The Speed of Play Paradox

why does the professional game at the highest level sometimes look so slow honestly I'm willing to bet that many of you guys have probably watched games in the Prem Champions League or the World Cup at the highest level and thought to yourself it looks easier to play at this level than it does at the amateur level because these players have so much time and space on the ball but why is that the case especially nowadays when players are faster bigger stronger and more aggressive than ever well welcome to the speed of play Paradox the first and the main reason behind this Paradox is that Pros are better at exposing mindless pressure at the amateur level when a ball is played to a player that Defender can pretty much just Sprint directly at that player and keep on sprinting until they practically run into that attacker and more often than not that player with the ball will panic and turn over the ball more than half of the time it makes it well worth it as that Defender to continue to just mindlessly Sprint at anybody who receives the ball because more often than not your team's going to be rewarded with a turnover and then possess of the ball a lot of times that lack of ability to consistently play around that pressure or break that pressure reinforces that mindless pressing just sprinting at a player and reinforces Chaos at the lower level as a way to defend now as you progress to the professional level and these players ability increases the speed of play all that stuff starts to increase even more now it's even less rewarding to just mindlessly Sprint at an attacker just sprinting into player might only result in a loss of possession 10% of the time at this point so n out of 10 times when you sprint a player with the ball at his feet he's going to be able to break that pressure play around you and you're just going to Sprint just a Sprint for no reason and on the flip side you can actually hurt your team because as you sprint mindlessly especially when your team's not on the same page now you're leaving an area exposing an area on the field that now most professional players will start to recognize and play into that area not only are you expending energy just to expend energy but now you're also leaving an area that you previously were plugging up now on the flip side these Defenders who are marking these players and closing that the space understand this concept as well and they understand that just sprinting full speed until they run into buetts is most likely not going to work so instead they work more as a unit it's more about cutting off angles closing down the space still pressing still applying pressure but instead of sprinting and running into the player it's more like a closing the space encroaching on the player to force the next play to happen so that time and space that you're seeing at the professional level especially at the highest Lev level of the game is more of a respect that's given to players because they understand that these players have the ability and the composure and the speed of play and the decision-making to play out of any pressing that most likely will happen the better the team or the individuals ability to play out of that pressure the more time and space is usually given to those players or to those teams all right guys real quick before we get too much further into this video I want to talk about something that can be overlooked by athletes and most people in general your bra brain health that's why I'm so excited to partner with the center for brain health for this video just like how it's so important to optimize your workouts to get the most out of your training it's also so important to optimize your daily life to get the most out of your brain many people perform harmful habits that can unknowingly lead to poor brain health one example of this is working non-stop and pushing through when you're feeling tired or burned out instead you want to take Brain Breaks to refuel your mental energy and to lower your stress it's just like how professional athletes will avoid training when their body's feeling over ly tired or fatigued instead they might take a few hours in between those two training sessions to let their body recover refuel re-energize and work out a few hours later when they've recovered a little bit more another harmful habit is multitasking or when someone tries to do multiple task at the same time although this habit might seem more productive it's actually harmful and it can lead to poor performance and making more errors instead you want to eliminate distractions and focus on a single task at a time just like if you're training at the field you want to focus on your training you don't want to be doing homework and between drills you're there to train I highly recommend you guys click the link in my description and take the toxic habit quiz from the center for brain health this quiz will show you some harmful habits that could be lurking in your day-to-day life that could also be hurting your brain performance once you have more awareness of your habits the center for brain health can help show you healthier habits to do instead anybody can start making these small changes to their day-to-day life and anybody can start improving their brain health all it takes is a little bit of knowledge and a little bit of effort the second reason why it just looks like there's so much time and space at the professional level is that more often than not pros play a lot more simpler than amateurs one huge thing that I noticed when I jumped from the division one Collegiate level or the semi-pro level up to the professional game was that it felt like I couldn't even get a tackle in when I was defending against these professional level players the vast vast majority of the professional game is one two maybe three touches that's 90% of the professional game and when every single player on the field has good movement into pockets of space and then they play one or two touches it's really hard for the opposing team or Defender to actually get close enough to actually get a tackle in because as soon as you start to close down the space as soon as you take a couple steps the ball's already moving somewhere else it's really eye openening when you watch games in the Prem or wherever you watch games and you watch the defending team and you watch how many players start to close down the space but just as soon as they get within about 5T 5 yards of the player the ball's already gone just watch these clips where every single time the ball's moving around the entire field watch every single Defender they start to close down the space they start to get close but the ball's already gone and then it just happens again and again and again A lot of times these Defenders their job is not to always put a tackle in but to close down the space cut off angles work as a unit and stay patient until there's a pressing trigger that happens and then you go all out Sprint at that player the third reason why it can appear that the professional level game is easier to play in because there's more time and space is because defenses are more organized and coordinated with their pressing than Semi-Pro or amateur level teams like I've mentioned earlier in this video a lot of times that mindless just sprinting at a player is rewarded at the amateur level sometimes even the semi-pro level so a lot of times you don't need to stay as patient in order to try to win back the ball most of the time it's just yeah whenever you get a chance whenever you see it's open Sprint at this guy and try to force an error now I don't want to say there's no tactics there's still obious viously tactics I'm sure you've heard of either you're high pressing you're sitting back in a low block maybe you've heard about pressing triggers maybe you've heard about where you want to force the ball for a trap or something like that but I'm just saying at the highest level since that mindless pressing just sprinting at players with the ball doesn't usually work and it usually exposes space behind you these teams have to be more as a unit with their pressure and they have to wait for the right time and stay patient for those pressing triggers to happen in order to actually Force an error and again it's really evident when you look for it in games but you'll see these teams a lot of the time especially when they're going up against a really skilled team who's really good at keeping the ball and moving the ball and escaping that pressure you'll see teams when they face them a lot of times they're just staying patient they're staying in their position in their lines of four or five or whatever their formation is they're staying patient plugging up those holes kind of blocking the middle usually forcing the ball back or forcing the ball wide and just staying patient and waiting for the right moment moment to then press and try to win the ball back and the main thing they're waiting for is a pressing trigger now a pressing trigger can be anything from a bobbled pass to a pass that's weighted too hard or too soft to a pass in the wrong area such as a fullback that's kind of Trapped in the corner or maybe to a defensive Center mid that's facing towards his own goal whatever that team is looking for and they're on the same page for whatever it is they're waiting for that pressing trigger and as soon as it happens they all pounce and they all jump forward as a unit to try to win that ball back but there's a lot of sitting and waiting especially with these more skilled teams that have less mistakes and have less pressing triggers there's a lot of sitting and waiting and just being patient until that pressing trigger happens so those are the three main reasons why there's so much more time and space and it appears to be easier to play at that level than at the amateur level or even a lower level their ability on the ball their technique their tactical understanding of the game their ability to play Fast an ability to break pressure consistently over and over again creates that time and space if you don't have that ability you won't be able to get that respect of that time and space all right guys well I hope I helped shed a little bit of light on that if you guys ever have thought that or were confused by that if you like the video really would appreciate if you hit the Thumbs Up Button subscribe and I'll see you guys in the next video all right guys [Music] peace [Music]

Channel: Become Elite

Views: 1,064,103

Keywords: soccer, football, sports, vlog, matt, sheldon, become, elite, professional, pro, footballer, athlete, workout, weight, lift, train, training, saint, louis, fc

Id: QTiuDrLMIWs

Length: 9min 1sec (541 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 15 2024