How Brazil "OUTSTREETED" the world

Soccerex, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

At the Brazil CBF booth they had a loop of film showing all the goals in their five championships.   Over and over in at full speed and then slow motion, the loop was mesmerizing, especially the older footage.  Between 1958 and 1970 Brazil was untouchable.  It's hard to imagine now but they were light years ahead of the world on an individual skill level. 

What was going on?  What was their secret? How were they so far ahead?

A couple of brief moments from their breakout 1958 give us a hint.  Both moments are brilliant, one quite spectacular, so much so that it may have blocked out any real message that might be understood.

The first moment is the third goal of that 1958 final. Pele, just 17, accepts a ball on his chest angling it away from the covering defender, with the ball headed toward the ground the swedish sweeper looked to kick him and the ball out of the stadium. But Pele simply lifts the ball over him softly, leaving the sweeper swinging at air, as the ball came back down Pele slammed it home. It was so incredible, perhaps still the best goal ever to be scored in a final, it would be easy to pass off Pele as gifted, godlike, born special, a genius and prodigy.

Talk to the average Brazilian and they see talent as innate, special, and Pele was special. His gifts were god given. (It's easy to see how they believed that).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0g7TSlkY1xc

But the fourth goal is the moment I want to look at. The situation is this. The ball has been parried by the Swedish defender and the ball is rolling toward the left corner of the box with two massively athletic Swedish defenders moving powerfully toward it, like trained sprinters their bodies low, knees driving--a terrible beauty of human movement.

From outside the picture glides in a slim figure, carefully as if on an icy walk, but moving surprisingly quickly.  It's clear the three of them, two charging swedes and a slight Brazilian winger will arrive at the ball at the same time, and it's not a fair fight.

But the little man moving in for Brazil is not just anybody,  the left winger is Mario Zagalo who will become the beating heart and soul of Brazilian soccer.  He will have a part of all five world cup wins, as a player 1958 and 1962, as head coach 1970, as an assistant 1994 and 2002.  And he is about to make his introduction.

Zagalo is gliding, controlled running, so smooth, readying himself.  One of the swedish defenders pulls up confident for the counterattack.  Then Zagalo does something strange, he turns himself away from goal to make himself small, like a turning sideways to avoid a passing bus, or like a fencer, giving away little to contact.  The big Swede gets to the ball full on with force, but Zagalo lightly swings his right foot at the ball, surly too lightly?  Zagalo contacts the ball at just the correct time, not too late or too soon, too high or too low, not too heavy or light. He catches the defender using too much force,  the big defender struggles for a split second, but soon momentum carries him passed the ball and Zagalo who  is now gliding in, alone with the goalie, he switches the ball to his preferred left foot and slots the ball under the charging keeper. 

The skill that Zagalo used in this 50/50 tackle is only born of the street.  There is no drilling this type of confrontation.  Zagalo, playing for fun as a youth must have encountered this situation before, thousands of times, watched, learned, tried many different variations and knew, without thinking, that the defender, the ball, the distance called on this one technique, he made that decision  and he executed it.  Game over.

Things should be as simple as possible, but not a bit too simple"  --Albert Einstein

It was never really a fair fight, Zagalo wasn't the athletic monster that Pele or Garrincha were, he was everyman, he was small and thin.  But the education learned through hours of joy on the street, will always overwhelm the trained, drilled, athletic. The wonder of learning, the joy of free play had given Zagalo all the tools he needed to separate the ball from the Swedish defender and helped win a world cup, and then 4 more.

In 1958, 1962, and 1970 Brazil simply  "outstreeted" the world.  Their dominating generation was forged of a culture where everyone plays, a lot. Brazil was in love with soccer.  Everywhere there were games, fields could not keep pace.The multiplier effect allowed them to try things  culture demanded it was pleasing to the eye. The skills and ideas were born and grew there.  Now Pele's goal was a street move as well, but with his out of this  world athleticism and audacious maneuvers it was easy to be dazzled, and see soccer as born into him, a product of divine grace.

Lesson, there is no great moments, spectacular and blinding like Pele, or simple and subtle like Zagalo, without play.  If Brazil's vaunted pick up games disappear so will that special play at the World Cup level.  And some Brazilians (Zico notably) are concerned that culture is dying. As coaches, as fans, as players who love the game we have to protect and nuture this culture above all else.

I met Zagalo at Socceex.  He was  with 6 members ot that great 1970 team  (plus Pele remotely on the large screen) to honor their keeper Felix who had passed away this past year.  Zagalo, now eighty now, grabbed the microphone to introduce his beloved team from 1970.  The love and respect for his players, now in their 60's and 70's was clear to see.  As they showed the highlights of 1970 team and Felix on the big screen the greats all had tears in their eyes. Was all of this born of the street? Not just the skill but the genuineness? The humanness? The 5 world championships? All of this comes from the street, the culture of joy and wonder in Brazil 1950-1970 when they played soccer more and better than anyone.

Zagalo: the heart and soul of Brazilian soccer

I told Zagalo that I liked the way he made himself small as he went into that tackle in 1958, he smiled ear to ear, a kid again as he remembered that play. 

Let's all remember that joy of play and keep building the beautiful game.

