I can relate to this. I think the mind and visualization of something done well can translate into actually doing something well. I used to play in a volleyball league years ago. Before our league played, a higher skill league played before us and sometimes, I'd arrive early and watch them before our matches. It may sound strange but just watching higher level play and visualizing myself doing the same things made me play better in my matches. It also seemed to work when I played tennis. I'd watch Wimbleton or French Open match, then play later that day and I always seemed to play better after watching and trying to immulate great technique and play. If you visualize yourself doing something remarkable you have a better chance of actually doing it than never daydreaming or visualizing it beforehand.
Whoever wrote the article needs to read more autobiographies. Players have a myriad of tricks and things they think about regarding passes/shots they make in a game. A bicycle kick is a skill/athletic move. There's a reason why most people can't do it, they never practice it. And Wayne Rooney is one of the most physically gifted players ever (at his height). I'm sure that helps.
I saw a player score an amazing side volley with the outside of his ankle. I asked him later ever do it before? He said I don't even remember trying that before.
"Rational process?" The writer is clueless. Soccer is not golf where you stand in the shade and discuss how to take the next shot with your caddy. But neither is soccer decision making "instinctive." Like golf the decision making in soccer improves both in speed and quality with learning. But if you stand around pondering which corner of the goal to shoot at, you will soon lose the ball to a defender who is not hesitating. "Be quick, but don't hurry." -- Coach John Wooden, 1910-2010.
I have been playing for 50 years, all recreational except for 2 years of competitive play. There was no organized soccer available to me until I was in the service in my 30's. I played for a military team in a summer league against various men's college teams ranging from junior college to division III. I did that for two years before I was transfered. Since then I have played well over 1000 matches in recreational leagues with and against senior players from all over the US and the world. While I don't think the "level" I play matters at all, I don't mind disclosing it. What makes me so sure are the books I have read on learning and agility and quickness training.
Of course it matters. You're the one saying the guy has no clue about soccer. How do you know the writer didn't play at a reasonable level? How do you know the writer didn't read those books?
Every one does the over head volley the bicycle kick. They practice it plus it is fun. Even a back who never scores does that. A great goal was done by the black Italian team player a couple of games Go a side volley. They practice that too, but he saw the ball then was screen from the ball. So he did not see the ball after it. He got it way if you asked him ever did that before. He would say yes, but not after I could not see the ball anymore.
I used to practice overhead volleys as a teen. I still do them now when the opportunity presents itself some 20 odd years since I last practiced one. To me, you've done it practiced it and you file it away in your reservoir of skills for when you need it. "Instinctive" only seems that way. Intincts=habits. Habits are formed through repetition, conscious or otherwise. So by practicing overhead volleys I was consciously forming a habit, a skill. So when I execute it it might seem instinctive of spur of the moment but it's something that was worked on rationally. I remember working on the landing and how not to injure myself. I remember practicing the kicking motion. I remember visualizing how to do it.
I am judging a writer, not a player. I assume as a writer he knows the meaning of the words he is using. Instinct: 1: a natural or inherent aptitude, impulse, or capacity <had an instinct for the right word> 2a: a largely inheritable and unalterable tendency of an organism to make a complex and specific response to environmental stimuli without involving reason b: behavior that is mediated by reactions below the conscious level
A truly incredible and inspirational coach/man. I like to present my team with a quote every once in a while before practice or a game, and he's featured quite often.
Am I the only one that plays better unconsciously than consciously, its almost like if I try to concentrate I end up concentrating too hard on the task at hand
It depends on what the task is. For expert players "how to strike the ball" is loaded into a movement part of the brain rather than a creative part of the brain. So you don't think about it during the run of play any more than you think about how you run. If they try to think consiously about how to strike the ball, they are using the same part of the brain that they did when first learning so that they don't have the benefit of their "expert" learning in the movement part of the brain.
Well if your going to get a lot of chances you have to train to get them. So can't move and attacking moving to your left. Your going to get less chances. Can't beat people off your dribble need a pass to score. You will get less chances to score. Don't have a shot got to get close. That means less chances. Don't know when to make a run without the ball means less chances. Ball is up but your not up less chances. Can't head the ball well again less chances. How much time do you have the ball in a game?
