Spontaneity......

This weekend I have managed to watch some of the International Sport that has been on. I enjoy watching the Rugby, and find it really beneficial to my refereeing and development as a coach. I find football on TV a long occasion, and rarely manage to watch an entire match. I saw some of the England v Brazil match (England 0 Brazil 1), watched England beat Argentina 16 - 9, and then managed to see Ireland v Australia (20 - 20) when Evie fell asleep lying on my chest. Sitting here on Sunday evening am I inspired by the performance of highly paid professional sportsmen? well in a word NO, (although things improved somewhat this afternoon).

Where has the spark gone from team sport? where have the match winners gone? where has the spontaneity and improvisation gone? There wasn't much on show this weekend, particularly when an English team was involved.

I think 15 year's ago (bit of a guess) football started to change, (was that about the time of the Premiership?) I remember hearing many managers say 'if we don't concede a goal we won't lose and we may win'. Team's started to put more and more emphasis on the defence and as a result games became tighter, teams conceded fewer goals and they would often sneak a goal or hold out for a draw. I realise a solid defence is vital in professional sport, but the last time I explained winning to the boys and girls I teach I remember saying if you score more goals, score more tries, score more points you will win, it's still the same. Yes you need to be solid in defence and stopping the opposition scoring or your badminton opponent hitting winners will give you a greater chance of winning, but you still have to score some points for yourself or your team. In my teens I played tennis, and every year we had the village tennis championships. Very often I would come across the same player who had one very simple strategy, get the ball back over the net. He did exactly that, safe, low risk tennis, he kept returning the ball, safe serves, rarely going for a winner, guess what happened? He frustrated the hell out of me, I made mistakes, got wound up by his defensive game plan and quite often I would lose to him. (I don't really think he beat me) Some would argue a pretty effective tactic........anyway back to our overpaid footballers. When was the last time a striker scored a hatrick? when was the last time a midfield player scored a mighty goal from outside the box (not a free kick) when was the last time you saw a attacker take it past the goalkeeper and slot it into an empty net? I think with all this defensive thought, strategies and tactics to keep the opposition out individuals and teams have forgotten how to score goals, and guess what the same thing is now happening in rugby.......

Stop the opposition scoring, let them make mistakes and maybe opportunities will present themselves, enter stage left the specialist 'Defence Coach'. A contrasting thought, be aggressive in attack, outplay the opposition, commit numbers and create overlaps, look for opportunities to score, controversial!!! The England game was dire. Talk about a team devoid of ideas, and individuals scared to make mistakes. Another thing I will tell the boys I teach is to look after the ball. Keep the ball, protect the ball, surely you need it to score goals or tries!! However cue the England's tactics, (and many other Rugby teams), kick the ball back to the opposition and see if they make a mistake, if they don't they will return it to you, and you can have another go. I remember at school practising kicking the ball so that it bounced into touch and you then had the opportunity to win the lineout (guess lineouts are too predictable now so that's a pointless tactic) So mistakes are made, the ball is knocked on. Ok, nice territory deep in the opponents half with the ball at the scrum, surely a perfect position to launch an attack, Oh how wrong I am. Instead, win the scrum keep it tight, set a ruck, set another, set another make some ground and lure the opposition into a mistake that results in a penalty, Bingo, free shot between the posts 3pts yawn, yawn, yawn!!!! Who would want to be a winger with today's tactics. The way we are going, and I don't think we are far away we will have specialist kickers (probably American Football Players) who are that good they will be able to kick from pretty much anywhere. We wonder why today's players can't attack, score goals or tries, well it's not rocket science, they rarely get the opportunity to practise the skills required or create the partnerships with their team mates to build effective attacking positions.

