SuperFootball

Running for running's sake, as practised in the ‘bits and pieces’ approach, does not activate the football brain as the exercise has no football-specific content and structure. Physical trainers and coaches who still believe that pieces of general, non-football-specific training, particularly of athletic and power nature, can produce effects beneficial to the game, may have to de-train themselves and rebuild their expertise based on new scientific premises.

One scientific discovery concludes that the gains resulting from simple non-specific training do not transfer to complex game sports. The cause of this is that the sport-specific brain is ‘tuned’ according to the specifics and complexity of that particular sport. To transfer the effects of general exercise to complex activities, the brain needs to be ‘rewired’ with new circuits.

This could take very long time and effort, though such transfers could only partially materialise. We are yet to witness the speed of a world class sprinter being reproduced in football, basketball or handball. Still, many footballers are made to believe that they can be much faster in the game through general/athletic speed training. Many hours of training and hopes are wasted on this illusion.

Genetic and environmental influences interact to continually influence the brain. In competitive football the most important influences are coming from the training environment, controlled by coaches. For the training process to achieve the objectives of players’ development and maximum performance it is imperative that the work prioritises mental functions and activities in relation to aspects of technique, tactics and physical conditioning and not the other way around.

We need to view the brain as a muscle that can be strengthened or weakened. Experiences, actions, thoughts and emotions play a decisive role by continually stimulating the brain, thus strengthening it. Without sustained activation and stimulation, mental activities remain weak or deteriorate. We are learning to see mental weaknesses as physical abilities in need of practice. An unfit football brain translates into inferior performance and that always is an indication of a wrong training concept where priorities are upside-down.

The prerequisite is to ensure that from the first to the last minute of practise the football brain is continuously activated and stimulated. Every exercise and training activity must contain a large variety of football-specific mental challenges. Studying players’ reactions in training, it has been recorded that mental stimulation is ‘lost’ every time when:

o the content and/or exercise structure is irrelevant,
o the tasks are already familiar or too easy,
o there is excessive explanation and/or demonstration,
o there is no variety of exercises,
o the work involves the body, not the mind,
o outdated routines are introduced as new ideas and
o abusive language, swearing is used for verbal punishment.

Probably the most significant and exciting contribution for optimising performance is the advanced concept and structures of training that are based on game-related exercise, match simulations and conditioned small games. This type of training is superior due to its ‘built in’ football brain stimulation, from the warm-up to the end of the workout.

During exercise every player’s step or movement interacts with various specific mental processes -- concentration, decision making, emotion-control, improvisation/creativity, self-evaluation, communication and so on. As this specific training continuously reflects the constructive, compelling and unlimited diversity of the game. It also carries over massive positive and arousing feelings that enhance players’ work attitude, motivation and mood.

These intricate mental processes and reactions are the subject of several studies in neuroscience. Some of the findings are news of exceptional significance. For instance, mounting evidence shows that the same brain systems that coordinate movement in the game also coordinate tactical thinking, deal with emotions, movement memory and learning. This leads to an immensely valuable conclusion regarding the content of training. It certifies, among other facts, that football-specific work with, or in relation to the ball, is crucial to every brain function that is associated to football. As we see it, this interacting between movement and brain strongly suggests that improvements in the football brain’s functions depend on practising specific movement.

Neurologists produced another striking finding, which involves the effects generated by specific movement, particularly aerobic work, on activating and stimulating attention, concentration, positive thinking, motivation, control over emotions and stress. Here the key discovery came from identifying essential brain chemicals –- the dopamine system -- responsible for constructive actions, enthusiastic and creative attitude, rewarding satisfaction and pleasure, which are released by the brain under the effects of aerobic exercise that is also mentally engaging. Certainly, this is big news for the promoters of ‘new wisdom’!

Experiments done with a large variety of aerobic ball work structures -- such as warm-up, technique training, endurance, intricate movement, related abilities, power-leg and specific speed of reaction -- produced unparalleled benefits. The dynamic synergy between diverse football-specific tasks and simultaneous involvement of the football brain resulted in massive improvement, not only to the players’ playing ability but, equally important, in maximising commitment, motivation, concentration, creativity, enthusiasm and effort recovery.

To discuss the complete list of positive effects and reactions would by far exceed the purpose of this article. Although we do not yet see any significant influence in global football from the latest neuroscience discoveries, there is proof that at the level of the world’s best clubs, mainly from Spain and Brazil, more and more time is allocated in training to intense, ball integrated work, which has ‘built-in’ mental stimulation.

In South Africa, the ‘new wisdom’ concept of total brain-and-ball football specificity was introduced at the high performance youth programme of Sundowns’ development team in November 2008. Before defining the content and methods of training, careful consideration was given to the characteristics of players and environment (this is a prerequisite of ‘Maximal Training’). After only ten months of activity it became evident that the players’ progress had surpassed all expectations, by a large margin.

The most impressive improvements were recorded in the competency, diversity and creativity of applying the technique, tactical mobility (regardless positions) and remarkable initiative. A process of accelerated development took place and consequently the 18-year-old Siyanda Xulu and his colleague Siyabonga Ngubane are now playing in the first team with resounding success. Several other development players from the same programme have topped current PSL technical standards and are ready to move up to professional football.

It is hard to believe that these youngsters, who impress so much in their capacity to sustain the highest demands on fitness, never took a single lap of plain running during their new training programme. They display the mentality of ‘spectacular football, the South African way’ and this was attested to by the organisers of the World Under-18 Club Championship in May 2009, who, after assessing all 18 participating teams’ performances, concluded that ‘the South African team -- Sundowns -- played the best quality football of the tournament’. All these are just a few of the extraordinary merits and benefits of maximising the football brain!

