The World's Leading Authority in
Strength, Health & Fitness
Now shipping globally at no extra charge!!!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
The World's Leading Authority in Strength, Health & Fitness Now shipping globally at no extra charge!!! |
|
|
|
||
|
BEAUTIFUL GAME It has been nearly four weeks since World Cup began with Germany's opening match victory over Costa Rica. The hopes and dreams of the thirty-two nations who have qualified have risen and fallen in line with their team's performance. And after finishing watching the brilliant Azzurri performance in their win over the host German squad in the World Cup semi-final and awaiting France and Portugal to decide who will meet in the final this July 9th in Berlin, one very important thing should be abundantly clear about the beautiful game and that is, it is a game of passion and soul.Whether it was the impassioned early tie of Trinidad and Tobago against Sweden that captured our hearts, the spectacular growth of African teams as a whole, the Socceroo's emergence as a force to be reckoned with, the ageless magnifique of Les Bleus Zinedine Zidane, the incredible promise of Argentina's heir-apparent Lionel Messi or even the admirable bulldog tenacity of the great young English striker, Wayne Rooney, this World Cup has once again shown itself as the world's greatest sporting tournament and one that captures the imagination of fans across the globe. It has also naturally shown its weaknesses as well, as many nations had their hopes dashed quickly and have had to re-access their entire development plans. Of the many great story lines of this World Cup, one very troubling element is that fitness levels of many squads have been relatively low and somewhat impervious to the demands of the intensely contested matches. This has been the case for many of the top skilled squads and most notably with the pre-tournament favorites Brazil, whose brilliant skills were stymied by their poor baseline levels of preparedness and never seemed to be able to dictate play as they should have. The simple fact is that many squads have been ill prepared for both the summer heat of Germany, the level of competitive tension ala the fog of war and match preparation which is not only inconceivable given the magnitude of the World Cup but an antiquated approach. With the globalization of sport and broad exportation of top coaching talent across the world it can be expected for the quality of the sport to continue to grow and because of that, national teams will need to expand their off-pitch training methods in order to be successful. While Soccer, nee Football, skill and tactical development has continued to improve and flourish, off-pitch training methods are still somewhat out-dated and do little to dictate the ebb and flow of the match and dictate victory. Akin to the Soviet's development of dry-land training in hockey during the 1950s and 60s which lead to their extraordinary development into a hockey super-power, the time as come for Football to do the same. While teams now go through enormous changes, whether it is answering who will take over the brilliant Argentine squad to the now, Steve McClaren led English team, the race for Africa 2010 is on and the nation who captures this notion will devastate the competition. Finally and possibly the most troubling for me is within the US team, to which my comments and personal opinions may surprise some. While many have criticized Bruce Arena's squad for their performance and early exit, I in fact will do the opposite and whole-heartedly commend them on making it through the qualifiers and into the World Cup. Certainly FIFA's pre-tournament rankings, which have been questioned at times, have lead to intense promise but this is an international stage where every team is fighting with all they have for the glory and honor of winning the tournament for its country. And that is the key that few truly understand within the US; fighting for the glory and honor of their national flag with the intense respect, love and passion of the beautiful game. The American squad has done their best with what they have had at their disposal and have made enormous leaps and bounds under Bruce Arena into the international stage. While their exit at World Cup was quick, tough lessons have been learnt and the hallmark of a champion is how they respond to the challenge, get off the canvas and not accept defeat. As they enter the next stage under the coaching tutelage of Germany's Jürgen Klinsmann shortly, which must be the worst kept secret I have ever seen and is a fait de complete unless there is a last minute contractual snag that will prevent the Huntington Beach resident from coming thirty minutes up the freeway to the Carson training center, one of the great long-term needs within the country is the growth of respect for the sport, proper sport related preparation, as well as expanding competitive scheduling outside of CONCACAF. Expanding the image, respect and love for the sport, while extremely difficult to achieve, will have an enormous impact upon the overall level of play and lead to markedly heightened general athleticism of players involved into the sport. For it to happen it will require assets needed to be funneled into early youth development programs (US Youth Soccer Association) within the inner-cities of the country and thus further expand the competitiveness and amount of athletes becoming involved in the game at an early age. Whether it is played in the beautiful cobblestone streets of Italy or the pitches in England and Mexico, the sport grows through the love of the game, attracts those of every economic bracket and must be expanded from the cozy and lush suburban enclaves that typifies many soccer programs within the US. While the USSF has done an exemplary job to date managing the long term appreciation and growth of the sport in the country, its next greatest hurdle is finding a route to have the best athletes in this nation opt for Soccer as opposed to the other major team sports, such as (American) Football, Basketball or Baseball. By doing so, in conjunction with continued skill development work by the many fine grass-roots coaching programs already in place, long-term growth for the sport will catapult at an extraordinary pace. Editors Note: part 2 of "The Beautiful Game" will return with a broader look at training development of Football programs. Worldwide private and confidential consultations on Football Training are available now from John Davies. For further details contact coachdavies@renegadetraining.com |
©2006
RENEGADE TRAINING INTERNATIONAL, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED | SITE BY BIG IDEA SOLUTIONS, LLC | ALL ONLINE SALES FINAL |