adminTalking Football with Cosmas Zulu
SOCCER is a game full of skills, kicking, heading, ball control, tackling, running, dribbling, saving and tactical skills. Some players such as Peter Ndlovu, Moses Chunga, Willard Khumalo, late Joel Shambo, and the late Benjamin Konjera seem to have been born footballers, everything they did appeared effortless. Others have to learn their skills and develop them to work on their weakness and some make up for lack of skill by sheer effort.
With practice and dedication you can develop your skill and learn to apply the pressure of match conditions.
Modern soccer demands a great deal from a player, a full 90 minutes of effort, both mental and physical fitness concentration are essential, work rate is the foundation or the whole game crumbles.
To some critics work rate has become a dirty word perhaps because it has been stressed so much that skills have often been overlooked. Well you need both, develop your skills as far as you can and then make the most out of them. Even the greatest players never stop trying to improve their skills and keep their reflexes sharp. What might seem like in-born ability is often the result of hours and hours of practice.
However talented you are you won’t get to the top without a lot of hard work.
Controlling skills
If you can’t control the ball you can’t play football. It doesn’t matter how fast you are or how hard you kick the ball, if you are unable to kill a moving ball quickly and keep it under control you will not last five minutes in any reasonable standard of soccer.
In other games you can get away with learning perhaps one or two basic skills, but in soccer especially in the modern game which demands all round ability whatever position you play you need to develop all the basic skills and you need to be able to apply those skills at speed and under pressure. When you play the ball you pass, shoot or clear it first time or you control it first.
Controlling the ball does not necessarily mean killing it dead. Trapping the ball underfoot was once accepted as a way of getting a high ball control but you don’t often see it done these days. In most situations it is not enough to have a motionless ball ready for your next move whether it is a pass, a shot, a dribble or fast run at the opposing defence.
Your aim should be to control the ball and get it moving in the direction and at speed you want it in one controlling touch.
You can control the ball with any part of your body chiefly feet, thighs, chest and middle of the body anywhere in the area between thighs and chest.
In many cases you will be taking the pace off the ball using a part of your body to cushion whatever part of your body you use. You withdraw as the ball arrives, this produces the cushioning effect whether it is with your foot or even your head but there are other situations when you do not want to or cannot cushion the ball but need to get it moving quickly in a particular direction.
To do this you might take a high ball with the inside or outside of your foot, wedging it to the ground as you take off or you might run into a bouncing ball and knock it down with your stomach so that it is running in front of you ready for a shot or pass.
The game is called “football” and naturally there are several ways you see your feet control the ball.
Trapping on the volley is the method used for pulling a ball off the air and principles of balance, judgment, timing, coordination and suppleness that go onto performing this skill are basic to most football skills and it is worth considering them in detail.
To control the ball on the volley use either your instep, the inside of your foot or in exceptional circumstances the outside of your foot to meet the ball and then just as the ball makes contact you withdraw your foot in the same direction as the ball to slow it down.
This makes it sound as if you would need a built-in computer to achieve such an effect but as with all skills performed at speed it is just a matter of timing and practice and confidence.
Keeping them guessing
You will often see a player instead of pulling the ball to the ground, flick it up or let it bounce up to his body. He does this for a number of reasons — it helps to screen or cover the ball and makes it difficult for an opponent to make an immediate challenge.
It gives the player more time to decide where to pass, it also disguises his intentions and gives him more option – he can make a volley pass in any direction or bring the ball to his feet after all while the defence holds off.
There was a saying during our playing days in the 70s if you could not control the ball: “Indaba udlala ibhola njengo guard jele”.
You may be wondering why I am not talking about the Zimbabwe Warriors at Chan. I have to get the clearance from the chairman of the high performance of the technical committee of the national teams, since I am one of the committee members.
Until next week.
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