keep stat’s up (distances, sprints) and then on the other side, some of the greats showing incredibly low numbers yet being the most effective player, and game winning, on the team. Also of whole team stat’s showing the same.
The biggest danger I see is actually the focusing on the stat’s incorrectly and this then becomes a motivator for players to do stupid things.
no23, are you sure about that? From my personal experience, in Italy no player gives a damn about statistics, nobody talks about that. The only metrics are goal scored, maybe assists, and money. For other players, not forwards, metrics are not readily used.
Thus, it looks suspect that people in other places do care about those stats.
You only give a damn about stat’s if you have them!
In other words, teams that don’t have statistics available to them or don’t use the systems (Prozone, Amisco etc) certainly don’t (can’t) care about them!
However in some teams where they are used and are available coaches look at the raw data and make comments/decisions on this. When players notice this then they often respond like I describe.
Of course, in the broadest sense though, all that really matters to soccer players is money!
I’m not quite sure what you mean by your response? If you mean that they must play 10 months by contract-to be paid- I fully understand that. My comment about them playing that much helped to better shape my understanding of the training limitations these top players are under and how there was not much time in their offseason.
I simply did not know the year of the top professional lasted that long.
I meant that before discussing strategies for athletic preparation we have to know the boundaries within which we are operating. That means that 10 months of play + 1 month of vacation leave 1 month maximum for a GPP phase (melting into the early stage of team training). I basically wanted to say that, nothing personal.
For sure, a very limited time to train for many. I did not take it personally I was just trying to be sure I understood the point you were making, thanks.
Instead of 1 month vacation then 1 month of training could one not take 2 weeks off and then have 6 weeks to train?
Are all or most of the professional leagues play 10 months or do some play less?
I would suspect that after 10 months of competition, a mere 2 week transition phase wouldn’t be enough for most of them to decompress and get ready for the next season.
Yes - if I were making 8 million Euros to play 10 months of the year, I’d probably take 6 weeks off with my super-model girlfriend(s), drive my Ferrari 458 Italia along the Mediterranean coastline, then start Charlie’s 10-day taper program in the last two weeks before the season started. This is all hypothetical of course…
Yes, seasons are exhausting, I would go for one month with nothing serious in the training department. Even if it is not readily acknowledged, burn out is in my opinion the prominent cause of sudden collapses in a player’s quality. There are guys, and I can cite many, that in a matter of few months passes from champions to medium. Doing the same thing competitively for years and years and years.
While I don’t work directly with soccer team, and I’m still playing, and given that he who knows plays and he who teaches doesn’t know (kidding), I’m pretty informed.
And many of the coaches don’t even ‘decompress’ the players.
In fact after long seasons many have had with so many games and training that a 4 week or 6 week break is not enough - but that’s all they’ll have.
season: about 10 months, with a little break on december (in Italy)
break at the end of the season: about 30-40 days , some soccer player do pre-GPP work of 10-20 days.
GPP: 20-30 days.
Uhm…
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A real GPP, would be a progressive introduction to the typical soccer week.
Or, as suggest a my friend, a “tournè” around the world, where the team play a lot of games.
Then, many soccer players pass from champion to medium for inadeguate physical preparation (many coach have no idea about the real soccer performance model) and low level, often crazy, recovery strategies.
(in example, some physical coaches at high level, during GPP, work every day with 10-15x 1000 m with short recovery and terrible gym work…argh!)
Soccer trend is toward specific training with ball on the field…gym is overrated and often not so well organizated.
Charlie’s approach is around the sunday game necessity, the best way to see soccer…
I have similar situation with many of my athletes age 16+. They may play upwards of 4-8 games a month, at peak close to 10-12 a month, many full 90 minute matches.
Their season is March-mid June, off July and early August, then Play mid August until end of October, generally off October-Dec, and then start with mini games Jan and February before starting again in March.
I have been pretty successful at maintaining fitness, strength, speed during these competitions blocks while providing adequate recovery days and activities. This has allowed me to work them for a few weeks during the off times and then maintain again during competition. I’m sure it was mentioned previously in this thread, I incorporate recovery year round to be able to train them when we have time.
I am curious what you have seen and would recommend for those 10 month athletes for off-season?
I tend to see the trend in where I am at with the focus on the ball. I ask my players to spend an hour with the ball a day, but this isn’t in the form of structured practice, more like juggling, simple touch drills etc. It appears coaches just want their players to play in as many games as possible, as often as possible.
I have 2 girls from the same colleges, who have a coach telling them to play in a 60 minute 8v8 game (with 1-2 subs), then 1 hour later, play 90 minute 11v11 (with 2 subs), 2-3 days per week currently with their season starting in less than 14 days. :mad:
For players who have no off season worth talking about the ‘GPP’ is the only time to actually correct and improve the player specifically - NOT in a general sense.
Sadly it is generally resigned to performing generic training - or in most cases in bigger clubs it is about Tours to Asia or the US.
