" Always first to the ball!!! "

"Always first to the ball", that's what my coach always told me during the years of playing football for my high schools. I didn't understand then how crucial it is till few years back when i finally realized the importance of going for the ball first and not letting your opponents get in first.



It is important that players take this mentality into their matches. Whichever position a player plays during a match, it would definitely be beneficial for the team to have this type of committed mentality going into a match. I have seen so many matches where players just hesitate when there is a 50-50 ball, when you hesitate like that, your abandoning your chances to win the ball for your team and that might consequently result in a goal for the opposition. One wrong decision like that could cost you the match, especially during crucial stages of the match.

One of the situations that require the determination to want to win possession of the ball first are midfield battles. The midfield of a team is like the engine and if the opposition team's engine can be stalled by winning these midfield battles, then the advantage goes to the team that is able to initiated attacking plays from winning possession, if your opponent doesn't have the ball, they can't score.

However, this mentality alone won't get any wins if your team lacks the skill or knowledge of tactics to take advantage of it. Ball technique and team work is required to compliment this mentality. A player may have the determination to win a 50-50 ball, however,without the skills to accompany it, it will not be as effective. Some of the crucial basic skills needed, for example, are the right jumping and heading technique, ball control, tackling and more. i will blogging specifically about skills and technique in another blog post.

Let me know your thoughts on the subject.
Any sort of comments are welcomed!!

Signing off
Prosoc8