The Ability to Pause

Leave it to a young child to remind you how beautiful learning can be. As many educators would agree, through all of the planning, the doubts, and the self-reflection, the sweetest moments are when you notice that discovery has indeed taken place in a young mind. These are the golden moments when you sit back, smile, and realize that perhaps you are on the right track. I had one of these moments recently and it inspired me so much that I had to write about it.

In the second half of our 7-aside game, when 9 year-old SeRi received the ball on the left wing in our last game of the tournament, what she did brought cheers of joy even from the teenage boys watching behind the goal. As two opposing players went to close her down, she put her right foot on top of the ball and waited. She paused. To deal with the defender coming from behind, SeRi shielded with her body and then shifted the ball to her left foot just as the defender directly in front of her lunged to make a tackle. The quick shuffle of the ball between her feet exposed a narrow channel on the sideline that she used to scamper past the initial defenders. Having beaten their pressure, the little girl now accelerated towards the goal before a third defender finally caught up to her and tackled the ball out of bounds for our corner kick.

It was an amazing play. She paused. That was the moment of brilliance. She looked, assessing her options the entire time, drew defenders close, and accelerated through an exit that presented itself to her. I smiled and chuckled to myself. When I heard the boys behind the goal shout their approval I laughed and clapped my hands with glee. Of all the actions in all of the games that I watched that weekend, that moment was the absolute highlight. It showed a level of intelligence and game insight that every player should aspire to obtain and every coach should aspire to nurture.

Currently, I’m in the middle of reading Andrés Iniesta’s biography, The Artist, Being Iniesta. The magnificent Barcelona and Spain midfielder exemplifies the type of footballer that I want to help develop as a coach. Watching players like Iniesta gives the impression that some people have the ability to make time itself bend to their will. They can speed it up, slow it down, and they can even pause it. When describing Don Andrés on the field, knowledgeable soccer writers said in his book, “In one action from Iniesta we can see so many of the qualities a player would need to be considered complete: the speed of decision making; the quality of pass; the ability to apply the brakes, to accelerate, to pause; the use of the first touch to take him away from opponents; the ability to change direction.”

When I watch youth soccer where I live, especially during the hectic summer tournament schedule, I see a lot of activity from the players on the field (and often the parents as well). Generally speaking, there is a lot of running, a lot of kicking, and a lot of tackling. Seemingly every player, especially at a lower level of play, is in a constant hurry to boot the ball down the field and chase after it, even if their team lacks the speed required to play that way effectively. Very few players (and very few teams) exhibit the ability to pause. This means more than just holding the ball; the ability to pause means reading and calibrating the right moment to execute an action or, if need be, to change one’s mind and find a different solution. Pausing invites pressure and this also is a sign of genius because a truly intelligent player will find the ideal moments to lure opponents close in order to create space elsewhere for their teammates. Once found, quality players exploit space by choosing the ideal moments to accelerate or pass in order to eliminate defenders and penetrate.

I have an idea about one of the reasons why we struggle to produce better players where I live and work. It’s not an earth shattering revelation by any means and I am simply echoing what wiser and more experienced people have been saying for some time. The harsh reality is this: Given the overall quality of our teaching, especially the amount of time that many “licensed” coaches spend on isolated drills and fancy technical training with no opposition, we are robbing far too many players of the opportunity to develop the timing and the purpose of their football actions. How do you develop the ability to pause in a fast-paced game by dribbling around stationary cones at practice? In a realistic match environment against ever-changing pressure, how do you develop the ability to change speed and direction at just the right moment if you are used to being told what “moves” to do and when to do them in an artificial setting?

The more time I spend coaching, studying other teachers, and reflecting on my own journey in this game, the more I realize that our challenge isn’t simply to determine for example how much isolated training is necessary for a player’s development. To be clear, there is a time and place for non game-realistic exercises at soccer practice. Every coach makes use of those and they can have great value. But this really isn’t the heart of the issue. The huge elephant in the room is this question: Through our youth soccer structure and our most prevalent training methodologies, are we ensuring that kids are learning how to be autonomous and effective decision makers in complex situations? Or are we simply throwing them into ultra competitive situations without the proper training to handle complexity and responsibility?

When I gave SeRi a high-five after the game, I told her how much I enjoyed watching her play, especially that moment on the sideline when she was so composed and confident in her ability. Looking up at me, she beamed and said, “You know, I actually never even practiced that or tried that before! I just did it!” She just did it. I never told her to do it and we never had a training exercise where she was “challenged” to dribble around cones. She recognized a complex problem (2 defenders and limited space) and solved it in her own way. Now she owns that moment of learning. She owns that action. I took a moment to pause after the game to reflect on what I had just witnessed and what it means for how I teach the game and how I develop players.

I feel incredibly blessed to have the opportunity to do what I love for a living. I’m extremely thankful for where I am right now in this moment in time. Everyday holds a new lesson and another reason to keep building the dream. The Rising Point is my lighthouse when I feel like I’m lost at sea. It’s showing me the way home in the midst of the storm. If I do nothing else in this world, I want to take comfort from knowing that I joined the fight and took on the challenge of changing the status quo. I want to be a part of something that doesn’t simply critique the existing structure in youth soccer; we want to present a different one. This is my pause, now we rise to fight again.