The Principle of Unbreakable Wholeness and its relation with modern football-Soccer.

 

Author: Oscar Mendez.

One of the Principles that Profesor Frade states as very important in Tactical Periodization is the principle of  unbreakable wholeness.

It serves us as a guide in the whole process just as other principles do, and allows us to see the game and the training process, our team, and the ups and downs it will have adapting to all the changes that will occur. 

I have seen many times , as I mentioned before, watching other colleagues, Institutes and/or Institutions talk about Tactical Periodization and "teach it" as a methodology that is in "fashion", like if soon it will pass away. 

The focus they give, it is like another methodology without knowing its history, their beliefs that is very different to other methodologies  and here I will try to explain briefly the main differences.

This way, they teach it as another methodology but now it is in fashion, that is linear like other methodologies where the main task is on Physical Loads and Physical aspects that are measure-able, I have even seen them name the three acquisition sessions as "Strength, Endurance and Speed" to my amazement.

 

I have seen how they develop exercises with physical objectives and many mistakes that have little or nothing to do with T.P. and with what Professor Frade had in mind when he created this revolutionary methodology.

This Way we see how there is a great confusion and phrases like:

-" You can not apply it on certain countries or zones because of their culture".

-"We can not apply it because we do not have the materials that you need to do so".

As if you need materials that you do not use playing the sport of football.

-"You can not use it because they are youth athletes or are not professional players". Taking into consideration the growing spurt and its phases, it is the best methodology because you will be teaching the footballer with tasks game intelligence.

-"You can not apply it because it is directed only to high performance". You are going to train what you are going to do in the matches whatever the level. You learn of an activity doing that activity that you are trying to dominate....not another one. 

-"We should not change how we play because we have won a lot by training this way". As if training and improving  what you are going to do is going to influence how you are going to play and that it will reduce your chances of winning... One thing is training what you are going to do...another very different is how you are going to play, that training specifically will help you achieve this. In other words, it has nothing to do with the style that your team will develop but whatever that style, it will help you improve it and perfection it.

-"You can not apply it because it was developed first on high performance and later it was taught academically". 

Professor Frade, now retired, spent decades teaching this methodology, and its development emerges from years of observation, analysis and study and was taken into practice by himself in F.C. Porto and later in the classrooms of Porto University (Fadeup). It emerges with the team Sir Bobby Robson coached where Jose Mourinho was assistant and Professor Frade was Physical Trainer and what they achieved later with Jose Mourinho where this club won everything it competed for two seasons.

-"I know it because I read some books about T.P.".

Just because you read a couple of books does not make you an expert or that you are able to teach about this methodology.

I have heard everything, as I mentioned here, a lot of nonsense and when I mentioned this to people from Professor Frade's surrounding, their surprise equals mine.

Intromission and the use of something because it is in fashion without knowing it roots, its Philosophy, its methodology and its application. 

It is true and very clear, that intromission in our area is and everyday thing, it is done by everyone everyday, from video games or people you might hear in a supermarket or a barbecue after a match. Your friends, Journalists, physical trainers, everyone plays to be "the head coach", even though the great majority of these people never played football, studied or worked as coaches, not even coached a kids' team.

So you ask yourself...and how do they know or how have they learned because I have been studying for over two decades and barely know anything or know very little?

As we know, knowledge comes from theory and practice.

From Studying and doing.

The same thing happens with this Methodology.

There are people who give courses, write articles, it is taught in many Universities and courses but unfortunately the huge problem is that people who teach this methodology do not have the correct education to understand it and do not know how to apply it.

I remember when here in my home country, when I was working here, I was invited to give practical example in the Pro Course in a Private University, because they wanted to see how practical tasks were executed according to the different Sub-dynamics in the Morpho-cycle.

They expected a formula so they could copy but this is the main inconvenience. You can not copy the tasks,  specially the ones related the principles of a team because those are unique and can not be repeated by anyone else because of the Playing Model. You can if you are focusing on concepts wich are general to any team or any Playing Model, but not when you are focusing on Macro-Meso-Micro or Nano Principles.