The lesson on the role of environment in the development of players, performance and in the evolution of the game in general, has not yet been learned. Coaching literature and syllabuses compiled for coaching qualification only vaguely and speculatively touch on this vastly influential factor.

Despite growing evidence that should convince us that the continual interacting between genes and the environment determine changes in the brain, very little information, if any, has reached coaching theories and practice. Ignoring knowledge on how to monitor and deal with uncontrolled environmental and social influences could have a devastating effect on players’ upbringing and performance.

Most of a player’s football qualities take shape through interaction of many genes, as influenced by various components of the environment, such as the national/regional general sport and football policies and mentality, training, climate, geography, social-economic factors and so on. Complete acceptance should be given to the reality that environment has the power to change brain structures, for better or worse.

The phenomenal dominance of Kenyans and Ethiopians in mid and long distance running was attributed, some years ago, to their ‘secret’ training methods. When those ‘secret’ methods were copied and used in other parts of the globe the results remained ordinary. More recent, ‘new wisdom’ analyses reveal that the decisive role played in the total supremacy of Kenyan and Ethiopian athletes in distance running, has been the influences of geography, altitude, climate, diet, traditional and social elements.

For millennia these factors are responsible for influencing genetic traits that warrant Kenyans and Ethiopians a specific kind of athletic superiority. Can such similarity be found in football? The cases are there to be acknowledged but we are too busy enjoying the fiasco of ‘globalised football’. Some neuroscientists would be puzzled by the stand taken in football by its ‘experts’, who insist that the principles of modern football, the game mentality and training must unconditionally apply worldwide, regardless of the conditions inherited within local or regional environment.

This baseless belief translates into cancelling some, if not all, environmental influences that could add value or innovate the game, but do not fit the pattern of globalised football. A brief look at only few such prominent influences, like the climate, altitude or geography, would confirm why environment is a powerful factor in the way we think about the game, play and construct and interpret performance. Again, to assist in getting the facts right, it is necessary to consider references from relevant studies and research. For example, it is generally known that a year-round warm or mild climate creates conditions for enjoyable and relaxed outdoor activities.

Surely, sports like football benefit directly from warm climates (an exception though is the case of vastly arid, hot and dry regions). Having the opportunity to spend a lot of time, year-round, playing and exercising with the ball, children in particular, develop excellent ball skills, coordination, agility and a strong interest for the game. The conditions are ideal to extensively use movement in general and football in particular, to enhance creativity and the entertaining features of the game.

The football mentality generated from this environment is strongly associated with skillful, fluent and in many ways, spectacular play. All these attributes may not characterisee football in Africa, South America, Asia and some regions in southern Europe if the climate would have not played its role. Also, the Latin flair largely contributes to the case. As we see it now, there are benefits that currently impact high performance and international competitions as well.

Four out of the top five Fifa-ranked nations and all five short-listed players for the 2009 Fifa World Player Award are representatives of football shaped by the influences of warm or mild climates. By contrast, it has been demonstrated, that the harshly cold winter climate in Europe and other parts of the globe, which greatly restricts enjoyable and relaxed outdoor activities to only few months a year, contribute to inducing limited flexibility, coordination and agility. In this scenario, the game approach is understandably based on more physical, direct and less creative effort.

More information and understanding is also necessary to recognise the effects of altitude on the genetic traits. We are made aware that, for example, players originally from low or medium altitude environments show significant physical and psychological differences as compared to those who are genetically influenced by high altitude conditions. The strong and muscular body composition of west Africans is in contrast with the slim, light frame of east Africans and those differences are clearly identified in the different dynamics of their football.

In South Africa, it is recognised that most of the physically stronger, more skillful, more imaginative and individualistic players are coming from the low altitude of KZN. This is reflected by the fact that the youth national teams comprise over 60 per cent of players from this region. Tswana and Sotho players are characterised by light body structure and play features indicating excellent natural endurance capacity, functional technique, mobility and more determination compared with the others.

Obviously, there are other examples of ‘crossed’ influences between different population groups and regions but the focus we should not lose is the amazing work the environment does on influencing the genetic setup. The more knowledge is extracted from this processes the better chances are for the game to excel.

The movement of players, mainly from Africa and South America, to Europe and other regions has indeed led to an amalgamation of influences and mentalities but the fact that the environment exercises major influence in competitive football should never be underestimated. The full magnitude of this factor is acknowledged when other aspects of social, economic, cultural and religious significance are seriously analysed. Unfortunately, it is an area of indifferent attitude on the side of sport research and football expertise.

If the new knowledge produced in the name of ‘new wisdom’ of neuroscience and other relevant sources is even remotely assimilated in the theory and practice of football, the way we think, train and play the game will change forever. Already football is becoming too complex for rigid, simplistic or exclusively logical theories and debates. Chris Langton, one of the world’s leading researchers in the field of complexity theory, has predicted that in the future science will become more poetic.

The meaning of it, for football, is that many new discoveries on the role and functions of the football brain are now overlapping traditional stereotypes of statistical and linear football. The new era has dawned…The time has arrived for the technicians to look at personality, mentality, passion, emotion, imagination and dedication (among others) as powerful sources of performance and further development of the game.

I support the view that the area of neuroscience is not easily accessible. Difficult technical language and scientific jargon is far more complicated than what it is written in coaching manuals. Efforts are made to simplify the difficult language and expressions of scientific terminology and replace it with easy-to-read and stimulating language.

Meanwhile, the challenge of learning more about advancements in football must be taken responsibly and promptly by all servants of the game.

The interest and dedication to access superior knowledge will always be rewarded. It is something I can guarantee.

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mbaki manyake (gaborone) - Tuesday February 16 2010 - 19:03

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