|
Another Prompt on Safety
It cannot be
overstated; your safety at this stage of playing the game of
soccer is of paramount importance. Injury or any kind of
disablement that need not happen should not happen.
Where there
are pre-existing conditions like asthma, recognize that no one
knows you or your body as well as you. Listen to your body and
anticipate your needs well before they become urgent. Your
teammates would love you for it.
I’ve talked
about physical collisions long and loud. While timidity CAN get
you hurt, uncontrolled aggressiveness WILL get you hurt.
Players
should continue to sharpen their eye to read balls – 50/50 balls
are fraught with danger. In most cases, you can feign like
you’re going for the ball and back off at the last second;
chances are the other party would turn the ball over to you.
Where the
contest is 60/40 or so against you, play safe and bide your time
to win the ball.
The
foregoing is more so important when you don’t have a full view
of the challenger and the ball.
Be safe!
Heading the Ball Right
When done
right, heading to score could be one of the most beautiful
skills in the game of soccer. At the same time, it could
be dangerous. I interrupted a recent practice session to
explain the risks entailed in wrong decision regarding heading.
Defenders have
limited choice when it comes to high balls. They simply have to
“get it out of there!” The instructions here are more for
heading in offensive mode.
Avoid heading
powerful balls coming straight at your head. Such balls include
balls coming straight down at 90o or close to it. It
is tough to receive such balls with any part other than the top
of the head, which could compress your neck bones. You’re
well-served to trap such balls, take it off the thigh, etc.
Other risky balls to head would include “bullets” – shots that
are about your height and coming straight at you practically
parallel to the ground.
The latter
example is the scenario that makes for beautiful goals.
Beautiful headings are “a work of the waist”. Your ability to
work your waist (without moving your feet) to get out of the
line of travel of the ball and strike with your forehead as the
ball travels past is the stuff that good headings are made of (your
forehead should end up facing the direction you want the ball to
go).
Beside the fact that you have great influence on directing the
ball, you retain its initial momentum without the concussion.
It is
disheartening
watching parents and coaches applaud when children put their
heads under balls they have no business heading. The perception
of “toughness” could be major trouble down the line. Players
need to learn to head right.
Safety
Collision!
Crash!! De-Commissioned!!! @#$!!!
Head-on
collision often happens in soccer among relatively new players.
Whether they are athletic or not, players’ momentum through
space needs to be managed for safety. Awareness of the
opposition’s speed and direction of travel is a good way to
avoid collision.
Naturally,
when the other player has what you want (the ball), you go after
it. How you go after it is primarily the way you avoid
collisions and injury.
To avoid
head-on collision, pay attention to what side of the opponent
the ball is on. If the ball is on the opponent’s left foot
and you go at it with your right foot because you’re
right-footed, there will be a collision because your right foot against his/her left
foot aligns your respective bodies for a crash.
Get in the
habit of winning the ball on the opponent’s right foot with your
right foot and their left foot with your left. Remember – Right
to Right; Left to Left.
This is not in
anyway meant to be a hard and fast rule. The purpose is
strictly to avoid collisions and resultant injuries. If you can
use either foot to steal the ball while avoiding the opponent,
you got the job done.
Falling
Time and time again, players
fall even when they do everything right. Falling the right
way helps to limit the amount of bodily harm suffered by a
player in the event of a fall.
When you lose your balance
(from a push or stumble), do NOT fight your fall. Let
yourself go in the direction of your motion as you ball yourself
up. Roll up as you go down, tucking your shoulder
in; your momentum rolls you and you pick yourself up all in a
natural sequence.
Rolled Ankles
I shared the following e-mail with a player who rolled her ankle
during practice (Mar.05):
...You’re
perfectly correct about the need for patience. My desire is for
everyone to still be able to play way into their 60s, 70s and
possibly beyond, but that’d be tough if body parts are broken
and worn out early.
Ankle support
would be good. The bigger consideration is respect for the
unknown. We generally have the tendency to run with the
confidence that the ground would come through for us.
Unfortunately, at times, it doesn’t (uneven ground). It
would be a good idea to build a mental alarm into our landing
when we run such that the whole weight of the body wouldn't go
on the foot if we landed wrong. I hope that makes sense.
In Addition...
Tina Lai (an accomplished dancer, I
should say) added the following. Thanks Tina:
Another good way to
anticipate rolled ankles is to actually warm up for them. For
example, dancers have discovered that rolled ankle damage
happens when we fight and resist the rolling, which causes our
whole weight to bear down on the ankle. Dancers constantly fear
rolled ankles and what we do during warm-up is to rotate our
ankles clockwise 10 times and counter-clockwise 10 ten times and
we do this for at least 2 sets.
The underlying principle of this procedure is that our ankles
naturally resist rolling, so the exercises give them the
sensation or "permission" to roll. When we allow our ankles the
"confidence" of giving, then we can fall gently to the ground
and not hurt our ankles too badly. It's kinda like your advice
on falling--don't resist the momentum and instead roll into a
ball. |
