Why Communication Is Key?
August 29, 2008
How much do you communicate to your teammates on the pitch? Do you provide direction when pressure is on coming? For example, “Watch your back Bill, man coming from your left. Look at James up top - he’s got Seth to support him - play to his feet”. This type of communication helps teammates immensely and should be a significant part of your game.
What does communication look like?
Communication – is how well you listen to, instruct, guide and help teammates verbally.
ON THE PITCH
Communication is used to carry out instructions and tactical changes. This has become common practice in modern-day football. Forms of communication used during the match are: vocal anchors, gestures and signals.
Each type can be assigned to an individual, a unit and/or the whole team. Preordained commands/signs or gestures have been used to play offside and press opponents as a team. Often the spine of the team (center forward, center midfield, center back and goalkeeper) would use these forms of communication to keep the balance of the team formation.
OFF THE PITCH
Managers and coaching staff are able to influence the squads’ communication skills by interacting with the players. Often used at the Half-time interval and before/after a training session/match. This can be with an individual, small group or the entire squad. Resulting in an improvement to the working environment and overall harmony that aids the day-to-day running of any large football club.
5 Ideas for action:
1. Look at Captains of National teams and big clubs, how the use the technics of communication available on the pitch
2. Listen to interview and make a note when you feel the player or coach has a good media profile of the pitch
3. Ask advice from players/coaches who you respect
4. Attend courses provided by local or national sporting bodies on this subject
5. On the pitch, this tool is as important as any other skill, never neglect it and always look for new ways or new languages to enhance this tecnique
As part of FFC’s series on, “24 Key Elements To Being A Great Footballer” we are discussing each key element in 24 successive blog posts every Monday, Wednesday & Friday over an 8 week period inside the respective Game, Body and Mind sections. For more information about the 24 Key Elements get our Players Assessment Kit here. Be sure to also subscribe to FFC by email or RSS - just visit the subscribe button in the top right corner of the page.
What ideas, input, experiences or resources can you share?
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