''I didn't learn the game from coaches, i learned the game from the street, there i developed my technical capacity and emotional intelligence''- Mauricio Pochettino. This is a topic many of those reading will have pondered before, the sun rises earlier and sets later yet our children no longer seize this temporal opportunity to do one thing- (learn how to) play football. I believe my generation was the last to learn football through peer exposure, rather than a coach led or facilitated approach to youth football. A player acquires so much from the street environment, playing against taller or older players results in you releasing the ball quicker, playing against the parked cars or the curb permits you to change direction, in the cage you use the sides to bounce the ball and run beyond, playing on concrete means you have to learn to stay on your feet. The complexity of the game is always present, it's not simplified for the sake of development, it's play...
When you've tuned into Futsal for the first time it can feel a bit overwhelming, it is a chaotic game- the pace is frantic, the turnovers are rapid, players rotate at an almost dizzying frequency, yet in between the intensity the players find the opportunity to execute technical and tactical actions of the highest level. There's a reason why Futsal is entering coaching discussions and is undergoing a boom in global exposure, the sport which they play in a court and with a heavier ball ended up producing some of the highest quality footballers of the past 2 decades- think Neymar JR, Ronaldinho and Andres Iniesta to name a few. Futsal is the predecessor to the street, it has a rich cultural capital, the game thrives because there is variation- across Europe a movement is gathering speed. Following my article Big Picture vs Small Picture and discussions had on X, I've been wanting to take a deeper look at futsal's intricacies for a while, I love how the analysis is focus...