THE MORPHO-CYCLE.

Author: Oscar Mendez.

The morpho-cycle is the way our week will be organized , always according to several Methodological Principles (Principle of Horizontal Alternance in Specificity, Principle of Complex Progression and Principle of Propensions), between our last game and the next one.

The difference between Micro-cycle and Morfo-cycle is that in the Micro-cycle by itself, consists of sessions, of a certain number, normally they can be between 3 and 14 sessions, that are programmed. This is why they can take different shapes and have different objectives.

The Morpho-cycle  (Morpho -The way or shape matter can take), focuses basically on the shape of our Game Model of the team we are coaching can take or obtain,  and for that to happen certain processes must happen, in them there must be continuity, the week of training in some dynamics will be the same, or that it alternates between the problems that will show up during game situations, this is why Morfo-cycle is how or what shape we want to give our team and game model.

Some Authors talk about a Pattern Morfocycle, that is a sequence of several sessions of training, that takes into consideration the game prior and the future match. This Morfocycle was published in literature by Nuno Oliveira, Nuno Amieiro, Resende 2006 and Barreto and Gomes in 2008. This does not mean that there isn’t a Meso-cycle (Made up of 2 to 4 mycro-cycles) or Macro-cycle (6 to 12 Meso-cycles), this is why  these are mere theorical guidelines of planification and periodization, with less interference in the process of training that in the morfocycle.

 

FACTORS TO TAKE INTO ACCOUNT IN THE SESSIONS AND THE MORFOCYCLES.

  

Tension –What we mean by the tension is the muscle contraction that will be exposed. The higher amount of eccentric contractions the higher the tension will be.

Duration –What we mean is the duration of the muscle contraction. The longer the exercise or task, the longer the duration of the contractions that normally will be concentric.

Speed – What we mean is basically the speed of the muscle contraction. The faster the action , the faster the contraction, in game like situations that will be very brief and intense.

Emotional  Stress – It is the stress that the task or exercise will créate in the athlete. Related to the following critera:

Complexity of the principle(s)

Complexity of the dynamic

Amount of Athletes

Space of Play

Time of duration of exercise

Discontinuous – It refers to the duration of the exercise, the more discontinuous the shorter it will be.

When we mention a typical Morpho-cycle we can describe it as one of five days of training , one day of rest after competition and one before the next match.

On these five days, three will be acquisitive sessions and two will be recuperation sessions. Typically the next day after the competition will be the rest day or day off.

The two recuperation sessions will be the first and last session in the morpho-cycle.

The first one we will focus on recuperating the players that played most of the match, but not as we used to do many years ago, in activities that had little to do with specific sport (jogging around the pitch or playing football tennis) but in exercises similar to real game but very  discontinuous. Pauses here will be very high.

With the players that didn’t play, the training and exercises  will be more continuous where we will try for them to have an intense effort so that they will be ready to play next match.

The last recuperation session before the match, we activate and prepare the team for the next opponent going over the strategy of the match and what the opponent will do, their and our behavior and other tactical and contra-tactical aspects.

In between these two recuperation sessions, we will work with the three adquisitive sessions.

The first one will be Tension (of muscle contraction).

The second one will be Duration (of muscle contraction).

The third one will be Speed (of muscle contraction).

 

 

MORFO-CYCLE WITH ONE MATCH PER WEEK.

MATCH DAY= (SUNDAY).

– 5 SESSIONS + MATCH + 1 REST DAY OR DAY OFF.

 

1ST DAY- 1^st Active Recuperation Session. (Tuesday). Recuperation of last match under specific scheme.

Description:

Principles and Sub-Principles of our game model under a recuperation scheme with a very low dynamic.

Specific content:

We will train the mistakes of prior match or focus on next weeks’ principles or subprinciples that we will see on the following match.

Example of exercises:

Very discontinuous exercises with not very high difficulty and emotional stress, where we will try for the players that played most or all of the match to recuperate on specific energetic system and not the traditional way where we would do things that had nothing to do with specific game of football (low endurance jogging for example).

Players that didn’t play must have exercises higher in intensity and duration than others that did.

 

 

Mentally:

Exercises that have a relatively low difficulty where the athlete doesn’t have too much stress since he/she is not fully recuperated from previous match.

 

Tension –

Duracion –

Speed –

Emotional Stress -

 

 

2ND DAY (Wednesday)- 1^st Adquisitive Sesion.Tension of muscle contraction.