Rooney attacking the Brazilian defence doesn't have the skills, knowledge or confidence to back himself and take on the defender and head towards goal, it's fear of failure, or lack of confidence, so what does he do? He turns back inside and plays a safe square or backwards pass, end result all impetus has gone from the attacking situation. Same on the Rugby pitch. The opposition give you the ball via a poor kick, where's the 15 running with pace and power, initiating an attack bringing in his winger and looking to open up the defence? In an attacking line where's the 15 joining the line, running with pace, looking to outnumber the opposition, looking to commit a dummy runner, throw a miss pass, work a scissors move he's not there, he's sitting deep just in case the scrum is turned over and the opposition attack. Managers are scared of losing, directors in turn put so much pressure on not losing, and as a result this negative approach to winning sport is reinforced in most modern players. Modern players are scared to be do something different, scared to be spontaneous, in case it doesn't work.

Before I move on I have a simple idea that might make the game of Rugby more exciting again. Make the penalty worth 2 points and the try work 6. Teams will still have to behave themselves, but it might just encourage teams to be braver and look for try scoring situations. 3 converted tries would require 12 penalties for the boring, play it safe team, even Jonny's not capable of slotting that may over.

I wonder whether some endurance athletes have also lost the spontaneity and ability to improvise, particularly with our training. Not necessarily just in terms of effort, but also in terms of the type of sessions we choose, where we do those sessions, when we do those sessions, swimming, running or cycling in your comfort zone. Some sort of training plan is probably a must, for me a rigid weekly training plan very rarely works. I usually miss a session and then beat myself up for doing so, if I set a session in stone and then fail to deliver I am often left feeling a bit deflated. For me I prefer to have some ideas for my training but with enough flexibility to change or miss sessions, without it causing World War V in my mind.

How often do you ride the same old routes at the same old speeds, run the same out and back or do the same warm up set, session after session in the pool. In the gym, Bench Press then Shoulder Press then Upright Row then Bicep Curl then Tricep Extension then too knackered for the situps and crunches, sound familiar? Take a look around you, have you ever run a route through the woods near your home or have you ever driven to a challenging wood or park for a run in a change of scenery. Have you ever ridden your favourite route in reverse. When was the last time you left your HR monitor at home and just went for it, or just ran without any timing device.

Unfortunately in Professional Cycling the Rugby, Football theme is occurring. Take for instance the fact that all cyclist are radioed up. Taking directions from their team managers the riders know exactly the time gaps and when to chase and how hard to chase, I hope the UCI ban radios, and we get back to the cyclist racing, taking chances and making there own decisions.

To a lesser extend power meters are having a similar effect in Ironman Triathlon. A superb training tool, but doesn't it take the guess work and spontaneity out of race day. Stick it at 200watts and come in with a 5.30 bike split giving you the platform to run your predicted 4.30 marathon using your Garmin to control your pace, Oh what a surprise my finishing time is exactly as I predicted. OK I know it's not that simple but what about if you were having a 'blinder', your legs feel like you are spinning, and you wonder whether your chain has fallen off it feels that easy, but NO wait a minute, stay in control, Mr Powermeter is too high, slow down, slow down!! Have we lost the opportunity for that monster day when massive PB's are earned?

This week I was spontaneous, and I loved it. On Thursday I rode my bike and slotted in 5 intervals on a steady incline taking approx 4 mins to ride. I hadn't planned to do this, but I rode the hill and felt good so decided to do a few more, I also hit it pretty hard. Then on Friday I trained with My Judo Friend Dane, although I hadn't lifted weights for a couple of weeks sod it, lift heavy, bench press, squats, flys and some pretty severe weighted abbs exercises. After lunch I wanted to run. I wasn't that inspired by my usual route along the river bank so decided on some rugby pitch intervals. I completed 8 laps, holding 68seconds on a 90 seconds recovery. I felt very tired on Saturday morning and had planned to ride to work, but with 2 solid, different high intensity days behind me I was quite content to drive in and take a couple of rest days.

This week I invite you to look for moments in your life and training where you can be spontaneous. Go on do it, it really is quite enjoyable doing something a little different.....I think I might ride where I will sprint max out for every sign post, bring it on...

The photo? I wanted to jump off the steps on holiday in Majorca, so I did......