Applying Theory to Practical - Football.

AS and A Level Physical Education (Sport & Coaching)

Tahamtan Pishgharavol

Personal Performance Portfolio

Section A – Applying Theory to Practical

ii) Physical Aspects

1) The major coaching points of one named essential skill in the chosen activity.

Activity: Football

The major coaching points that I will be looking into football are the attacking and defending skills, which are essential to the game.

I am first of all going to start with the attacking side of football and what players skills will involve in this area of the game are as follows:

ATTACKING

. Shooting for goal.

. Dribbling..

. Heading the ball.

Shooting

The great saying here for strikers or any attacking player is if you do not shoot to often enough you will never score. The key issue of an attacking game is being able to score if given the chance; the best way in doing so is to place the ball into the net with great power. The way in which you do this is by pointing the non-striking foot towards the target and draw back the other foot. To then get the greater accuracy use the wide area of your foot, which is in the inner side and is called the instep. Finally with a good firm contact try to steer the ball as far away from the keeper as possible. But at times the passing shot is not available due to where you are on the pitch, and the keeper’s position. This is where you must be able to adapt your shooting technique to these conditions. It also gives you an element of surprise so the keeper cannot read where or how you are going to shoot.

Dribbling

Basically trying to keep the ball close to your feet as possible and running with the ball at speed. Make sure you can use both instep and outside of the foot to keep the ball under control. The balance of dribbling is another issue as it is the platform from which your body can change direction in an instant and leave the defenders standing. Beating the defender this is basically dribbling the ball and using body feints to catch the defender of balance and to keep the defender guessing, so they cannot make a tackle successfully.

Heading

Three types of heading techniques that are used when attacking are:

1. Diving header - this is used to get on front of the defender, and when it is going to be the able way you can reach the ball to make contact. To do a diving header you must keep your eye on the ball when leaping in the air, and with your forehead direct the ball where you want it to go.

2. Flick on header - this is used as a surprise attack and is used to pass onto an attacker ...

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Heading

Three types of heading techniques that are used when attacking are:

2. Flick on header - this is used as a surprise attack and is used to pass onto an attacker behind you, usually. The technique is for the person heading the ball to come towards the ball and angle his head slightly backwards while flicking the ball with his forehead.

3. Attacking heading - this is used when aiming to score. But the other two- heading techniques I have mentioned may also be used. The techniques of an attacking header is to keep your eyes on the ball, put power into the header by thrusting your forehead in the direction you want it to go. The shooting technique is usually to make the ball do downwards as the keeper will find it harder to get his whole body down to stop the ball than if it was in the air, where he just has to move side ways.

DEFENDING

I am now going to talk to you through the defending skills that are involved in football which are as follows:

Slide tackle
Block tackle
Intercepting

Slide tackle

The slide tackle, done efficiently will bring the opposition player to a halt. The slide tackle is usually a last resort. Defenders should usually stay on their feet as if they miss this tackle they will be out of the game, or commit a foul, which is usually bookable. This tackle is normally done down the line, this is because the tackle is from the side with the defending player having to make up ground (getting back) to make the challenge. Timing is all-important with this challenge it is especially important with the consequences of bad timing. This as I have already said can be free kicks or letting your opponent go by you. But even more important would be a tackle from behind and not from the side. As referees nowadays give players a straight booking for this challenge or even a sending off depending on the intensity of the challenge. If however the timing is perfect and you are clever with it, you can force the ball off your opponent's legs and win a throw in for your team. The technique of a slide tackle is firstly to keep your eyes on the ball. As you slide in you must try to keep your body as low as possible and try to make clean contact with the ball. The low body position will make it easier for you to get back off the floor quicker. You should slide on your nearest leg to the ball while taking the ball with your leg that is the furthest away.

Block tackle

This tackle is the most commonly used tackle be defenders. This is most common because it brings most effect in the end result. This is because you are tackling with the widest part of your foot in the inside of your boot. But with this tackle it can bring risks also, this is because if you do not put your full weight behind the challenge it can cause injury to knee and ankle joints. As the defender you have to withstand the full force of your opponent, who will be trying to run past you or trying to clear the ball. The technique is to put your non-tackling foot alongside the ball to meet it inside your other foot, while leaning forwards slightly so your body weight is behind the challenge. A must not with this challenge is to pull out, as being injured is possible.

Intercepting

This is getting to the ball before the attacker has time to control the ball. The defender to do this must be on his toes, and when the ball is played nip in to take the ball of the attacker. The first touch in doing so must be good so the ball is under control and the defender can accelerate out of defence with the ball. If the defender has any doubt that he will not be able to intercept the ball, he must stay goal side of the attacking player and watch the ball. The idea of intercepting is to break up an attack so it cannot develop and be more threatening and also for the defending team to counter attack. The defending team must communicate with one another so they will not get dragged out of position when challenging for the ball.

2) Progressive practises for developing the essential skill identified in 1 of the chosen activity.

Progressive Practises of passing

This practise is mainly for beginners

Passing drills Place cones about 5 feet away from you. The cones should be about one foot apart. Try kicking the ball to the cones. Once you have done that move farther back. Now keep going back and back kicking it to the cones.

This activity practises your skill to be able to pass a ball accurately into a small target. Here is a diagram of the exercise.

This is a simple give and go. Defender C is in between the 2 offensive players (Player A and Player B). Defender C is on Player A. Player A passes it to player B so the defender goes to Player B But before the defender can do that Player B passes the ball to Player A. (black is where the ball goes and the red arrow is player A moving)

More accurate passing
Accurate passes are an essential. So for maximum accurate passing percentage hit at the 2 spot as shown in the picture. Practice makes perfect so do things like hitting against a barn with a marker on it and stuff like that.

· Also you can aim at a small target on a wall or a very small goal from a distance. You should start off with a target of 2 meters by 2 meters from 10 yards. Then after you have mastered this practise you should increase the distance that you aim at, you should then increase the distance by 5 yards after you have mastered each distance until you get to 25 yards.

· Next you could try out with a smaller target, make your target at 1.5 metres by 1.5 metres. Like last time start off with a starting distance of 5 yards, this time spend more time before you progress to 10 yards this is because you are aiming at a smaller target. Then you can progress to a further distance by 5 yards to 15 yards. Here is a diagram showing you how this can be set out.