The Setting

Jamica Football Coaches Assocaition -Evon Mckenzie

Match: 2nd end of round final Digicel Premier League( DPL) between Waterhouse FC and Harbour View Venue and date: National Stadium, Sunday, January 16, 2010. 7pm
Weather: Cool cloudy skies, no wind, played under lights.
Field: Grass in very good condition
Coaches: Jeffery Maxwell - Waterhouse; Donavan Hayles - Harbour View

The Leader vs The Inform Team

Billed the leader vs the inform team, the Digicel Premier League second end of round final was expected to provide some exciting football, even though both coaches, Jeffery Maxwell of Waterhouse and Harbour View’s Donavan Hayles were in fact playing down the importance of this title to their team and that “there is no point to be scored for winning the game save the cash and a trophy which is not the big one for the year”.

The 7pm scheduled start was preceded with the usual pre- game warm up and despite the fact that there are tons of research on the stretching issue, the nation’s leading football clubs demonstrated once more that they are behind the eight ball on this matter ( that static stretching reduces muscle strength between 6 %– 10% for up to 60 minutes) which if reasoned could provide some answers to why the game which started out with that kind of fire was so luke warm in the second forty five minutes.
The Wisdom From The East

Harbour View captain Lovel Palmer

The more skilful and star studded Waterhouse team were in fact dominating the early game as Harbour Views flanks were not able to prevent their opponent from getting through on a regular basis. These penetrations however did not prove useful enough to Jermaine Anderson, Desmond Breckenridge, Jonathan William, Kenardo Forbes in the first 20 minutes of the game. On the contrary, the Harbor View were steadily putting their game together, tactically they played behind the ball, responded with a few counter attacks, and in the 13th minute they got the only goal of the game when captain Lovel Palmer slammed a roundhouse volley kick past the diving McCallum in the Waterhouse goal. The fast passing Waterhouse team, even though creating some chances following the goal, were soon to be depleted of the required maximal oxygen intake (O2 Max) to keep them going , as they thought that the game was a measured distance race and not a ninety minutes encounter, hence all the end for end play and regular turnovers were not to the liking of the supporters in the stand. At times ,Waterhouse put seven or eight passes together and then give the ball to the opponent who would make five or sometimes six passes and return the favour to the Firehouse boys. As a result of these spurts of accepted level of football, spectators were indeed hopeful that the second forty-five minutes would have worth the $350.00 balance on the $500.00 ticket. One important observation echoed by even some die hearts of both teams, was that after 35 minutes both teams appeared to be very tired with Waterhouse displaying the brunt of the fatigue.

The Fitness Problem Becomes More Evident

The second half started with very quick turnover yet demonstrating some semblance of urgency by both teams, in spite of the fact that Harbour View started the second half with a more obvious four man defense and were not prepared to give up the lead they had. The break as it turned out didn’t revive the more jaded Waterhouse who were still able to breach the Harbour View defense on a regular basis. Harbour View however lacked compactness. They too were feeling the effects of the elevated level of fatigue and therefore not able to capitalize on the counter whenever these opportunities were presented to them by the more attack minded Waterhouse.

The Lethal Lamey Enters The Party

With the introduction of fresh legs on both sides including the very lethal Waterhouse striker Kevin Lamey, offered some level of hope to both teams .This however proved to be otherwise as they were not more penetrative that the legs substituted. In fact, it was just a game, very weak tactically and totally lacking in the endurance capacity for top league football.

When I examined the few games I have seen in the DPL, this final concluded that we have a very acute fitness problem that needs the immediate attention of the JFF and the PLCA to lead the turnaround required at this stage of our competitions. If we continue to ignore these calls, the nation’s football as well as the economy will feel it for a very long time to come.

What I Have Observed

Consider the following pattern:

1. Waterhouse- 1 Portmore 0- the away team dominated the second forty five minutes.

2. TV match, St Georges 1 Waterhouse 0- the home team dominated the second half.

3. TV Match -August Town 1 Waterhouse 0 -the home team dominated the second half.

4. DPL end Of round final Waterhouse 0 Harbour View 1,
   
   YOU CAN DRAW YOUR OWN CONCLUSIONS FROM THE ABOVE FOUR EXAMPLES. It is the Unbridled View that we have a crisis on our hand and the authorities need to act NOW.

Unbridled Suggestions

1. Reduce training time to a maximum of 90 minutes per session; 70 would be my recommendation including warm up.

2. Make sure that the athletes know and practice to run on the ball off the feet and not on the toes as this is an old myth disproved by science.

3. Remove the running of laps during training sessions; this type of adaptation is not what footballers need. They need short sprints and short recovery period e,g 4 sets of 5x 60m with 10 seconds break between runs and 60 seconds active rest between sets.

4. Where possible, remove static stretching from warm up for games and training. All research studies in Sweden, Australia, Great Briton, USA, France and Germany point to the fact that static stretching reduces muscle strength between 6% and 10%.

5. Remove friendly games the day before a competitive game and the training should not exceed one hour with no pushups or abs nor any energy sapping exercise.

6. Warm down the team properly with static stretching as this flexibility is needed for the next day’s game.

7. Encourage your players to increase their daily water intake by one or two glasses (AM)

8. Do your own research to verify these that these suggestion are valid but in the meantime act on them,

9. Include your assistant in the planning or at least brief him on the plans for the day .Talk thing through but don’t engage in a debate except when you schedule one- the leader is the final authority.

10. Open the line of communication in your group/Technical staff and don’t be afraid to change if you are convincing that it is for the better. Players must be able to run/sprint and coaches must be able to observe and recommend measures for improvements.