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A Decision/Action Model for Soccer – Pt 2

Teambuilding

Necessary elements for team cohesive action

“Many coaches believe that working on the mentality of players is synonymous with teambuilding. At least as important is the team building in regards to how football is played, the team tactical aspects. All coaches work on developing team tactics, but many do not identify or acknowledge it as a structural process.” [9]

Rinus Michels

“Mutual trust is the internal harmony that converts a mob into a team.” [11]

Chet Richards

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The players – their individual qualities“There is no other team sport in which the demands placed on

individual qualities of players can be as decisive as in the game of football.”[9]

The most important quality that a player has is their ‘ability to make a positive contribution to the game.’ This requires an honest appreciation of him or her self and others, “If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles,” Sun-Tzu. Such knowledge requires and enables one to ‘keep their finger on the pulse’ of the match. This is called Fingerspitzengefühl.

“At the world class level an additional quality is required. The Germans call it ‘fingerspitzengefühl’. It means intuitively knowing where the (football) shoe pinches…Looking back on Euro 2000, it is clear that Rijkaard’s fingerspitzengefühl was well developed.” [9]

“When one has developed Fingerspitzengefühl for a changing situation, the tempo picks up and it seems one is then able to bypass the explicit “Orientation” and “Decision”part of the Loop, to “Observe” and “Act” almost simultaneously.” [2]

“Individuals cultivate and polish their intuitive competence, Fingerspitzengefühl, for the jobs they hold…” [11]

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Mutual trust – the binding agent“A coach can only function well if there is

good harmony within the club and the team.” [9]

“Mission command and control demands mutual trust among all commanders, staffs, and Marines—confidence in the abilities and judgment of subordinates, peers, and seniors. Trust is the cornerstone of cooperation… Trust has a reverse side: it must be earned as well as given. We earn the trust of others by demonstrating competence, a sense of responsibility, loyalty, and self-discipline. This last is essential… But since mission command and control is decentralized rather than centralized and spontaneous rather than coercive, discipline is not only imposed from above; it must also be generated from within… Mutual trust also has a positive effect on morale: it increases the individual’s identity with the group and its goals. Mutual trust thus contributes to a supportive, cooperative environment.” [8]

Trust, i.e. esprit de corps, collective identity or Einheit, aligns the power of the team. “Boyd noted, it can also be thought of as a super-Fingerspitzengefühl- it suggests the competence of the group, working together to accomplish some purpose.” [11]

Einheit is ‘loose’ in the sense that it does not address a specific context. It can be viewed as the presence of a general good feeling and positive behaviors. Empathy, courtesy and respect, the absence of negative cliques.

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The goal – now that we’re together, where are we going?“Schwerpunkt acts as a center, or axis or harmonizing agent that is

used to help shape commitment and convey or carry-out intent, at all levels.” [10]

“Boyd advocates the use of a ‘Schwerpunkt concept through all levels to link differing rhythms/patterns so that each part or level of the organic whole can operate at its own natural rhythm – without pulling the organism apart…’” [10] Different parts, different tempos.

“There must exist a common outlook of all officers at lower ranks in order for superiors to permit them the freedom of action while maintaining overall coherency. This is the bridge between subordinate initiative and superior intent. How did the German concept of mission and schwerpunkt give shape to this scheme? The German concept of mission can be thought of as an implicit agreement between superior and subordinate.” [5]

“Schwerpunkt” provides focus and direction to aim the entire organization towards that goal or purpose.” [11]

“This goes some way in explaining Boyd’s insistence on the primary role of a common outlook or orientation pattern… Indeed he makes it a point that ‘without a common outlook superiors cannot give subordinates freedom-of-action and maintain coherency of ongoing action. The subordinate agrees to make his actions serve his superiors intent of what is to be accomplished, while the superior agrees to give his subordinate wide freedom to exercise his imagination and initiative in terms of how the intent is to be realized.’” [10]

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Goals are soccer’s schwerpunkt“The playing philosophy of soccer is central to

youth coaching regarding scoring and preventing goals.” [7]

The game revolves around goals. The effort to create opportunities to score or to deny them continually frames and anchors every players local orientation. As the game moves through the four main moments, along with the players and ball position/velocity their local orientation must adjust accordingly and rapidly.

“Why are goals scored? To some people the answer is simple, it is one word-mistakes. To others it is complex because they believe there are literally hundreds of reasons why goals are scored. [6]

There are, in fact, five basic fundamental reasons why goals are scored. Sometimes, of course, there is a combination of factors, but it is a combination of two or more factors of the five basic factors.” [6]

What are these factors? [6]

1. Lack of pressure on the player with the ball.2. Lack of support for the challenging player.3. Failure to track players down.4. Giving the ball away.5. Set plays.

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Goals and the four main moments – a volatile mix for D/A“Balance in the team is so important.” [1]

“Now we know why goals are scored and have an appreciation of the size of the problem. We can now consider how to pressurise, support etc. We shall discover also that Association Football is a game of opposites and that, having learned how to pressurise in defense we must consider how to relieve pressure in attack. Therein lies the real basis and attraction of the game.” [6]

“Everything starts simply. The defender must first think defensively, but he must also think offensively. For an attacker it is the other way around. Somewhere they meet.” [12]

The moments of ‘in possession’ and ‘opponents in possession’ are confusing enough. The moments of transition even more so. (Even in a closed system model the problem of ‘weighting options’ is monumental.) Add active opponents working to distract and mislead and you begin to understand the problems that decision-action cycles face.