Description:

Exercises of elevated tension, small spaces, very discontinuous exercises, intense ,a lot of stop and go, intermitent and short exercises. Low level of difficulty.

The most intense and discontinuos session of the week.

Tactically:

Exercises where we will train our Sub-Principles of play on a sectorial and intersectorial level.

Here we can focus on small sided games, rondos, small posessions, always focusing on what is being mentioned above.

Exercises must be very intense and discontinuos.

Always exercises must be relevant to  our game model and how our team is going to play.

The amount of players must be small, as well as the difficulty because if the difficult is high, the intensity will never be high.

Mentally:

Because the players are not quite recuperated, The difficulty of the exercises must be rather low.

 

Tension +++

Duration –

Speed +

Emotional Stress+

 

 3RD DAY (Thursday) – 2^nd Adquisitive Session.DURATION (of muscle contraction).

Description:

Because it is the day farther away from previous and future competition or match, we will training similarly to the way we are going to play on the match. Big spaces, with longer duration of time, and with higher amount of complexity and amount of athletes.

 

Tactically:

We will focus on this session on the great principles of our game model and some sub-principles on situations similar to real situation.

The exercises here , we will focus on high numbers, 9v9, 10v10 and 11v11, big spaces, exercise that are not very discontinuous and complexity of the exercises that will be high as well. We will also focus on the Macro Principles or the big behavior of our game model and what we want our team to do on the match.

 

Mentally:

The level of concentration here is the highest of the week due to the complexity of the exercises and here is where we will have the highest emotional stress along with the duration that will be the highest this is why this session will be farther away from the match.

 

Tension +

Duration ++

Speed +

Emotional Stress  ++

 

 

4TH DAY. (Friday). 3rd day Adquistive Session.  SPEED (of muscle contraction).

 

Description:

Prepare and actívate the team for next match and super-compensate.

The exercises must be of elevated speed of decisionmaking and execution (activation). Because the exercises will be intense and there will not be maximum tension, the number of repetition must be low and very discontinuous.

We must not misunderstand speed of execution (quickness) with the travelling speed (moving from point A to point B in the shortest amount of time).

This is the session where we can focus on counter/attacking/defending in game like situations.

Exercises don’t have to be flashy, but practical with real game situations.

Our exercises must be on specific energetic systems we use in Football (Atp/pc) Anaerobic Alactic and Aerobic System.

Tactically:

Sub principles of game on a sectorial level, intersectorial or collective. With / without /or with little opposition.

Mentally:

Levels of concentration lower than the day before. Levels of complexity will be reduced. We will look for exercises with little or no opposition.

 

Tension +

Duration -

Speed ++

Emotional Stress -

 

 

 

 

5TH DAY–(Saturday). 2nd Recuperation session.Active recuperation and preparation of next Match.

 

Description:

Pre activation  of following match the next day. We will in first part of session activate players for tomorrows’ match based on what we worked during the week and prepare what the strategy will be according to the information we have about or next opponent, our plan and contra-tactical analysis of things that might come up in match.

 

Tactically:

Exercises with high level of concentration but with Little or no complexity (will provoke a high density of concentration). We will work dynamic behavior of the team or exercises that don’t request high level of concentration and remind the general pattern of collective game.

 

Mentally:

Concentration very high but with very low volumes , obtaining a high levels of concentration and focusing on the most important aspects of behavior of the team.

 

Tension -/+

Duration -

Speed -/+

Emotional Stress -/+

 

EXAMPLE OF MORPHO-CYCLE OF JOSE MOURINHO AND LOUIS VAN GAAL IN F.C. BARCELONA WITH TWO COMPETITION / MATCHES IN ONE WEEK.

EXAMPLE OF MORPHO-CYCLE OF JOSE MOURINHO IN S.L BENFICA WITH ONE COMPETITION / MATCHES IN ONE WEEK.

"I was never an athlete, an athlete has to eat correctly, sleep correctly, drink correctly…and I never did anything of this.

Surely I could have been better if I would have been an athlete, but without a doubt I would have never been as happy".

Romario.

 

 

Inconvenientes de entrenar de forma inespecífica en el Fútbol. 

Autor: Oscar Mendez.

 Debido a la pandemia y a que se ha podido ver mucho fútbol por T.V. , tenemos la posibilidad de ver diferentes ligas de Sud-américa y vemos un problema general que no estoy seguro si erróneamente o no, creemos que una de las principales razones o causantes está ligada a la forma en como se entrena o trabaja, o se viene trabajando. 

