TALENT
“When we witness extraordinary feats … [of sporting or artistic prowess], we are witnessing the end product of a process measured in years. What’s invisible to us—the submerged evidence, as it were—is the countless hours of practice that have gone into the making of the virtuoso performance: the relentless drills, the mastery of technique and form, the solitary concentration that have, literally, altered the anatomical and neurological structures of the master performer.”
Mathew Syed
In famous youth soccer academies such as Ajax and FC Barcelona, players begin with them at the age of 7. These are not the players you see on a Saturday morning playing in recreational leagues in the USA. These are the best of the best in their regions. Only the 7 year old player with the highest level of talent is given the opportunity to train with these academies. That is the absolute baseline before these players embark on a 10 year training period that determines whether they become professional.
Welcome to the iceberg illusion because by the time they turn professional, we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg.
The harsh cold reality is that these players must have talent before they even begin the climb to success.
What is talent?
Talent can be summed up as a combination of three elements:
- Physical ability – having the coordination and the motor skills to perform the actions required to play the game. Today, the game of soccer at the highest professional level requires speed and endurance. The physical attributes are greater than ever before. Some may even say, there are less skillful players today than there were in years gone but the speed of the game has increased, and players are required to perform their skills at a greater speed and intensity.
- Mental ability – desire & determination, resilience, never giving up, taking the criticism, the challenges and bouncing back, is the application of hour after hour of practice, deliberate practice, practicing with a purpose to improve and enduring self-belief
- Cognitive ability – the ability to see and understand the game.
These three elements are not equal. The greatest modern players have a superior cognitive ability to play the game.
By way of an example, several years ago, Pirlo played in the Juventus midfield alongside Paul Pogba and compared to Pogba or indeed many of today’s modern players, physically, he was neither the tallest, the fastest, nor the strongest.
Pirlo was able to dominate the game because of a superior mind with a superior ability to read the game at a level beyond the vast majority of professional soccer players. His game was not based upon physical attributes, but rather the ability to outthink an opponent. And with that ability, it freed others, such as Paul Pogba to play his more physical game. Pirlo has a cognitive ability superior to others; the ability to see things before others can. Great midfielders such as Xavi and Iniesta possess the same cognitive ability. Great players such as Pelé and Maradona likewise possess this cognitive ability.
In team sports with changeable demands where it is necessary to make complex decisions continuously, cognitive skills have equal or even more relevance than technical or tactical executions. This is a skill, and it can be trained. In fact, 80% of professional players have cognitive talent and only 20% have coordination talent.
What do I mean by this?
80% of the players who are professionals lacked fundamental coordination talent as youth players, but through hard work every day, and at the same time receiving quality coaching, they were able to overcome their lack of coordination and therefore develop as a player.
You see, most of the actions in a soccer match require a very simple technical action. Learn to do this simple technical action and you can play to a certain level. But develop the cognitive ability to understand the game of soccer, those same players can reach a very high professional level.
Why do countries with as small a population such as Belgium, Croatia or regions like Catalonia produce so many high-level players? The key is in coaching, the teaching of universal concepts to the players and quality game habits with and without the ball and not in the repetition of technical actions.
In the USA, a lot of emphasis is placed on training soccer through repetition of skill movements with no emphasis on decision making. This is reflective of the American culture where games such as football (American), baseball and basketball are dominated by coaches on the sidelines issuing orders and pre-determined plays and moves. This is not possible in soccer, which is a fluid game, constantly in a state of flux.
Exercises without decision-making have no impact on the formation of a soccer player.
American youth players have the physical and mental ability to play soccer but lack the cognitive ability to play at the highest level. In the USA, cognitive skills are absent in both youth soccer and professional soccer. The cognitive skills are not being coached. The game knowledge is not being coached. There is a lack of fundamental knowledge. How can coaches coach what they do not know? They cannot and that is where the problem lies.
Talent is more than physical dominance. Yes, you must be able to manipulate a ball but 80% of professionals are not the most talented; they have learnt to understand the game at the highest level.
It all comes back to the coaching and the lack of quality coaching.