Playing football, and fixing the cracks in your game....

odonnell

Hi gents... (and ladies i suppose)

Ive been reading the soccer forum for a while now and have noticed how very few threads there are regarding 'playing' the beautiful game! This makes me wonder if im posting this in the right place at all, however, i might aswell and see how we go...

I have a 'soccer' problem....and it isnt really bad enough for the PI forum, or writing to a columnist so i wonder if any of you have experienced the same: this past few weeks (going on 8 weeks now) after having played non stop, 2-3 games a week for around 70 weeks consecutively - my game has gone to crap. I dont think its fatigue as i feel fit and am sprinting faster than i have in my life, but of late i think my confidence has dipped almost to the point where ive started hiding on the pitch and not running into that glaringly open space in front of goal.

The other night I had a cross ball sweep in front of me and had i fallen on the ball it would have been a goal - but since this 'dip in form', i swiped at it and miskicked it completely. 5 minutes later the ball came back off the cross bar and sat up nicely for me...head down, lean in....BANG! The thing was balooned into row z. 9 times of 10 id stick that through the back of the ruddy net however.... not just now!?

Ive noted also, i have one or two very forceful team mates who like to scream at you no matter what you do. You could be standing on an empty goal line ready to gently roll the ball across the line, and out of sheer madness - these two guys are screaming at you for the pass (remember...youre standing in an empty goal about to score) and they have the awful effect of putting me off and screwing with my composure. The end result is, they shout SHOOT, you shoot, you miss, they shout at you some more, you shoot, they shout PASS, you miss your shot, they shout some more.....you start hiding because you cant stomach missing anymore costly sitters!

So... how do you combat the drop in form (which is self perpetuating as it leads to low confidence), poor composure, and overly vocal tem mates? How do you pull yourself out of a dip in form long enough to regain your composure in front of goal?

I simply must know!!!

Cheers chaps. Any advice appreciated - pre season starts end of july.

Vokes

odonnell wrote:

Ive noted also, i have one or two very forceful team mates who like to scream at you no matter what you do. You could be standing on an empty goal line ready to gently roll the ball across the line, and out of sheer madness - these two guys are screaming at you for the pass (remember...youre standing in an empty goal about to score) and they have the awful effect of putting me off and screwing with my composure. The end result is, they shout SHOOT, you shoot, you miss, they shout at you some more, you shoot, they shout PASS, you miss your shot, they shout some more.....you start hiding because you cant stomach missing anymore costly sitters!

Can't you have a go at them afterwards for putting you off?


Aside from that, maybe just head down to a local park on occasion and play football with some randomers just for fun. Get some enjoyment and confidence back into your game.

wheres me jumpa

I got dropped this season, first time Id ever been dropped since I started. Spent two games on the bench, one I didnt even get on, came back then due to an injury to another player and played the best football ive ever played.

A rest and a kick up the a*se is what you need! Critical team mates are very hard to overcome, the only way you can do it is by not hiding on the pitch, getting on the ball and making things happen.

Eirebear

Dude, your taking the game, and yourself far to seriously.
As someone said above me ENJOY yourself, dont let stupid mistakes get your head down.
You balloon a couple of shots, mis hit a couple of passes, take stock and go for it again.
At the end of the day you have been playing some decent football over the last few months, so you know the abilities are there.
Its not a hard game mate, keep it simple, dont dwell on the mistakes, just get back out there and do it again.

odonnell

Im not sure im taking it too seriously mate - you know how much stock i put into my fitba and its quite painful to be playing consistently bad. Ive spoken to the lads involved with the shouting and what i think is a fairly cast iron argument, they just see it as being funny and me making excuses... but come on.... seriously....a striker is about to shoot, and WHO in their right mind (in the same team) would shout "BANG!!! SHOOT!!!" JUST at the moment of contact??? WHO?

Thats row Z material right there, and they just laugh it off and deny its their fault. Its seriously giving me grief, and apart from being quite serious about the game like, if its something you get enjoyment out of when youre playing well, and get quite annoyed about when you play badly - surely its something that should get sorted?

