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Please read:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2011/aug/16/the-question-spain-football-dynasty
Please watch:
As I’m reading today’s Guardian article I am struck by the contrast between what I see too often at traditional practices and what the above article describes that Barca and Spain has done to achieve world domination at both the club and international level.
Competitive youth teams play over 50 competitive full-sided games per year in leagues and tournaments. Why would we take additional and very valuable practice time to practice with one ball between 12-30 players when we can use practice time to develop players who are exceptionally skilled and tactically intuitive by using crowded practice scenarios with one ball between 4 players. Do we care more about whether we win the next game? Or do we ensure that each player leaves every practice more capable of dominating his/her immediate opponent under the greatest physiological, psychological, technical and tactical pressure?
When small-sided games are the proven method for making Barca and Spain’s excellent fully fledged pro’s the best in the world shouldn’t they be even more necessary and essential for American kids who attend an average two practices per week (if we’re lucky).
Food for thought!
Andy
The following quote is the crucial heart of the article:
Still, the 5ft 7in detail resonates, given that is the height of Xavi Hernández, Andrés Iniesta, David Silva and Lionel Messi, the players who have guided Spain and/or Barcelona to world domination. Francisco Filho, the coach who was instrumental in establishing Clairefontaine before moving to Manchester United in 2001, is adamant that La Masia, the training facility that is the heart of Barcelona’s youth system, follows similar principles to the French academies: drilling technique, playing constant small-sided games, having players train constantly with the ball rather than running laps or shuttles or working in the gym. The difference seems to be that it, and the Spanish game in general, is more prepared to give smaller players their chance. Seven of Spain’s starting XI against Brazil in the Under-20 quarter-final were under 6ft.
It is a simplistic theory, but perhaps, particularly at youth level, smaller players have to think more than their larger opponents, and so they develop football intelligence earlier. (England, I note with a shudder, had the tallest squad at the Under-20 World Cup). Since the heyday of Clairefontaine, the offside rule has been radically liberalized, something that has had the effect of stretching the effective playing area from around 35-40 yards to around 60, creating more space and allowing smaller players to play. It could be that French football, quite aside from issues of attitude, was simply bypassed by the evolution of the game.
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