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Auftragstaktik“The mission contract, Auftrag, provides the energy, the motive force to

encourage members of the group towards accomplishment of the common goal.” [11]

“The success of Auftragstaktik presumably rests, at least in part, on knowledge by the subordinate of the higher commander's concept of operations and objectives. In these circumstances the Subordinate can choose sensible courses of action which contribute to the desired outcome within the framework of the overall schema. Obviously there are two ways to achieve this understanding. One is to explain it carefully; the other is to campaign together over such a long period that the "modus operandi" is second nature to all concerned. It is also a by-product of doctrine and training.” [3]

“in other words, do what the next higher commander would do if he were there and knew the same situation.” [3] He or she even might change the objective.

“Later we learned that if it was not going well for us, we could change ourselves in the game – we could change tactics.” [12]

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Summary“However, structural team building makes sure that: the players have confidence in each other, there is calmness in the game actions, the essential team spirit is present and team tactical views are present!

These are basic prerequisites for an optimal performance level.” [9]

The basic prerequisites for teambuilding:

Fingerspitzengefühl, the players individual qualities. Every effort at teambuilding has to take into account the present qualities of the players and how they change based on interactions with teammates and opponents. The end result of these interactions can be seen in their contribution to the game. “Too often one assesses his own performance in defense, build-up and attack without

taking the performance of the opponent into account. Again: you perform as well as the opponent and the specific match circumstances allow you to.” [9]

Einheit, the mutual trust that loosely binds everyone together. There is no explicit goal that acts as a focus at this level. “the aim must be to strive for the optimal willingness, attitude, and motivation of

players, staff and executive committee to keep the work atmosphere as positive as possible. Also, the football related aim could function as the common ‘dream’…[9]

“The individual quickly adapts to the group’s routines, habits, conditions, values and use of language. The base of a culture is its collective mentality, what we call ‘mental culture.’” [4]

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Summary“However, structural team building makes sure that: the players have confidence in each other, there is calmness in the game actions, the essential team spirit is present and team tactical views are present!

These are basic prerequisites for an optimal performance level.” [9]

Schwerpunkt, the immediate, actionable, explicit goal for the team. Success or failure at achieving this goal can build or destroy Einheit. The difficulty here is that one can never reach ‘success’ i.e. rest, until the game is over. As long as the clock is running attention has to paid, work must be done and discipline maintained. One is continually orienting between opposites through the ‘fog of war.’ Living on the edge of chaos and tension is the norm. “Naturally, success is the best ideal binding agent and a way of motivation… When successes follow

one after the other, a dangerous situation might occur: overestimating oneself and an abundance of self-confidence, even if it is an unconscious process… the ‘between-the-ears-syndrome is hard to influence.” [9]

Auftragstaktik, the ‘long view’ goal for teambuilding. Behaviors and patterns that have become ingrained that are capable of dealing with new and unusual problems. "Commanders and subordinates start to understand each other during war. The better they know

each other, the shorter and less detailed the orders can be. To follow a command or an order requires that it is also thought through on the level from which the order was given. The following-through of an order requires that the person to whom it was given thinks at least one level above the one at which that order was given… The mission requires one to be able to think, or to penetrate by thought, the functions of higher command. Auftragstaktik is not limited to any levels. It applies to the division commander and his chief of staff just as much as to the tank commander and his gunner.” [3]

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References

1. BAREND, F. & VAN DORP, H. 1999, Ajax, Barcelona, Cruyff, The ABC of an Obstinate Maestro (London: Bloomsbury).

2. CORAM, R. 2002, Boyd, The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War (New York: Back Bay Books).3. DePUY, W. 2004, Generals Balck and Von Mellenthin on Tactics: Implications for NATO Military Doctrine (Technical

Report BDM/W-81-077-TR, McLean, VA, December 19, 1980)4. ERIKSSON, S-G., RAILO, W. & MATSON, H. 2001, On Soccer (Spring City Pa: Reedswain).5. HAMMOND, G. 2001, The Mind of War, John Boyd and American Security (Washington D.C: Smithsonian Institution

Press). 6. HUGHES, C. 1973, Tactics and Teamwork (Yorkshire, England: EP Group). 7. HYBALLA, P. & TE POEL, H. 2011, Dutch Soccer Secrets (Maidenhead, England: Meyer & Meyer Sport). 8. MARINE CORPS, U.S. 1996, MCDP 6, Command and Control

(http://www.dtic.mil/doctrine/jel/service_pubs/mcdp6.pdf). 9. MICHELS, R. 2001, Teambuilding, The Road to Success (Spring City, Pa: Reedswain).10. OSINGA, F. 2007, Science, Strategy and War, The Strategic Theory of John Boyd (New York: Routledge).11. RICHARDS, C. 2004, Certain to Win, The Strategy of John Boyd, Applied to Business (Xlibris Corporation).12. WINNER, D. 2000, Brilliant Orange, The Neurotic Genius of Dutch Football (London: Bloomsbury).

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Thank you“I’ll live or die by my own ideas.” Johan Cruyff [1]

Presentation created May, 2012 by Larry Paul, Prescott Arizona.All references are available as stated. All content is the responsibility of the author.For questions or to inquire how to arrange a consultation or workshop on this topic you can contact me at larry4v4@hotmail.com, subject line; decision/action model.For more information visit the bettersoccermorefun channel on YouTube.