Why Yoga and Football (Part 2)

Coaching and Analysis

In my last blog, I talked about how yoga can be a tool for a football player, and more broadly, for a club (and especially how having a yoga sports coach makes good financial sense in the modern football environment.) Importantly though, my training in yoga informs my approach as a football coach and analyst. To my mind, there is a continuity of thought and approach: I am not just a soccer coach who does yoga, or a yoga coach who also coaches soccer. The skill sets, both of observation and intervention, from one impact upon the other.

As an independent analyst, I pick up projects from people I know in the game, usually match analysis for one particular match, but also some ongoing ¨book work¨ so we have snapshots of players as they develop through the Academy ranks, in order to have a better notion of how they will develop as professionals. From an analysis standpoint, the observational skills from working on the mat help me identify points for coaching intervention. In evaluating a player, whether as an opposition scout, talent identification, or evaluation of our own squad, the key performance indicators are only important if they reveal a weakness that can be exploited (or remedied in the case of player you are looking to sign) or the nature of a player´s strengths. Statistical analysis, which while fashionable and indeed useful in football, reveals patterns and relationships of play, but the information is meaningless if it cannot be acted upon.

All fine and good, but the question still remains, so what has that got to do with yoga? In scouting opposition it helps me expose the weaknesses of opposition and as a coach identify and remediate weaknesses in my own squad. I will use a couple of examples from analysis work I´ve done:

When Mustapha Carayol, currently with Middlesborough, has the ball at his feet, he is as devastating a winger as currently plays in English football. He is pacey, very quick with his feet, has a sublime left footed cross, and a massive right footed shot. However, he has one significant technical deficiency as a left winger, that being that with some consistency he rotates his hips infield, receives the ball on his right, plays infield, then makes a cut upfield. However, after his third touch, he is very nearly unstoppable. Now, where my observational skills from yoga enter the equation is theorizing why he makes that first touch, how to exploit it, and, if I were working for Middlesborough, how to fix it. Watching in slow motion, Carayol does not hold his balance well when running and looking over his right shoulder, thus he slows and turns his entire upper body towards the ball. What appears at first glance to be just a bad habit, is predicated by a physical limitation, and creates a cognitive limitation.

When I looked at Carayol from the perspective of an opposition scout, his body shape and recognition of how his head turned (and didn´t turn) informed an approach to neutralizing him as a player. The fullback could close aggressively when the ball was being played – due to the way Carayol turns as the ball approaches, he loses sight of the fullback, and with the big first touch, an opportunity for a tackle exists. Further, if the right sided screening midfield can sit a little deeper, it takes away Carayol´s second option, playing the ball inside, and he can either be trapped or forced to play backwards. In the FA Cup First Round last year, Corby Town drew their right fullback away from Carayol (then playing for Bristol Rovers) part-way through the second half as the fullback was on a card and Corby had levelled the score in the 62d minute. In the 74^th minute, Carayol picked the ball up just short of the half line, again with a big infield first touch off his right foot, then turned upfield without being immediately closed down. He dribbled thirty yards in five seconds and hit a stunner from 30 yards to return the lead to Rovers and save the tie. The opportunity to neutralize the player, and take the tie back to Steel Park, was lost.

Now, were I working with Carayol, basic mat work improving his spinal flexibility and posture would help give him the physical palette to address his technical weaknesses. Further, seeing the issue as a body shape issue, that changes the way I would approach the player on the training pitch. I can think of two or three technical/functional exercises to help quicken the first touch on the wing, while still identifying the location and closing speed of the opposition fullback. Identifying a problem ¨poor first touch¨ is not enough. Exactly WHY a weakness exists and HOW to fix it is the job of the coach. The skills from yoga inform how I read the play on the pitch in the match, and heal reveal solutions not only on the mat, but on the training pitch as well.

Another example, this time evaluating a young player for his development potential, is Conor Coady of Liverpool. If you ever have the opportunity to watch a U18 or U21 match at Liverpool´s Kirkby complex, you should jump at the chance. It is quality football on a first-class surface and you are up close to the action. Coady is technically gifted – two footed, brilliant first touch, and a range of passing that immediately brings Steven Gerrard to mind. However, there are times he holds the ball just slightly too long, plays over-ambitious passes, fails to take easy options to retain possession. If you watch him play, Coady plays with a lot of tension in his shoulders, and as a result his head is tilted slightly downwards, and his hips are slightly closed. There are a series of results of that: first, the human brain processes visual information more quickly if the line of sight is parallel to the horizon. I don´t know if anyone knows exactly why or how, but it is consistent: spatial relationships are more quickly and accurately assessed when eyesight is level. Also, the slightly pinched stance makes it physically a little awkward for Coady to turn more than about 70 degrees with one touch. The net result is that his speed of play is just slightly less than some his contemporaries, notably Denis Suarez who play across town for Everton. While Coady has better control, more accurate passing, and to be honest, more interesting ideas, the truth is Suarez can play just a little quicker due, in part at least, to better body shape, and can make an impact in games where Coady struggles to keep up.

In looking at Coady as a player for the future, I want to see how he physically develops, and if he relaxes his shoulders. If not, I rate him as a solid League or Conference player. If, however, he can make the adjustment, get his head up over the next two seasons, then honestly I will probably stop tracking him, as his future will likely lie at levels higher than my career is likely to reach. That said, if I were working for Liverpool, my observation brings me to specific yoga techniques to improve balance, vision, and dynamic posture, but also specific technical functional exercises to engender and reward a change in how he sees. The coaching intervention would not necessarily be traditional speed of play exercises, but instead technical head-up work, to address my estimation of what is the limiting factor in Coady´s speed of play.

All of this is to say that I don´t see yoga just as a tool I can use to enhance performance of individual athletes, but it also informs how I see the game. The observational skills help me recognize subtle changes in patterns of movement that can indicate an exploitable weakness either in our squad or the opposition. In being very specific in identification of issues, it allows me as a coach to make very specific interventions, not just on the mat during a yoga session, but on the training pitch to hone certain skills and habits, and even in-game adjustments.