One Two Magazine Edition 1 December 2015 One Two Magazine Edition 1 December 2015 | Page 12

Playing Trends

Tiki Tika or
Wizards of Dribble?
Coaches stuck between a rock
and a hard place.
This becomes confusing when coaches are
coaching players at 6, 7, 8, 9 years of age
who are just getting into the game.
Whichever way of playing you teach them
at this young age is likely to be the one
they will stick with and be most familiar
with throughout their lives. This age bracket
is vitally important - although it should all
be about having fun at this age - to show
them good techniques and guide them
through playing football ‘the right way’.

Football has trends just
like everything else in the
world. If a team wins a
prestigious trophy in style
playing a certain way,
everyone else wants to
play that way, from
international teams down
to kids playing on the
park trying to replicate
their hero’s. This influences
how coaches deliver,
they want in on this
latest trend. No one
wants to be seen as a
dinosaur of coaching,
not keeping up with the
times.

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Certain players such as Messi, Ronaldo or
Hazard are unbelievably good at dribbling.
Coaches want to produce these kind of
players and kids want to be able to do the
skills that they watch these players do. This
brought a new craze of a ball each, loads of
tricks, be comfortable on the ball. I am a
supporter of this trend. I feel to move
forward as a nation in football we need
footballers who are all comfortable on the
ball and are able to dribble and commit
opposition players. Also, this philosophy
suits everyone. Not only does it improve
technique, confidence and being
comfortable on the ball, what’s more fun
than doing loads of tricks and turns like
Messi and Ronaldo with your own football?
Ultimately, although we want to produce
the likes of Messi and Ronaldo, fun is what
really matters and the reason every
footballer started playing in the first place.
However, there is a contrasting trend that
has been rumbling for a number of years
now. ‘Tika Tika’. This is the idea of playing
like the likes of Barcelona and passing
opposition teams to death. One and two
touch passing, pass and move. It’s incredibly
effective if done right. Is this the way we
should be teaching the 6, 7, 8, 9 year olds
we coach? If we want a winning
international team then this style of football
has to start a young age like they do in
Spain and answer should be yes. But is this
enjoyable for such young players? Well, they

are hardly on the ball and they don’t care
how many passes they’re making, they’re
not counting, all they want is the ball and to
score more goals than who they are playing
against so I would say probably not.
The problem comes when, throughout grass
roots and academy level football, different
coaches believe in different philosophy’s
and instead of creating a nation that is good
at dribbling and can take the ball around a
few defenders and teams that can pass and
move with 27 passes before every goal
they score, we get players who don’t want
to be on the ball at all. They’re scared of
being moaned at for a stray pass so they
pass it backwards or sideways and they’re
scared of being moaned at if they try to
take a player on and lose the ball so they
just conform and give someone else the
ball instead of expressin