Tradicionalmente y como se viene haciendo por aquí, se trabaja “lo Físico” y luego se “hace fútbol”. Para los que se encuentran en Europa, en el Rio de la Plata le llamamos “hacer Fútbol” a hacer un encuentro entre el equipo titular y suplente sin reglas ni condiciones. 

Normalmente las pretemporadas es donde supuestamente se obtiene la base física (como si fueran maratonistas o corredores de 200 metros los futbolistas) para el resto de la temporada. Los que no lo hacen, si sale algo mal , se pasan todo el año repitiendo que no pudieron rendir porque no tuvieron la base para hacerlo. Si rinden , se olvidan de todo el tema. 

Así se escucha a los entrenadores, preparadores físicos y periodistas deportivos comentar que a tal futbolista o equipo le falta “fútbol” o tal equipo no tiene ritmo físico. Esto claramente es porque los equipos entrenan en cosas que poco tienen que ver con el deporte específico. 

El principal problema que veo humildemente, además de la dinámica y falta de conceptos de juego, es la dificultad para proteger o defender las porterías o arcos y para generar y finalizar las jugadas aquí en Sud-américa. 

Las carencias y fallos tanto definiendo/finalizando como protegiendo el arco, o sea, defendiendo dentro o cerca de nuestra área son reiteradas y algunos fallos de fútbol infantil. A que se puede deber esto o cuales pueden ser las razones? 

Una de las razones principales en mi opinión , aparte que se van los mejores atacantes y defensas de las ligas sudamericanas muy jóvenes,(factor que poco podemos hacer los entrenadores), es la falta de trabajo debido a la metodología o a como entrenamos. 

Si nuestro equipo en los entrenamientos , solo realiza trabajos físicos (como hacen muchos equipos) y luego nos vamos al terreno de juego y “hacemos fútbol”o realizamos partidos-partidillos donde juegan 8c8, 9c9,10c10 o 11c11, cuantas veces por ejemplo, nuestros atacantes definirán o finalizarán jugadas en una tarea de 20’por ejemplo? 

Lo mismo se aplica para nuestros defensas. 

Si hacemos un ejercicio en contexto, y lo dividimos en 3 series de 5´ por ejemplo. Nuestros atacantes seguramente tendrán la posibilidad de efectuar mínimo 15-20 repeticiones. Si hacemos lo mismo pero con los defensas, el mismo efecto ocurrirá. 

Lo ideal es que los futbolistas aprendan , acierten y se equivoquen en los entrenamientos, no en los encuentros. 

 Como se sabe ahora, el fútbol cuando lo jugamos , es a nivel preconsciente. Y cuando se enseña o entrena, no es un aprendizaje consciente. 

Por eso agarrar una pizarra y pretender que los futbolistas hagan lo que nosotros les mostramos en una pizarra, es un comienzo pero esto por si solo será totalmente inútil. 

El aprendizaje en el fútbol no es consciente. 

No podemos pretender que porque le digamos o le mostremos en una pizarra a un futbolista, sin entrenarlo que lo haga porque en la gran mayoría de casos no ocurrirá. 

Hay que entrenarlo en contextos similares o iguales a los reales. Esto se debe repetir una y otra vez, en situaciones reales (repetición sistemática). 

El aprendizaje Debe tener significado, para que el jugador lo pueda aplicar de forma natural. Debe saber relacionar lo que está haciendo con respecto al juego y lo que puede generar. Tanto lo positivo como lo negativo. 

Debe tener intensidad, es decir, la intensidad debe ser igual a la del juego real. Intensidad en toda la globalidad del término, no solo intensidad física sino más bien intensidad mental. 

Si se entrena a intensidades psicológicas altas, es mucho más difícil que el futbolista cometa errores de concentración.

 Debe tener cierto nivel de dificultad, similar a la del juego. El principio de las propensiones del Profesor Vitor Frade se focaliza especialmente en esto, en mi opinión. 

En crear un contexto, para que estas situaciones se generen una y otra vez, que nosotros una vez que tengamos ese contexto vayamos introduciendo conceptos y correcciones , que ocurran una y otra vez para que el futbolista las pueda aprender de forma real al juego, de como lo verá en el próximo encuentro. 

Muchos de los entrenadores que tenía a cargo cuando estuve trabajando en China me preguntaban cuando debían avanzar en cuanto al aprendizaje, y mi respuesta era que una vez que vieran que los chicos efectuaran determinado comportamiento o aprendizaje técnico de forma natural en una situación real de juego, sin pensar, ahí es cuando debían avanzar. 

