The Sunday News
Cosmas Zulu
More and more we see the sports world evolving, being used as a form of social interaction, a way for communities to come together to remind us all of how much we share as human beings even when we are supporting different teams.
Often too our participation in sports activities whether as players or as spectators can provide healthy release of tension that have been stored in our bodies as a result of the pressures of day-to-day living, I remember the years I spent with Highlanders FC. Supporters of the team shouting at me during the game, “Wena Munyasaranda uyadlisa i-team yethu.” It never worried me because after the game the same people came to me and said: “Tsano kwalile namuhla, siza zama iviki ezayo.”
Getting on the pitch
The main reason is a few people understand the real issues behind the success or failure of a team, as a result are influenced too greatly by what they hear and read.
When the coach of a club announces on radio, television or in the press that his team will be playing 4-4-2 his supporters usually accept what he says without criticism, when the same coach after a string of defeats announces that the system is to be changed to 4-3-3 everybody believes that the root of the problem has been found and that success will come immediately.
The fact is that people who do not understand the underlying issues in soccer place more reliance on what they are told and less on what they see.
For professional reasons I will not mention one of the team administrators I coached here in Bulawayo, giving me a memo saying from now on the team must change to play 4-3-3 formation.
It is important therefore and those in a position of influence should state the facts as they are, not to cloud the issue with jargon. How many coaches for example does one hear talking about importance of set plays — corner free kicks and throws yet the facts show that at every level of the game 3% of goals originate from set plays at the highest level and especially in key matches the percentage is every higher.
How many talk of highly competent goalkeepers yet two saves from a goalkeeper can be the difference between winning 1-0 or losing 1-2, these factors have nothing to do with systems of play. This demonstrates that winning is an attitude based on learning from the past and living in the present.
I remember sometime in 2013 a Zifa Bulawayo official asked me if I could do some interviews with candidate coaches for the positions to coach the Provincial team. The interview went like this: May you please go in the next room for thirty minutes and draw me a training programme which covers four days of training.
There were twelve coaches to be interviewed; all these coaches drew their training programmes which excluded goalkeepers.
It’s not the coaches who only omit these important men and women between the goalpost. Fans, commentators and sports writers also forget to write more about these players.
Goalkeeping
The goalkeepers can be the turning point of winning and losing a game. The goalkeeper is the “joker” in the pack, that is not to say that his humour is any sharper than the rest of the team, it means that he is different, he has different skills and does a different job on the field and requires different training.
He is however, very much part of the team and needs to have just as much an understanding with his fellow players as they do with each other.
It is often said that you have to be crazy to be a goalkeeper and this is just a way of saying that you need a great deal of courage not only in to face physical dangers but also in making critical decisions almost every time a cross comes in.
Goalkeepers also need to be reasonably tall, not so much for jumping high (where you have the advantage of your hands) but for reaching the extremities of the goal and of course you need agility, not so obvious is the need of speed both off the mark and in short bursts but above all you need a safe pair of hands.
It does not matter how agile, fast and brave you are, if the ball does not “stick” in your hands you are a liability to your side and unfortunately it’s a weakness that has little if any hope of correction.
The insight of goalkeeping
The goalkeeping function has become more diversified and difficult in the line up. The following four aspects should be continually considered in goalkeepers training.
– Ability to catch (also jumping or diving) blocking, punching and deflecting the ball. Training for these fundamentals include exercises for combined elements of techniques, speed of reaction, power, co-ordination, flexibility, dynamic balance, essential factor of agility timing and rhythm.
– Highly complex angle of movement demanded in positioning and repositioning which is done in difficult conditions, constant changes in the position, direction and distance to be in ball’s physical contact, opponents’ pressure and lack of space and quick decisions.
Besides intensive training for improving movement effectively in the goal and away from the goal area the practice should contain tasks for stimulating focused attention, peripheral vision alertness, anticipation, emotion control and accurate dribbling or shielding and passing. These components of the ball technique should be trained by goalkeepers along with field players.
– Complete knowledge and diversified application of tactics of free kicks, restarts counter-attacks and possession player. Exercise in game related situations, especially the small or tactically conditioned games are perfect for optimising goalkeeper’s tactics.
The best effects in training the goalkeepers are achieved by the new exercises which combine for example positioning, diving and catching restarts by throwing.
The sequence is immediately followed by for example compromising repositioning, jumping and catching a high ball short run with the ball diving, blocking etecetera with diverse and intensive movement and group team tactics, the training becomes economical and extremely effective.
Until next week
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