What is Technique? What is Skill?
Technique is the execution of a single performance - a pass, control, jump, or turn. Decisions are involved, which means that the performance involves both physical and mental elements.
Skill, in soccer terms, is the ability to be in the right place at the right time and to select the correct technique on demand. Skill, therefore, is concerned with making judgements and selection. There are some games, which are predominantly games of technique. Soccer is predominantly a game of technique. Soccer is also predominantly a game of judgement. How do we reach that conclusion? By a simple analysis of the facts:
- In a 90-minute game of soccer, the ball is only in play for approximately 60 of those minutes. For the remainder of the time the ball is out of play.
- Out of the 60 minutes in which the ball is in play, each team in an even game will have possession of the ball for 30 minutes.
- During the time in which the ball is in play the ball will frequently be in flight and outside the playing distance of any one of the 22 players.
- An individual player in a team on average will have possession of the ball for more than two minutes.
Question: What is the player doing for the other 58 minutes that the ball is in play?
Answer: Making judgements, decisions and selections.
Added to all this is the probability that soccer is the most fluid of all games. All the players and the ball can move through 360 degrees and there are minimum numbers of laws and relatively few stoppages. Situations, therefore, change rapidly, requiring from the players a high degree of mental alertness and concentration.
All of which brings us back to the fundamental question, which is not, how does one coach, but rather, how does a young player learn?
How a Young Player Learns
Young players have a desire to achieve and to prove themselves to others. In order to motivate them successfully, the coach needs to take into consideration the following factors:
The player must be interested. The player who is not interested has a closed mind and that, if it cannot be changed, is a recipe for disaster.
The player should have enthusiasm - a desire to be involved and to participate. One should be suspicious of any young player who lacks enthusiasm. It is worth remembering that people who are enthusiastic want to do more not less.
The player should see good examples and be set good standards. Seeing good players play live, or on film, is important. By observing what good players do, standards are set; standards, one must add, not only of performance but also of behaviour. By observing what others do, particularly those whom we respect and admire, attitudes and habits are formed. One cannot overestimate the responsibility that falls on outstanding players and coaches alike in setting and establishing standards for young players. Through harnessing this means of learning, coaches can bring about a permanent change for the better in both attitudes and habits.
The player will learn through correct practice and through the frequency of that practice. The quality of the practice is more important than the frequency. Given the quality, however, the greater the time devoted to practice, the better will be the results.
The player will learn by knowledge of results. The more progress a player is seen to be making, the more the player is likely to be encouraged to practice. Like taking medicine, we may not always like it: but if there is clear evidence that it is doing us good we will continue to take it. Correct practice involves setting player performance targets so that progress can be measured. This task belongs entirely to the coach.
The player will learn by being challenged. Progress involves a continuous process of reaching beyond one's grasp. Progress is not achieved by constantly working within one's limits - one does not climb higher by looking down. Players will improve by being set more difficult tasks and by playing with and against better players, the proviso being that the task is not too difficult nor the opposing players too good. Coaches must set these challenges carefully for young players calculating on the probability of success.
The player learns by faith. At the end of the day a person will not achieve more than they believe to be possible. The question is what is possible? Many of us underestimate what we could achieve. At the same time, most of us are inspired by hope: but many hopes are not realistically based. Coaches should inspire and encourage players to strive harder to establish and improve hopes and ambitions, which are attainable.
The Elements in a Skillful Performance
Having established how a player learns, what does s/he need to learn in soccer? What are the factors involved in a skilful performance? There are three major areas: technique, understanding and fitness.
Technique: Techniques in soccer are the tools of the trade. The better the techniques and the wider the range of techniques at the disposal of the player, the better s/he is likely to be. There is no substitute for good technique.
Understanding: Understanding means understanding what one can do and what is necessary. To attempt something which one knows one cannot do is, to put it mildly, unskilful. Understanding what is necessary requires knowledge, vision and perception; thus the excellent technical performer may not be skilful, since s/he may not understand or perceive when and where to use his or her various techniques.
It has already been established that, for the most part, players will not be performing techniques with the ball during a game of soccer. A skilful player, therefore, must understand how to position to the best advantage of his/her team and teammates. In order to do this successfully, the principles of the game should guide his/her thinking. Without a through grasp of these principles, real understanding is not possible.
A player must also understand the relative importance of the various areas of the field, the state of the game, and the physical conditions, when calculating between safety and risk. Coaches sometimes refer to good soccer as if it were a finite state. Efficiency is what we must strive to achieve: efficiency as an individual and as a team. Part of that efficiency is embodied in a player's appreciation of when, where and how to take risks and when, where and how to perform with safety.
Understanding and skill in soccer are therefore a composite of many factors.
Fitness: Fitness requires a combination of physical and mental fitness. It is also impossible to state with any certainty the influence, which a player's physical state has upon his or her mental state, or vice versa. The two are not only inter-related; they are woven like a golden thread through the whole of soccer.
Fatigue causes techniques to deteriorate, concentration to lapse, and judgement to falter. Thus, skill is not a realizable asset unless it is accompanied by fitness. Without attempting to draw final conclusions, an analysis of the times at which goals are scored in matches gives some interesting statistics. 30 games were analyzed during which 76 goals were scored.
23 goals (30%) were scored in the last 15 minutes of the game.
17 goals (22%) were scored in the last 5 minutes of the game.
These statistics are an indication that fitness is an important factor, and perhaps the major factor, during the closing stages of a game.
Arising from the three major areas of technique, understanding and fitness, there emerge five elements in skilful performance:
Mental Concentration: This has to be ingrained as a habit and an attitude of mind. Without concentration and thinking about what one is doing, the game is reduced to a lottery and the game, as a battle of wits does not take place.
Correct Techniques: The wider the range of techniques a player possesses means the greater the possibility of being equal to the technical demands.
Seeing and Perceiving: There is a vast difference between seeing and perceiving. There are some players who are essentially "one-eyed," only seeing the play on one side of the field. Usually it is the side they happen to be on at the time. Often an incorrect body position of the player or a poor-supporting angle precludes the player from having a wide range of vision. Players need to learn to play with their heads up, surveying constantly the changing positions of the ball and players. They also need perception to interpret what all that information means. Without perception, seeing means very little.
Decisions & Judgements: Knowledge and perception are fundamental to decision-making. It is necessary to be able to sift the essential from the non-essential and the first priority from the second and lower priorities. It requires an alert, decisive and positive frame of mind to make such a judgment. Players should be encouraged to understand that soccer is a game of decisions. It is better to make a wrong decision than no decision at all.
Action: This is the application and the implementation of the decision with single-minded purpose. Soccer is very much a game of mistakes and the biggest mistakes are not to make a decision or to change one's mind in the midst of applying a decision.
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