Weird science

Different ways of coaching

LGlenn Hoddle syringes and spiritualists

IFTING weights while speaking French. Catching and throwing a tennis ball while simultaneously shouting out a sequence of colours.Weak foot practice using a football in a bag – Charlton’s new boss Jose Riga isn’t exactly Mike Bassett.

The Belgian – a former IT consultant and software designer – is a proponent of CogiTraining, which sees players train their brains as rigorously as their muscles.

“We want players to pick up ideas quickly,” he says.“The goal is to produce players who have qualities of reflection, concentration, attention and perception, who sees and thinks fast on the individual level.

“And collectively, we think in terms of timing, rhythm and timing. All drills are set up to combine it all.”

In other words, he wants his players to think, not just play. Traditional drills teach players to repeat certain exercises over and over again, the theory being that repetition breeds consistency.

Yet Riga and his collaborator Michel Bruyninckx argue that this focus on technique comes at the expense of decision-making and ‘game intelligence’ – the ability to perceive patterns of play and scan the pitch. After all, they say, players spend 98 per cent of a match without the ball.

This is where the tennis balls and colours come in. Players are asked to perform multiple complex tasks at once to ‘overload’ the brain, forcing them to think quickly and clearly under stress.

Dutch star Wesley Sneijder swears by it, while notable success stories include the likes of Dries Mertens and Axel Witsel, both Belgian internationals.

Yet if Riga’s methods sound odd, he is far from the only coach to go looking for inspiration outside the box. Here are a few others… and the mixed results that ensued: IN the aftermath of the 1998 World Cup, England boss Hoddle accused the media of trying to make him look like “a wacko”.

In truth, they didn’t need to try very hard. Famously, there was faith healer Eileen Drewery, the spiritualist mum of Hoddle’s childhood sweetheart. Invited into the England camp to cure injuries with positive vibes, she was brilliantly asked for a short back and sides by Ray Parlour.

Then there was French doctor and nutritionist Jan Rougier, who prescribed vitamin injections to aid performance. According to Gary Neville, Dr Jan had a “queue out of the door” before England’s ill-fated clash with Argentina at the 1998 World Cup.

But weirdest of all was Saint Glenn himself, who insisted on touching his players above the heart (for reasons unknown) and asking his staff to walk anti-clockwise round a pitch pre-kick-off to generate positive energy.

Sounds totally normal to me.

Pete Carroll And relax...

IN one sense, the Seattle Seahawks manager isn’t an innovator at all. He’s using a technique that has existed longer than bats, balls or any sports – meditation.

Starting with six-minute deep breathing sessions for newcomers and building to 20minute marathons for veterans, Carroll and his chief psychologist Mike Gervais sit the Seahawks players in the lotus position and tell them “to focus your attention inwardly”,“visualise success” and “quiet your minds”.

The idea is to foster a state of happiness, where players feel stress-free, relaxed and cared for.

Shouting and swearing are banned, life skills are coached, a counsellor is on hand to deal with individual problems – a divorce, bereavement – and advise coaches accordingly. Players are never berated for mistakes.

Every media interview ends with the player thanking the reporter for his time. Players even undergo ‘Neurotopia’ brain performance testing to see how they are dealing with stress.

Carroll is green too. Team chef Mac McNabb feeds the players fruits and vegetables from local organic farms. He takes any leftovers to a nearby family-run farm to feed free-range chickens, which are raised specifically for the Seahawks cafeteria.

“I wanted to find out if we went to the NFL and really took care of guys, really cared about each and every individual, what would happen,” said Carroll.

In February he got his answer when the Seahawks cruised to the Superbowl title.

Rene Meulensteen The contents of Noah,s Ark

HE’S the man who helped make Cristiano Ronaldo a superstar, famously telling the Portuguese winger to stop sulking and improve his body language “because everyone thinks you’re arrogant”.

But the former Fulham boss has employed far more outlandish methods than that, most notably during a short, ill-starred reign at Danish club Brondby.

Having already irritated his players by regularly jumping out and yelling ‘BOO’ at them (supposedly to simulate the distraction of a large crowd), the Dutchman lost the dressing room for good when he asked his players what kind of animal they wanted to be before a UEFA cup tie against Frankfurt.

“I wanted to break the silence,” recalled Brondby skipper Per Nielsen in his autobiography. “So I said ‘A snake’.

“No no, Per, goddammit,” replied Meulensteen. “That won’t work. Snakes are slow animals, we cannot have snakes in our defence, the Germans will outrun us then.”

“Then I’m a tiger. Is that okay?” said Nielsen.

Meulensteen:“That’s perfect! Tigers are brave, fast and strong. That is exactly what we need from a captain.”

Meulensteen then drew a tiger on his whiteboard. A few minutes later he had a sketched a menagerie fit for Edinburgh zoo with a fox, a crocodile, a giraffe and an elephant in the starting line-up.

“That’s great, boys,” he said.“We are smart, fast and clever animals on the field today.We cannot lose today.”