#talentcode

  億万長者は、占星術を信じない。しかし、大富豪は活用する。

1988年5月15日　ニューヨークタイムズに掲載されたこの言葉は、これまで成功してきた起業家や社長に大きな影響を与えています。

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Personally, I’m a big believer in there being no substitute for hard work in training, however, I also think it is naive to think that just any type of training will ensure success.

No training can ever guarantee positive results because player development depends on both intrinsic motivations (from the player) as it is extrinsic (the environment) however, with the right approach, mind set and quality, you are allowing yourself or your son/daughter the best chance.

Whenever a parent asks me how much training their son/daughter should do, I always suggest up until 14, whatever their age, that is perhaps a good amount of hours to do a week e.g. a 5 year old plays for 5 hours and an 11 year old, 11 hours a week.

This should be flexible with the player being the best indication of whether it is too much or not - As long as players rest well and maintain a well balanced diet, this amount should be just right and it is not as much as you think. I will break this down towards the end of the post.

I do think at this point that is important to remember that 11 hours of good training will reap huge benefits to the 11 year old, yet 5 hours of quality training mixed with 6 hours of poor training will probably have an adverse affect and un-do the hard work.

In recent seasons a number of players I have trained have been receiving training at School from ‘pro clubs’ and unfortunately, it has clearly affected on their development and unfortunately in a negative way. Similarly, a number of players had spent months at a time in academy ‘development squads’, which for me is nothing more than a clever way for pro clubs to create more revenue with the slight possibility of uncovering some untapped talent.

For a pro club, which is a business after all, the development squads are a genius marketing ploy, but for the players and parents blinded by the slim possibility of being spotted it is an unfortunate pipe dream that rarely comes to fruition.

I have full respect for the work of community clubs and development programs and don’t want you to think that this blog post takes away the fantastic community benefits, and increased levels of activity in children which must be considered a good thing, I am merely pointing out that no matter how the pro club dress them up, they are rarely ever intended for the purpose of developing players.

While there could be an argument to say that any training is better none - after all the more touches a player has, the more confident they will be on the ball - the danger is that players develop the wrong mindset which can restrict a player.

A good coach in my opinion, will promote freedom and creativity. They will be the coach that will push players just outside of their comfort zone while offering support. Players working with a top coach will be taught to learn and develop through various techniques and corrective exercises and should be challenged to reach higher personal targets on a consistent basis.

Players must be motivated by the challenges they are set and want to practice rather than being told they should. Players have to see the bigger picture and find out what it means to them to be excellent at their chosen sport/profession. Once they can do this, the sky really is the limit.

Based on the LSA sessions we do, I’d recommend the following training schedule for an 11 year old:

Wednesday - LSA Session (1 hour) Thursday - LSA Session (1 hour) Saturday - LSA Session (2 hours) Sunday - Match - (1 hour)

This would account for structured practice and should be seen as opportunity to seek guidance and advice along with the chance to learn to work alongside a team or group of other players.

In addition to the above, players should spend aprox. 30 mins a day on the LSA foundation moves plus work on juggling and control on the days they aren’t already doing an LSA session or match:

Monday - Foundation Moves Session (30 mins) plus Juggling practice (30 mins) Tuesday - Foundation Moves Session (30 mins) plus Juggling practice (30 mins) Wednesday - Foundation Moves Session (30 mins) Thursday - Foundation Moves Session (30 mins) Friday - Foundation Moves Session (30 mins) plus Juggling practice (30 mins) Saturday - Foundation Moves Session (30 mins) Sunday - Foundation Moves Session (30 mins)

This has already got us to 10 hours of focused training which in addition to any team training that your son/daughter does, will account for 11 hours of focused practice which demonstrates both intrinsic and extrinsic qualities.

In addition, the variety of training by working in this way will not only work on a players mentality, technique, fitness and the tactical side of the game it is also a very simple, yet well rounded training programme that can easily become routine - The fact that sessions are short also increases the amount of starts and ends to sessions which is a players most productive time for taking on new ideas.

It would be great to get as many players as possible to follow the above training times, even if for just a term, to see how much you can progress with some very simple tweaks to your training times.

I would love to hear your thoughts as a player, parent or coach on the ideas in the post and am open to discussing the points above so please feel free to comment or share.

Many thanks for the support,

Developing a skill, often starts with slowing down the process by breaking it down, becoming attune to the errors, working through them repeatedly until a map is created to build and speed up, enabling the process to become intuitive. Often we do this through imitation. Imitation is not always a conscious activity. By watching others, and sometimes without knowing it, we absorb the essence of it. (1) We put ourselves in that situation or in the other person’s position. Imagining it for ourselves, is a form of visualization.