The Soccer Coach

- intellectual, psychic and moral training.

All this is accomplished through physical exercises. We can therefore define the training as “the combination of all the actions aimed at improving the modifiable factors that affect the performance to get the best efficiency."

The factors on which action can be taken are many, we can mention:

- training of physical abilities;

- training of technical abilities;

- training of tactical abilities;

- training of psychic abilities.

It is not possible to intervene on one of them without affecting positively or negatively the others.

If training stimuli are varied and directed at all abilities, the body is confused and does not know what response to such stresses. In training, combining multiple capacities does not cause a sum of adaptations, but instead it causes a subtraction of adaptations. Therefore, the coach does not have to train all the time, because otherwise he will be training bad, little or nothing. Physical exercise physiologists have always been interested in the adaptations of our body to the chronic exposure to physical exercise (training) and in particular:

to the principle of subjectivity, under which the training program should be established taking into account possible variations from subject to subject. Different people respond differently to the same training program.

to the principle of specificity, under which the training should reflect perfectly the type of motor activity that is taking place, in order to optimize its benefits. A weightlifter cannot train with the prolonged run.

to the principle of reversibility, under which the benefits of training are lost when the workout is stopped or decreased. For long breaks it is advisable to always suggest maintenance activities.

to the principle of the sequential overload, under which you need to stimulate the body (muscles, cardiovascular system) with ever increasing loads as the body fits.

to the principle of “hard / easy”, under which intense "hard" training sessions (load or augmentation) should be followed by an "easy" (unload or assimilation) exercise period to allow the body to recover and adapt before tackling the next increase.

to the principle of rescheduling, seen as megacycle, macrocycle, mesocycle and microcicle programming, within which intensity and volume of loads and training types will be varied for continuous search of better physical fitness conditions.

Many athletes are over trained, and when their performance worsens because of overtraining, coaches train them more because it is believed that the more you train the more it improves. (J.H Wilmore–D. L. Costill, 2005).

The more complete and finalized are the interventions on the parts composing the training, the more effective and precise will it be. In soccer game, unfortunately, there are still cases where the training is limited to "a few laps around the field, scrimmages and some goal shootings”. There is nothing that can replace the practice. All theories are abstract if they fail to illuminate the concepts formed in practical experience. The complexity of soccer requires precise, qualified and studied interventions.

The most difficult problem to face is to determine the type, quality and intensity of the work to be offered to the players and to check their degree of fit for training loads (TRAINABILITY).

Coachability is a dynamic parameter depending on internal and external personal factors. It can manifest itself in different ways in the various functional and organic systems of the same subject. In the infancy and adolescence age, the so-called "sensitive phases" (Martin, 1982) play a key role, namely they are those periods of growth that are particularly conducive to the development and formation of decisive skills and abilities for the motor-sport performance. By applying all the principles of training, you must prepare a work program that fits the players who have to perform it and the type of game the coach intends to set. The coach must always keep in mind the question "what should I do and at when".

So let us clarify what they are:

- the principles of learning (how the player learns);

- the principles of teaching (how the coach should teach).

The main aim must be to induce positive changes in behavior and lifestyle habits. Human behavior differs in:

innate actions, which we must not learn and do not require any prior experience;

discovered actions, which we discover by ourselves through a personal process as try-error-try again;

assimilated actions, which we acquire from other individuals with an unconscious emulation process;

actions learned, which must be taught and require a voluntary effort, based on a precise analytical observation.

The principles of learning

The statement that "if a soccer player trains, he improves and perfects his skills" is not true at all, because training determines behaviors and adaptations whether it is conducted in an appropriate way or an inadequate one. Not all adaptations and behaviors are useful for the realization of the different sports activities.

Effective training and equally effective learning in soccer are much related to the formation of proper attitudes, habits and movements.

First, in order of importance, it is the attitude towards learning, both by the coach and by the player. This attitude should be characterized by two qualities:

- open mind;

- very eager mind.

Essential mental attitudes to receive and evaluate new ideas and to apply them, to constantly question yourself; more simply to update continuously.

Not all ideas are good, so it is a mistake to immediately accept a new idea based on the only novelty criterion, as it is a mistake not to give it credit without evaluating it.

Some sports require predominantly the care of the technical aspects, others of the athletic ones: soccer is a sport where judgment predominates.

This conclusion is reached with a simple analysis:

- a soccer match lasts 90 minutes;

- the ball is in play for about 60 minutes;

- within 60 minutes each team is assumed to have possession of the ball for at least 30 minutes;

- during these 30 minutes the ball is often in the air and out of reach of players;

- on average every single player can not have the ball possession for more than 2 or 3 minutes.

After this analysis a question is spontaneous:

What does the player do in the other 57- 58 minutes when the ball is in play?

The answer is:

He applies his judgment skills, makes decisions and makes choices.

We also note that soccer is one of the most varied sports, both because players and the ball can move across the field, and because the rules to be respected are few; we understand that situations change rapidly and require speed of execution and concentration by the players. All this brings us back to the fundamental problem that is not how to train, but rather how a soccer player learns.

To stimulate players successfully, the coach should consider the following factors:

1) the interest: the player who is not interested and motivated dedicates little effort to the proposed activities.

2) enthusiasm: the player who lacks enthusiasm is not useful to himself and to the group.