This is the main reason why in this blog, I do not publish exercises anymore. 

The tasks must be related with the Playing Model of the team, how your team is going to play. 

We can have general tasks that focus on  game concepts, when we train a concept of the game where the tasks are similar on any style, not depending on the model (Example: To open up when we gain the ball and to close up when we lose it).

When we focus on Principles of our Model, they can not be shared because there are not two teams that defend or attack the same way.

Tactical Periodization as Professor Frade affirms is based on the Complexity Theory and systemic approaches and there are some basic assumptions we want to mention:

-It is a methodology where we are going to plan the preparation of football/soccer teams based on specificity.

We do not contemplate general preparation or a conventional pre/season, nor training things that have little or nothing to do with what the footballer is going to do and how he or his team-mates can evolve their performance individually and collectively.

-We do not believe in a team or player being Physically fit or in shape.

Periodization on collective sports have little or nothing to do with periodization on individual sports where you compete against a distance or mark and how Mourinho states "There isn't any scientific evidence that demonstrates that a team prepared traditionally is going to have a better performance  that another one based on Tactical Periodization".

Rather it is the opposite.

When Francisco Seirul-lo or Juanma Lillo for example mention that "Physical training doesn't exist in football", what they mean is that you can not have  physical training isolated from football. It can not be separated from the object that it is based on, which is the game...football.

Recently I heard in an interview, a Physical Trainer here say that this was not true....obviously he did not understand what they meant, either because of his mental paradigm  or his perception where he sees the game and process separated by parts. The preparation can not be separated from the sport it practices.

-The training process  is based on the evolution of the game, the team and its players.

 The main objective is that the footballers and the team evolve on all scales, individual, group, sectorial, inter-sectorial and collectively. That together they construct  "a playing way", that will belong to the team and will be called "the playing model". The Model and style of the team is going to condition how and what we train and vice versa.

-It sustains itself on modern Neuro-Sciences (Neural Plasticity) as in other new concepts related to Physical sub-dynamic.

Some aspects were already known like as the tasks or exercises are specific, they will be always intermittent like the game, the energetic systems used (Atp/pc and aerobic system) to what the player will use in the matches, you will stimulate the right muscle fibers and new concepts of strength (Veronique Billat) for example, influenced by neuro-plasticity , originating from systemic paradigms although always in game like context, always specific, always related to our Playing Model where the Tactical Supra-Dimension will be the one to govern and organize the tasks and work.

-Take into account the Emotional Fatigue and Mental stress that the competition and the tasks generate and how this fatigue/stress  influence the tasks/exercises and that these are adequate according to the Sub-dynamic (acquisition or recuperation).

The tasks will be influenced according to the sub-dynamic and the information or complexity in the exercise, the space, the amount of players, intensity etc. We will not focus on physical load and pause like it was done conventionally but in the Tri-Nommial  Information-pause-adaptation.

-It is Based on our Playing Model which will be on constant evolution.

The Playing Model will be evolving always. Professor Frade mentions that in the beginning many teams when they begin the process, tend to play better because they focus on the Macro-Principles.

As the process continues in time, the performance of the team tends to drop slightly because of the acquisition of the  Meso, Micro and Nano  Principles in the cognitive process until this new  information is learned and applied correctly, where we can see a new adaptation.

-Strong Influence on Didactic and Pedagogy.

 It's a methodology that sustains itself on the Theory of Complexity, it is based strongly on the congnitive process, focusing on the process of teaching-learning and how they interact in this learning process, whether it is the coaching staff, the footballers or the team.

-It has certain Methodological Principles that are the pillars where we sustain the whole process.

The Principle of Horizontal Alternance in Specificity, the Principle of Complex Progression and the Principle of Propensities are the pillars in this process.

-Specificty, that is not a Methodological Principle, will be present at all times in the process.

 We always train what we are going to do in the matches where we modify how the information will be given according to the sub-dynamic in that session.

-The Principle of Divine Proportion.

This principle as Professor Frade states "Some call it leadership, or just being". It is like a common sense or logic that the coach sees in the process of his/her team and adapts to the circumstances. It is having an artistic side, creative and able to certain changes that the coach will see in the team in the correct moment. Sometimes it is to generate changes, others is to avoid them.