Ahí es cuando el futbolista lo ha aprendido. 

El fútbol no se puede enseñar de forma consciente, porque son acciones que se dan en milésimas de segundos y deben ser repetidas una y otra vez para que el futbolista las adquiera, aprehenda , integre y pase a formar parte de él o ella en situaciones reales y concretas de juego.

 “Nunca van a ver a un pianista para practicar, corriendo alrededor de un Piano”. 

Jose Mourinho. 

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 Inconvenients of training unespecifically in Football/Soccer. 

Author: Oscar Mendez.

Due to the pandemic and that we have been able to watch a lot of Football-soccer on T.V, 

I´ve had the opportunity to watch many different leagues here in South America where I am and rest of the world. 

I have seen a common problem that I don´t know if it is accurate or not, but I think it might be related to how these teams train or have been training. 

Tradicionally and how it has been done here , you “Physically” and later you “play football-soccer” on the pitch. Tradicionalmente y como se viene haciendo por aquí, se trabaja “lo Físico” y luego se “hace fútbol”. 

Normally the pre-season is where we supposedly you obtain the physical foundation (as if the players were marathon runners o 200 metres runners) for the rest of the season. 

The ones that do not do it, if anything goes wrong, will be the whole year saying that they were unable to perform because they didn´t have the possibility to do it. 

If they perform to a good level, they forget about it. This way we hear coaches, trainers, and journalists say that this team didn´t perform well because “they lack playing football”or they are “physically unfit. 

This is due to the fact that most teams train things that have Little to do with specific sport. 

The main problem that I see, apart from the dynamic and lack of concepts of game, is the difficulty to protect or defend their own goal and to finish plays on the opponents goal here in South America. 

The lack of fundamentals defending their own goal and finishing , the mistakes we see , some are very basic and childish at times. 

What could be the reasons why this happens? One of the main reasons in my humble opinion, apart that most teams are poor and have to sell their best young strikers and defenders (problem that us coaches can do very little), is the lack of training due to the methodology or how we train. 

If our team in training, only does physical training (like most teams) and later we head to the pitch and “play football-soccer” 8v8, 9v9, 10v10 or 11v11 with no rules , how many times do our strikers will finish in an exercise with the volume of 20´ for example? 

Very few. The same thing will apply to our defenders. If we practice an exercise in real context, and we divide it in 3 sets of 5’for example. Our strikers surely will have the possibility of repeating at least 15/20 reps. If we do the same thing but with our defenders now, same thing will occur. 

The objective is that the footballers learn, get the correct answers and make mistakes in the training, not in the matches. How it is known now, when we play football/soccer, it is done on a pre/conscious level. This means that when we play, we are not consciously thinking of what we are going to do because of the speed of the game and its actions. 

Same thing applies to teaching the game. It is similar as when we walk, run, get off the bed or other actions we do over and over daily. So when we grab a white board, and pretend that a footballer must do what we tell him/her is a beginning, but alone is pure nonsense because when the player goes to the pitch, he will be unable to do so. 

We must train what we pretend to teach. Learning in football/soccer is not conscious. The concept we teach must be repeated over and over in real situations (systematic repetition) where we have real context similar to the game. 

The concept we teach must have a meaning to the footballer so that the player can apply it naturally. He/she must relate the meaning of the concept and the effects it will have on the game. 

It must have intensity, the intensity must be similar to the real game. 

Intensity in the extense meaning of the word, not only physical intensity but mainly psychological intensity. If we train at high psychological intensity, it is much easier that the player will have mental mistakes. It must have a certain level of difficulty, similar to the game. 

It must be easy enough to be executed correctly but not difficult enough where it can be obtained or learned. 

The Principle of Propensities of Professor Vitor Frade focuses specially on this, in my opinion. We must create context, so that these situations are created over and over, once we have that context we will introduce concepts and corrections, that occur over and over so that the footballer will be able to lean it similar to the real game, how he/she will see it in the next match. 

 Many of the coaches I was in Charge off in China where I have been working previously would often ask me when they could progress and move on to another technical concept, and my answer was when the young footballer was able to execute the concept without thinking in real context of game. Then is where the footballer has learned it…..this is learning. 

Football/Soccer can not be teached consciuously, because it is made of actions that must be executed in thousands of seconds and must be repeated over and over for the footballer to learn them, integrate them and execute them in real game situations. 

 “You will never see a Pianist practicing, running around a Piano”. 

Jose Mourinho.