This is the most important behaviour in Football
Today we will talk about one of the most important behaviours in football. If a player gets this right, he will be able to handle all situations. The behaviour we’re talking about here is body orientation. A lot of coaches know this concept and coach on it. They tell their players to be open when they receive the ball. But what does this mean? Being open when receiving the ball only applies when you’re able to receive it, while there are so many other game situations. What about if you’re defending, or in other game situations, what is the right body orientation then?
At Tactalyse body orientation is one of the first behaviour we’re learning players. Because this has such a big impact on all fundamentals in our methodology. We teach our players which body orientation they should have in which game situations and when to switch body orientation.
So what is body orientation, body orientation is the way you orientate your body on the football field? There are only 6 options, either you are vertically orientated (two possibilities here, left or right foot in front), you are diagonally orientated (two possibilities here, left or right foot in front), or you’re horizontally orientated (with your face to own goal or to opponents goal)
All of these options can be right, but it’s never possible that more than one of these options is optimal in the same situation. There’s always, only one optimal body orientation. At Tactalyse we always coach on the optimal body orientation in specific game situations. We do this because we believe that every game situation has an optimal execution.
Let’s go through two examples of body orientation, an offensive one and a defensive one. The offensive one we’re going to talk about is the example all coaches always talk about. Being open, because this is an important one and it’s good that coaches focus on this.
When able to receive the ball, the player has to have an open body position so he can receive the ball and go straight toward the opponent’s goal. Another advantage of open body orientation Is that you have a better perception of the playing field. That’s why it’s so important to have an open body towards the biggest surface of the pitch. Because then you see most of the pitch.
EXAMPLE OF GOOD BODY ORIENTATION
EXAMPLE OF BAD BODY ORIENTATION
I think everyone agrees on this offensive body orientation example and every coach coaches their players on this one. A body orientation that’s often neglected or maybe even not seen by coaches is defensive body orientation. A lot of goals can be prevented by having the right defensive body orientation.
Let’s talk about one example of defensive body orientation. Think about all the situations when there’s a possibility of a threat behind the defensive line. These are a lot of situations, passes from everywhere on the pitch, second balls from a long ball that get kicked or headed straight over, and even throw-ins. This shows the cruciality of body orientation. The body orientation you want in these situations is always vertical because then you’re able to defend backwards and forward. But I see too many players that are horizontal when there’s a possibility of a threat behind the defensive line. This is costing a lot of goals for teams.
If you’re reading this right now and think, yes but Loran everyone knows this. Please comment under this post. Because I agree, (almost) everyone knows that you have to be able to defend a ball behind the defensive line. So why are we not doing it, why are we not structurally coaching players to have the right body orientation in every game situation? You can put on any football match and spot this mistake at least a dozen times, and probably even see a team scoring because of a mistake like this. Let me illustrate the example with some pictures.
EXAMPLE OF BAD BODY ORIENTATION DEFENDER
Here you see a central defender that is horizontal in picture 1, he’s in good control of the attacker, and the attacker has around 2 meters disadvantage over him to the goal. But then the ball gets played in behind the defender and within a blink of an eye, the attacker is through and alone with the keeper. This is how quickly the 2-meter advantage disappeared because of bad body orientation. The solution is so easy! Stand vertically, so you can sprint forward or in this case backwards when needed.
These are only two examples of optimal body orientation during a match. In the Tactalyse methodology, we have optimal body orientation for every game situation. Think for example about body orientation when an attacker gets a high ball or when a defender has to defend a cross or go in a duel. All the situations have an optimal body orientation.
Are you interested in what the right body orientation is in every game situation? Send us a message and we will contact you soon.
