Developing an Efficient and Effective Footwork System
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At TST, a huge part of the program is about the development of what we call
Fundamental Footwork Patterns.
Before looking at what these are, it is very important to understand what they do and why they are critical to player development.
The game isn't about footwork, it is about solving problems. Players can choose to solve these problems in whatever way they want. At team training, players will normally be allowed to create their own footwork patterns and use these to solve the problems they face, and for some players with a high degree of natural ability this is fine.
However most players are not blessed with a high level of naturally ability and as a result they develop inefficient and sometimes awkward ways to move the ball around their feet, and as these patterns develop and some self developed patterns become 'dominant' patterns, players begin to use (or the brains subconscious does) these dominant patterns regardless of the level of efficiency and effectiveness.
Players take touches and steps they don't need because they are not efficient on the ball. Players play with the head down because they are not entirely sure what their feet are doing and loose effectiveness as a result. Players develop 'bad habits' or develop weak areas in their technique, which are increasingly plastered over and compensated for, as players desperately try to come up with other ways to use what they are comfortable with to solve whatever problem the face. Just look at what players do to avoid using their weaker foot (that is, if they have never worked on their weak foot). Players can get by with this approach up to a certain level, but it will always be limiting at some point.
This applies to all techniques. You only need to look at the Australian national team to see this in action. The best players in Australia look awkward on the ball sometimes, and struggle to solve problems in tight spaces at an individual level quickly and efficiently. How often do you see an Australian international player break a line? To be honest its embarrassing. It happens because players in Australia are left to develop there own footwork patterns or don't develop the 'correct' (efficient and effective) patterns to a sufficiently advanced level. As a result the best players in Australia are relatively poor technically (when compared to players from other countries) and so do not play in an adventurous way. Pragmatism rules when footwork is poor.
From this you might ask why this isn't a problem in other parts of the world (Europe or South America). The answer is that from the sheer volume of potential good players, who are submersed in a football culture from the day they are born, there will be a huge number of players who are naturally gifted and adopt excellent fundamentals without even knowing it. Technique doesn't need to be taught in Europe or South America to these players.
In these countries, there are millions of really bad players, but nobody cares, because there are more than enough supreme technicians to choose from, and therefore making the effort to teach technique to players who aren't naturally gifted wouldn't add any value to the player pool.
And what about the players who are nearly there and just need a little bit of help? In Europe there are potentially excellent players who are looked over for not having good enough fundamentals. But if these players were taught the secrets of excellent fundamental then these players would match the very best players. But as already stated - why do this when its not necessary - there are already more than enough excellent players to choose from - why make more.
Australia does not have this luxury.
What if there was a simple footwork system that stopped players reinventing the wheel when developing, but instead gave them simple, efficient and effective footwork that could be applied to almost all problems (at at a indiviudal level). What if this system was easy to teach. What if it was something all players could learn. What if there was something that bridged the gap between the 'naturals' and the ones who just need a bit more guidance during the developmental years. Would this be a good thing? Would this even be necessary?
As mentioned above, the game is about solving problems, not footwork. Good players should recognize problems and have a good understanding of how to solve them, and this is all a good player should be thinking about when playing. They should not want to have to worry about how the feet are going to get the ball to where it needs to be. Some would argue from this, that you shouldn't therefore teach footwork but instead let a players own creativity and intuition take over, and let players come up with there own instinctive methods of moving the ball to solve a problem. Fair enough in theory, but as stated above, this works only for the most natural gifted players and if you don't have enough naturally gifted players then it doesn't work.
Some would argue that teaching a footwork system creates a burden of thought which only gets in the way of the problem solving process. Some argue that developing technique in isolation has no transference to the game. For beginners (when first learning a footwork system) this might be true, but it is a well known scientific fact that movement patterns that are done often enough become automatic instinctive actions. This happens in almost every mundane task an adult does. Walk, run, drive a car. If you have ever played sport or a musical instrument you would have got to this level of subconscious action based thinking to some degree. So what if there were simple actions in football which could be called upon (without conscious thought) in a response to most (individual) problems ?
What if there is a systematic footwork pattern, that if developed to a highly advanced and instinctive level, could take away the unnecessary burden of thinking about footwork, as well as taking away the risk of developing poor footwork patterns (that lack efficiency and effectiveness) and that allows players to truly play the game in a developmentally advance way - that is, playing with the head up and letting it be all about solving problems.
If there was - it sounds too easy! Why aren't all players developed into good players?
There is a catch: Developing an advance footwork system takes a lot of practice and repetition. Not because they are hard, but because of precision of touch The patterns not only have to be practiced sufficiently to get them into the subconscious so that they are used automatically without conscious thought ; They also need to be practiced (maintained and improved) throughout the player developmental phase (any age up to the end of the growth spurt and beyond) in order to develop the highly advanced neural pathways that are necessary for players to not only perform the patterns extremely quickly (with an incredible level of precision of touch), but also without thinking about doing them, and then doing them without actually looking down (directly) at the ball.
Good players play with the head up. With their head on the game (which is hardly ever where the ball is. It's every where else). A good player's feet become the player's eyes. A good player can feel the ball's speed and direction from just touching it. The eyes stop being necessary during his process. Like a blind person reading braille or a typist not looking at the keys (and feeling the bumps on the F and J keys).
Getting players to this level is the ultimate goal of TST
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To read about how TST approaches this challenge go to the next page
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