Developing Anticipation

Just about every manager and coach I had, from youth to senior level, told me that I read the game well. I came to understand this as ‘being in the right place at the right time’ and anticipating what’s coming next in the game. Whilst I took this as high praise, I’ve recently had cause to think about how this was developed in my game.

I can’t remember doing any tactical sessions as a kid, that’s not to say it didn’t happen, I just don’t remember any standing out. I do remember playing games, passing exercises, possession games and lots and lots of running - a 20yd repeated sprint for 1 minute, running around the gravel track at Brockville and doing stair runs at Hampden are a few of my most loathed memories. I must be part Golden Retriever as I’m happy to chase a ball around a pitch but, don’t make me run just for the sake of it!

I continued thinking back about my developmental years and the other thing that I remember is watching just about every moment of football I could. I remember snippets of Saint & Greavsie, a videotaped game from Italia 90 in which Maradona missed a penalty, watching Football Italia on Sunday mornings, Andy Gray breaking down plays on Sky and going to Ibrox to see Rangers. I can’t help but think all this time watching games allowed me to see moments time and time again that would happen in many own games. Watching the successful and unsuccessful decisions from defenders must have been an influence on my own game.

I was chatting with a National Team Coach about this topic and she suggested that developing anticipation came down to two things: 1) Reaction speed (physical and mental) 2) Exposing players to situations/ movement patterns so they are able to identify them when they see them. And repeat; giving players numerous chances to recognise, react and decide on a course of action. Often, I will allow players a chance to try, fail, retry and if they fail again, I would step in to coach. I believe this pattern is more important for long term learning than when coaching technique where I will watch a player do a specific action a few times before stepping in to correct body shape, foot position, angle of approach etc.

Players need to be ‘switched on’ during any sessions that require situational awareness and recognition. Ask questions, ask them to come up with solutions as a group, and whilst the answers may not be exactly what you want as a coach, the players will be engaged more than if you were playing chess with them - telling them, “Go here, go there, move this way.”

Coaches will often focus more on the most visible skills in a player’s ‘tool box’ e.g. first touch, shooting, dribbling but, I have tried within the last couple of years to look at the unseen skill set of a player. Anticipation, Decision Making, Emotional Intelligence are difficult to develop but are become more and more relevant in the transition away from transactional player-coach relationships towards transformational player-coach relationships.

How do you work on the unseen parts of a player’s game?

In the Session Plans section of my website I have numerous sessions that include exercises specifically looking to develop these attributes from a defensive perspective. Please feel free to have a look at any session but P-1.7, P-2.1 and P.3.3 are some of the most relevant.