I’ve spent thirty-five years standing on touchlines where the wind cuts right through your jacket, and if there is one thing I’ve learned, it’s that most of the “science” you see on social media is absolute rubbish. I see these kids heading into the gym, chasing fancy machines and expensive supplements, thinking they’ve mastered how
I’ve spent more Sunday mornings than I care to count standing on waterlogged pitches, watching coaches set up these ridiculous, expensive ladder drills that look more like a circus act than a football session. They’ll have kids dancing through plastic sticks, thinking they’ve mastered agility, only to watch them turn like a heavy-duty lorry the
I’ve spent far too many Sunday mornings watching eighteen-year-olds trudge through mud, looking like they’re trying to sprint through a vat of thick porridge. Most of these lads have been told that the secret to speed is some expensive, high-tech plyometric program or a pair of carbon-plated boots that cost more than my first car.
I’ve lost count of how many “elite” training programs I’ve seen online that involve players sprinting in expensive, neon-colored gear on a pristine synthetic track, only for them to look like they’re running through wet cement the moment they step onto a muddy pitch in November. Most of these experts treat speed like a laboratory
I’ve spent far too many Sunday mornings standing on touchlines in a freezing drizzle, watching a perfectly good tactical plan go to absolute ruin because the central midfielder couldn’t find his lungs by the sixty-minute mark. You see it every week: a coach spends hours on shape and passing patterns, only to watch his team
I remember watching a lad back in the late nineties—bright kid, plenty of pace—who spent his entire pre-season running five-mile loops around the local park. He came to the first training session looking like he could go all day, but by the time we hit the sixty-minute mark in our first friendly, he was completely