What is functional training?

This week I’ve decided to discuss functional training, having dwelled a lot on youth development as well as acknowledging their successful campaign into securing a spot at the World Cup to be held in Poland. Having given credit to where it is due and acknowledging those who make a difference and ensuring that our development structures are taken care of, I’ve realised that we’re so limited in a crucial areas on the field. I’m saying this based on what I see when I look at individual, group and team tactical approach or tactics. What caught my eye was a particular moment, which is critical, that I would like to share, and it doesn’t only apply in the development structures but in the professional ranks as well. We are talking about creativity, finishing, goalkeeping, individual/group defensive tactics and many other crucial elements, but it puzzles me when I see so much of, not to say errors, some players looking a little bit lost. It is like they don’t know how to function in certain areas, how to excel in their individual brilliance and using their God-given talent. This brings to mind what is called functional training. What is functional training? It is training for a specific position or area on the field, like forwards, outside midfielders or goalkeepers. It involves training or practising the specific demands of the position or a role. If functional training existed or was taken care of regularly at training, I don’t think we’d see so many mistakes committed by our players in specific areas. For example, there are so many positions, attributes or movements that I can talk about during a game situation. Let’s talk about a left back overlapping into the final third and going on to play a poor cross that takes away from all the right things he’d done. That’s where functional training comes into play because I’ve seen players repeating the same mistakes season after season. The final third is a critical area that can determine whether we create or score. Now, if functional training isn’t taken care of, you will lose out on the scoring chances and therefore not win. Functional training is very good at influencing individual or group success in terms of tactics. Let’s talk about players that are an epitome of functional training. These players wouldn’t train with their teams, either due to injury or being managed, for days and either train on the eve of the game or go straight to camp and perform wonders. That’s because of the functional training they were doing. I don’t know if you guys still remember the former Tottenham Hotspur and England central defender, Ledley King. This guy wouldn’t take part in high-intensity training sessions during the week leading up to the game because of a niggling knee injury, but his defensive qualities were unbelievable! He was one of the best ever! He would put on a brilliant performance and that’s because they were aware of his individual brilliance and worked around that. We talk about creative players who can make things happen for their teams, yet they’re not being given that functional training where every exercise they do at training improves their creativity. That’s enhancing the God-given talent instead of stifling it. The small-sided games, for instance, are very good to enhance that creative element of your players’ game. I really don’t think most of our creative players are given that privilege. While we’re still at it, let’s talk about another former great, Jonathan Woodgate, who was teammates with King and they formed a brilliant partnership in the heart of Tottenham and England’s defence. Just like King, Woodgate also suffered from a niggling injury and was also managed perfectly. I bring these two names up because I want people to know that any player with a niggling injury can’t be treated the same as an injury-free player. There’s a way of dealing with such talent that doesn’t need much coaching. You look at the Brazilian Ronaldo, he used to be treated the same way at Inter Milan where he wouldn’t train with the rest of the team for days, only to go on and score a hat-trick on the weekend. On Wednesday or Thursday, he would go for a functional training where he would focus on finishing only. The same thing happened with Romario. While the rest of the Brazilian national team players were training, he was taking a walk on the beach and playing volley ball, with his feet not hands, and that’s how he was keeping himself busy. He couldn’t be trained the same way as the other players and functional training came in handy for him. All these players had a specific role to play in the team, which is why they never failed on their duties and are still remembered to this day for their contribution. That’s why players need to be analysed and tested so that they are given specific training. Imagine taking Kylian Mbappe for a speed test – how do you train him on something he’s already mastering? He’s got natural speed and you just need to train him to be able to dribble past oppostition and scoring. That’s what you can perfect him on. I’m reminded of one particular coach who once made us run eight laps and I had a problem with that. I even asked when I would be trained to excel at what I was capable of instead of doing more endurance training than functional training. If it wasn’t for my thinking and the support structure I had around me, I could have been stifled. I, Tebogo Moloi, the late Philemon Chippa Masinga and Shoes Moshoeu, Jomo Sono, Chicco Twala and many other guys used to play five-a-side games for hours on end to sharpen our skills and that helped our decision-making and quick feet. It was so boring to get endurance capacity on a daily basis, although I had to respect the coach and his philosophy. How do you expect the late Shakes Kungoane and Thembinkosi Biyela to run eight laps at a high speed? That’s why Shakes had a problem dealing with that because he couldn’t finish even three laps because that was not the right training for him. Shakes was a brilliant passer of the ball, but I’ve never seen him being trained to excel at that aspect of his game. Denis Vukubi and the late Thabang Lebese were brilliant sprinters and they always beat us hands down on the sprint, but we complemented their game with our quick thinking and passing. If I were to compare myself with our sprinters, I’d think I was a failure because there was no way I was going to beat them. When we look at functional training at different age groups, you’ll realise that at development structures there’s more emphasis on technique. From U19 upwards, we’re talking technique and tactical aspect. I don’t understand why Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi get everyone excited with the step-overs that we’ve been doing for years. Now we see people spending time to teach our youngsters step-overs, which is unnecessary as they come naturally to us, instead of focusing on specific training.