A good idea mentioned is to get a ball and go up the parks and get a kick around. Prior to pre-season id prefer to get some level of consistency back so... maybe the method IS just to get on the ball in a non match environment, take some free kicks, do some running with the ball, take some penos, and so on....a few hours spent just being on the ball with noone screaming at ya....

[edit] and heres an interesting thing ive just thought of - the hard stuff is easy enough like... some nice turns in midfield, etc. Ball came over the top the other night, brought it down on my right, dinked it up and over defender on my left, two keepie-up headers (di canio....) and ive two defenders and a keeper bearing down on me.... what do i do? Open goal, keeper on the deck, defenders on my right.... i dink it OVER the keeper, and JUST clip the frickin post, and the ball goes out of play. Hard stuff easy - sticking the ball in the net though? Christ.

Sundy

2-3 games a week for 70 weeks?

Thats alot of games for a long time. It sounds like you might getting a bit mentally fatigued. If you could do it id suggest a break even for a week or two and do some stuff other than football.

cold_filter

Sometimes i just play **** and have a bad run of a month.
Last season i scored 9 in 4 games against good teams. I play 5 a side aswell twice a week so impretty fit.

For about the next 3 weeks you could've put me in a brothel and i wouldnt have scored. i couldnt pass the ball more the 3 yards. The manager told me to take a week off from football and come back, and i did and got back to my old form

PHB

I find when my game goes to **** the best thing to do is run about a park with a ball with just one friend, just messing around. If finishing is your problem, let him cross the ball into you and finish it. When you are actually training, you can't do this sorta crap imo, so just get a mate out and go play.

odonnell

Sounds like everyone sees the issue as being one of being slightly jaded. I had considered the taking some time out in a field with a ball and nothing more, just kick around with a mate etc, prior to pre-season starting, to get a feel back again before i arse it up with my mates team (im starting training with a new team this summer and would very much like to show some talent straight off the bat - not fumble through some sitters and lose my temper).

But aye...lately ive been getting awfully nervous on the ball, and then lose my temper very easily when i fluff it, so its definitely a cumulative thing.

Maybe a few weeks break is the key then, like you said coldfilter, sundy etc...



good shout

cheers lads

Zapp Brannigan

When I play five a side I play with people like those you talk about. I just tell them to mind their own game and leave me do my thing. It can be distracting and the only bit of advice I can give you is just brush it off, usually I'm the guy who follows up their scathing "should've passed" comments with an "unlucky, don't worry about it".

Eirebear

When i say your taking it too seriously mate, I dont mean the people giving you stick, the only way to deal with them is block them out.

What i mean is your confidence, your looking for reasons as to why your not playing well, and listening to everyone and everything around you....This will in turn get to you, do your head in, and afect your game.

When your playing well these guys dont affect you do they?
My advice, do everything in your power to ignore them.
When you have a bad game, get on with it, forget about it and start the next game afresh, dont go into it thinking about the last game, or what effect the shouters are gonna have on you.

A rest may be a good idea though if youve been playing so constantly though, go out and fly that plane of yours...go take some photos with the missus....go watch some Eircom league stuff, get the passion back.

griffdaddy

you're not Alonso by any chance are you?

Big Ears

I have to say if this shouting is affecting you it's possibly an indication your not fully focused . Confidence seems to be an issue aswell , I'm not sure if this will help because lack of confidence isn't something I ever really suffer from .
Try to have the mentality that you know your good enough , you're still the same person that was probably banging goals in some time ago .

Don't over think it(quite possibly what you would be doing at the moment) , I find when I'm playing football at my best it just flows and my mind is pretty clear .

