Why changing direction is soccer’s most important skill.
“It’s not how fast you can start,” says John Lytton, Performance Sports Director at Performance Unlimited. He argues "changing direction is the most important skill a player should develop.” Queen City Mutiny takes an always be learning approach to soccer. So, we asked our friend to share this opinion with us in a guest blog. We hope you enjoy it!
Most of the United States is convinced the Super Bowl is the biggest sporting event of the year. Yet the UEFA Champions League outperforms the big event from that “other” football in every quantifiable category. There are three times as many viewers (380 million to 114 million) and over 7-times the amount of prize money ($108 million to $14.7 million). To say there’s pressure on the participating teams is a gross understatement.
The Champions League is the biggest stage for the world’s best players. Last season,, Liverpool and Bayern Munich, two of the world’s biggest clubs, clashed in a game determining who moved on to the quarter-finals of the illustrious tournament.
Within the first quarter of the match, Liverpool’s deadly striker — Sadio Mane — picked a 30-yard pass out of the air just a second before seeing it arrive over his shoulders…Hank Aaron or Jerry Rice style. In that moment of reaction he took an incredible first touch to defy not one, but two Munich defenders, going the wrong direction. Mane found himself in on an empty goal.
Learning from Mane’s Magic
That deft first touch is a perfect example of how when the greatest pressures are present, we call upon habits and training preparation to execute in the moment. The run he created was magic, the finish sublime. Ultimately, this stellar moment of soccer is proof we need to pay attention to developing soccer players’ physical skills to see them progress as soccer athletes for the modern game.
The most stealth athletes have worked on two categories of fundamental movement skill that make or break the majority of high stakes moments. Being able to accelerate and change direction underpin every other skill that becomes important. Do you need to be able to jump? Yes. Be strong? Of course. But, being fast and agile can do the most for you.
Mane’s ability to separate from defenders and enter into space to get underneath the pass enabled him to be in a position to receive the pass first, before the Munich goalkeeper came rushing in. Noticing the oncoming keeper and defender in tow, Mane created the perfect change of direction, within his first touch of the ball, in the midst of his play. The highlighted image helps illustrate the three principles of changing direction:
He created the perfect foot position for balance and speed (usually shoulder-width apart).
He absorbed the immense force created by stopping from a dead sprint to change the direction of his run by keeping his torso upright and letting his hips, knees, and ankles act as cushions.
He cut out all unnecessary movement by positioning his body to step into the direction he wanted to go when he leaned into the turn.
Yes, Mane is explosive and may have been able to accelerate by the two defenders with a more simple first touch to control then burst into space. Yet, by cutting out the extra step he didn’t need, he was able to quickly separate from Munich’s defense.
It wasn’t how fast he was able to start, but how fast he stopped and turned, that enabled this world-class play.
Some statistics state that soccer players change direction every 3 steps or 5 seconds within a match. That’s thousands of changes! Any small improvement adds up to large gains in performance. And in the most important moments, the high-stress scenarios, the ability to create a more effective (productive) and efficient (less energy used) movement is not only key to success but also diminishes injury risk.
Training for Direction Changes
So, how do we train for direction changes? As with any other skill, we have to understand the basic principles, set up drills progressively teaching the proper movement, challenge the movement speed, then insert a reaction component…walah we have agility!
In videos on Performance Unlimited’s YouTube channel focused on Change of Direction skills you can find drills to help:
Understand the three principles behind changing direction (feet shoulder width/toes forward, bend from hips/knees/ankles, lean into the turn).
Focus on being in proper position utilizing our swing/stop/lean and crossover drills
Challenge yourself with basic transitions of change (shuffle to shuffle, shuffle to run, run to shuffle)
Progress the speed of your change transitions without sacrificing technique by increasing effort or varying distances and angles.
Create a mental element like an auditory or visual cue to react, while still maintaining the technique.
And that’s all done before we add a ball! Once you have the techniques, you’ll see all of our transition principles work with the ball…as Mane proved under pressure on the stage of the world’s true largest sporting event!
If you have questions, or want to increase your ability to change direction or another aspect of your physical performance, shoot John Lytton an email. In the meantime, your Mutiny coaches look forward to seeing you changing direction that much faster once you’ve done the homework John set for you!
