Today’s challenge is the New Hampshire Skill Challenge. There are new skills involved along with interesting facts included in this exercise, which we have attached.
I also wanted to include today’s “Todd Talk” that was posted on Facebook this morning on the topic of developing your first touch. I shared a story in this posting about a coach I had growing up, Keith Blunt, who was an English coach of the Swedish professional team, Malmo FF. His whole focus was on “first touch” and the technique involved, the idea behind the touch and the effectiveness of the skill. It inspired me to become a master at the first touch, so I spent hours upon hours in my basement or backyard of my home smashing a ball in various ways against a wall. Dare I say, I was obsessed with studying everything involved with this experience.
I then read an interview with Dennis Bergkamp where he was asked how he became so skillful, and his response made so much sense to me and reminded me of my own experiences: “Most of the time I was by myself just kicking the ball against the wall… seeing how it bounces, how it comes back, just controlling it. I found that so interesting! Trying it different ways – first one foot, then the other foot, looking for new things like inside of the foot, outside of the foot, laces… getting a sort of rhythm going, speeding it up, slowing it down. Sometimes I’d aim at a certain brick, or the crossbar. Left foot, right foot, making the ball spin. Again and again. It was just fun. I was enjoying it. It interested me. Maybe other people wouldn’t bother. Maybe they wouldn’t find it fascinating. But I was fascinated.”
Later on as a coach, I had this very emotional experience while traveling to Holland with our 2002 boys and girls. This was the first time that I had made arrangements to visit the boyhood home of Johan Cruyff, and it happened to be just after he had died. Johan Cruyff was probably my great hero growing up and influenced me more than just about anyone. I had seen old videos of him playing in the street… Read countless books and articles about him… studied just about everything there is about him. Another incredible coincidence is that while we were there, I was able to meet Cruyff’s neighbor while growing up. He was an old man who spoke no English but he showed us where they would play in the streets and showed us the wall “where Johan kicked the ball one million times, maybe more” (translated by our Dutch coordinators). I am not sure how much all the kids absorbed from this experience at having a glimpse at where genius was created… I have heard stories about people’s first experience seeing Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel… maybe this is making it bit too dramatic, but still it had a profound impact on me.
I can imagine that everyone’s fascination in the “first touch” may not reach the same level as mine… BUT please know that the work that goes into this skill is extraordinary. Hopefully someday our players will be appreciative of such sublime skill.
Please watch this video for some more inspiration – Video on Great First Touches
Thanks, Coach Todd
New-Hampshire