One obvious thing to point out is to just try and enjoy your football , I don't think it's possible to play well if your not enjoying yourself . Now you might say you're not enjoying it because you're not putting away chances but just go out there with a positive attitude , try not to overthink anything(especially your finishing) and ever so often try something audacious , because one 30 yard volley that flys in at training could change everything for you .

event

myself, id practise

go to a pitch on your own, just you, a ball and goalposts.
practice scoring again, stick it in the top corner from different angles, maybe get a few cones, run around them and then shoot.
imagine from different scenarios, volleys, snap shots, placed kicks.
get the feeling of hitting the back of the net back again.

then when on the pitch and you have a chance, do the exact same, hit the ball the same way, put it in the same spot

eventually it will come back

BlackWizard

Im kinda the same when it comes to heading. At times ill be able to head the ball where I want, but then I have periods of minutes to weeks where I just cant remember how I used to be able to head the ball.

I find the more I think about it, the worse it gets.

Sorry Ive no advice to offer I guess keep your head up and look forward to the next opportunity you have to try and improve.

Reganio 2

If your shooting really dosnt improve for whatever reason. You sound like you could be a good midfielder maybe ask the gaffer can you play 1 friendly in Centre midfield see how you get on.

P.S. Anybody know any teams that are fairly short players or tbh aren't that good. Iam trying to get back to football buut I know some of you play for very good teams in the higher divisions. I would like to come down to training even just to try out and the gaffer can tell me to F off if I am bad. Cheers.

RE*AC*TOR

i go out on the pitch on my own before a game,
have a very little warm up,
and start taking penalties on an empty net stick 5 or 6 in the exact same spot and you'll start to feel good about it and for me i feel very composed, then relax and try not to listen to anyone but yourself on the pitch, thats not to say be selfish but you have to know yourself what the right thing to do is playing to semebody elses tune wont help.

ziggy

This post has been deleted.

Big Ears

ziggy67 wrote:

Tell your moany team mates to f**k off in no uncertain terms on the pitch in front of everyone

Don't bother your breath , all this does is cause conflict . If you are fully focused you won't even be bothered by it .

ziggy

This post has been deleted.

Big Ears

ziggy67 wrote:

But he is bothered by it and the situation should come to a head ASAP. He tried talking to them off the pitch and it didn't get through to them.

In an ideal world i would agree with you totally.

He is bothered by it because he's not focused , not he's not focused because he's bothered by it . When confidence is high and your knocking them in those voices are still there , you just don't hear them .

If he has a go at his team mates for it , they'll just have a go back and all that will happen is they'll be arguing like idiots . It doesn't take an ideal world , let him concentrate on his game and when he fixes that everything will come into place .

odonnell

Actually, thats a good point raised by yous - after i pulled them up for it their counter argument was exactly that - it wasnt putting me off when i was scoring.

I think im going to ditch playing with these guys twice a week and just stick all my eggs in one basket and that will probably be the 11's. I havent trained with this team yet so Ill give them a go and see what happens - maybe its a new start thats required.

Christ, i balooned another couple yesterday morning for no good reason other than someone shouting "BANG!". I said ffs man...gimme a feckin break... again i got on the ball, turned my man and pelted down the right wing....stuck in a lovely cross for the other cf to knock in - the SECOND time i tried to turn the man he disposessed me... what happened? "ffs stop turning him when theres a back pass available!!"

A) there was no back pass, everyone was out of pos
if you dont TRY, why feckin play?

So i said... look mate.... im no allowed to shoot, you dont want me to turn a man....what the F*CK am i here for?

Like someone says - im being forced to play to someone elses tune and it isnt a tune im familiar with so...feck it... think ill give them boys a break and go with my 11's if i can make them work out. I need to get away from the over bearing team mates as theyre just being silly now. Snide comments are coming up now with my lack of goals....and now i know how sebo feels (thanks ziggy )

Cheers lads, i reckon ill take your collective advice on this one and put the chicken before the egg - i need to get some confidence back, possibly drop back into midfield for a while (i DO have #6 on my shirt ffs) and take up a bit more solo training prior to pre season, then focus on 11's and drop the 5s and 7s.