It will depend on what the coaching staff feels correct and necessary for that moment and that situation.

 

-The Tactical Supra-Dimension.

It will be the one that will direct the whole process.

The reason is that the Tactical Supra-Dimension  allows the other dimensions (Technical, Physical, Psychological) to emerge and will have direct influence on them. It is not like I heard form Raymond Verheijen that we see the game only through this Supra Dimension. This perception can be found if you see the game and process in a dis -associated fashion and not as whole.

-The Principle of Unbreakable Wholeness.

It means that we must always see the  training process and the game as a whole, not in a separated or isolated fashion. To see it as one, not in parts like physical, technical or Psychological alone or by themselves either in training or in a football game.

The game of football will be seen dynamically,  in constant change,  logic of the game allows us to see how everything has influence on everything and we will not see the game as set of plays, dis-associated one from each other or the moments or phases.

These moments or Phases will be worked as a whole were we can focus on the change from one to the other and how they are interrelated but always seeing the process and game as one.

How not being able to see the game and the training process as a whole, through complexity affects the coaching staff:

I remember when once, when I was working in another country, a coach that I was in charge, was explaining how he pretended his team to "press immediately after losing the ball  with many players", after his team would progress through long passes.

And when I asked him how would this be possible, because his teams would progress through long passes , it would be impossible to press after losing the ball because his forwards would be separated from the rest of the team, he didn't understand my question.

This was due to the reason that he saw the game in a dis-associated manner, how it is done traditionally, not associating the dynamic  and change from one Phase to the other and how they inter-act.

How our team is going to attack is going to condition how it will defend and vice-versa.

We see the same thing in South and North America, where teams in Offensive Phase , the players are at huge distances one from each other. This makes impossible to progress or being able to maintain possession of the ball (it is not a technical issue like many people think).Later a player can pass the ball to a teammate, but since the distances are so long, the player receiving the ball , he will have to face two or three opponents and in most cases he/she will lose the ball without any support.

Some actions in the game are seeing in an isolated fashion, not what will happen immediately after. When you see the game as a whole, the actions do not stop but are all inter-elated.

This way we see how teams when you see them from above, are divided in two or three parts sometimes and the distances are huge. They end up attacking with 2-3 footballers and other 6-7  waiting behind the half line of the pitch and the spaces are very big and very easy to exploit or take advantage.

The evolution of Spanish Positional Play, does not have to do with esthetic issues, or playing nice as they say here (in my opinion this does not exist , but rather it is a subjective perception because what for one person something maybe beautiful for another it may not), but rather with the possibility that when our team loses the ball, our team can react immediately and recuperate the ball attacking against a team that will now be open and not prepared to defend. One of the bases of German Gegenpressing.

As Guardiola Says, when we attack we are thinking that we may lose the ball and what we have to do and vice-versa.

The game must be seen as a whole and the whole training process must also be seen the same way, not in a separated fashion like traditionally was taught.

We must understand that if we do not modify our perception of the game and process, it will be impossible to apply methodologies like this one, even though we might say that we do and buy a certain course, video, magazine or book, made by someone who does not understand the real meaning and does this with the main purpose of finding an economic revenue. Many of these are done by people who do not understand the principle of complexity and see things through a different paradigm.

It is important to understand that if we don't see the game from a systemic view, the only thing we will do is apply a traditional focus with some differences but far from utilizing Tactical Periodization and we will not be able to understand  High Performance Modern Football that is applied in the strongest leagues in the world.

To understand Professor Frade and all of his work in my humble opinion, we must begin to read authors that promote systemic Paradigms and begin to see modern football the same way. If we do not do so it will be impossible. When we start studying with Professor, the first thing they try is this, to begin to understand the game through complexity...as a whole.

"I think that nobody is going to argue  Aero-Spacial Science with people that work in NASA, even though there are people who think that they can argue with one of the best coaches there are in Football. And this is the beauty of football, and I am already accustomed to this. I even like this.

I am totally alright with this"

Jose Mourinho.