TK

On Brazilian Soccer

My daughter uncovered the photos and journal I wrote on my first trip to Brazil in 1989.   The trip was a life changer for me. I did not know how much it had changed my path until I reread the journal. As I read I understood how the ideas for Joy of the People were shaped.

Saturday Feb 17, 1989, Jundiai, Brazil

ON BRAZILIAN SOCCER
The Brazilian's are very touchy about their soccer. They very deeply want to hold on to the claim as world's best. But can such a claim be made?  Brazil has not won the world cup since '70. Since Pele.

Let's start on ground level. here, on the streets, on the campinho's, everyone is good, many are great.  They play more than we do and they enjoy playing more than we do, perhaps more than anyone. They laugh, they tease, joke, play hard. They play for fun. They play to look good more than win. I remember the score--they remember who they dribbled. Ze, the calmest, nicest guy off the field is a trash talking loudmouth on it. Afterwards it's always the same is his limited English he recaps all his best moves, forgetting anything bu that, "did you like my show?"

We played everyday in Brazil in every imaginable setting.  The weekly game in the construction Campinho was my favorite--not at first, I was like: "where's the grass?"

They taught me a different side to the game.  Though I played at the highest levels, they understood a better way of playing.  As the weeks and games went by, on the futsal courts, the beach, the sitiou, the campinho, I began to let go of the score, of the win. 

I grew up playing hockey on the ponds of Golden Valley.  This was like that.  I started to recall the great winter pick up soccer games at USC (where I went my freshman year), and later,  the spring games at Trinity, or the practice games with the Interanationals in Richfield. They were always fun. Really? Was this the key? Had I let my desire to rank, compete, work and win get in the way of my growth? Were these seemingly meaningless games Brazil's secret?   Their key to growth?  Could an environment like this be cultivated in the US?  Maybe. I took notes, asked questions.  I was determined to bring this back home.    (to be continued).

A new Vision for Girls Soccer

"Train us like Men, Treat us like Women," 
--Mia Hamm, in describing their request to their coaches as they prepared for the 1999 World Cup

"In your culture  you tend to describe soccer in military terms: attack, flank, destroy, defend, fight... we use language associated with beauty: art, creativity, build, create, imagine."

                              --Tele Santana, Brazilian National Team Coach 1982-1986

When girls walk into our center during free play there tends to be more boys then girls.  This is the case everywhere, in every sport in all pick up environments--boys tend to outnumber girls  "You don't see many girls do you?" I ask, "But there are no boys either...all I see is soccer players."

Women's soccer in the US is due for a sweeping change. In his book "Warrior Girls," Michael Sokolove talks about a lost generation of women athletes pushed to physical and mental limits all in search for victories.  His point is that the endless season's and early specialization in sports like soccer lead to burnout, injury, total disenchantment with sports.

If you go to any high level youth girls game you will see kids trained and readied for spartan-like battle  to encourage a warrior mentality. Kids flying into tackles, brute force over skill.  The girls game is not in a great place right now.

Where did this come from? From North Carolina.

It all started with Anson Dorrance, the seminal girls soccer coach created a groundbreaking methodology of building competitiveness in girls through a intense feedback system he called the "Competitive Caldron."

Anson's ideas are not ideas are not striking or deep. He saw the game simply as a series of 1 v 1 battles to be won.  The team that won the most battles won the game.

By keeping and posting scores everyday he asked the girls to be accountable for evrything from 1 v 1 to 880's to 40 yard dash to push ups in a minute he believed he could build competitiveness in girls by holding them accountable. The Mia Hamm's, Tisha Ventorini's, and  Kristine Lilly's responded with many Division 1 championships and 2 world cups in 1991 and 1999.

Girls are asked to become competitors, to contest, battle, be aggressive, they are asked to play like men.  The result has been a morphing into an almost an unrecognizable form of soccer.

But those ideas are  30 years old now and alot has changed but  the ideas have not,  like Billy Beane and Moneyball, every college coach in the country has copied him with the premise win the one v one battle through bigger stronger faster more competitive. Soon youth coaches, playing for regional and national recognition, adopted those same principles, others were forced to beat 'em of join 'em, (and if you have ever faced a team of these brutish warriors, you didn't stand much of a chance) so there isn't much of a choice.

But there is an answer to brute force. The great Johan Cruyff, advising Pep Guardiola who was facing off in the center midfield against the dominating Miguel Ángel Nadal (Rafael Nadal's uncle), famously told Guardiola not to battle. "Don't fight with him. Don't contest headers, you can't win, instead think, anticipate, be where the ball will be." And the rest is history.

Maybe girls can do that too. Maybe girls don't have to play like men.  They can simply play like girls.  They can communicate, connect, cooperate.  They can set new standards and pave new pathways that "Men" never dreamed of. In the last World Cup Japan and France showed us a little of what that might look like--let's hope for more. On the verge of the Olympics I will be cheering for the US, but the game will not be played by them--they are playing like men, but France and Japan are not playing like men, not even playing like girls, but playing like soccer players. 

Guardiola and Barcelona used skill and smarts over force. Let's do the same with girls.  Let them dribble, score, test out their skills in unstructured play.  Let them play with boys, with girls, with adults and kids.  Let's not see the game in wins and losses, or girls and boys, but simply as a game that can truly be played, like Santana said, with imagination, art, and beauty and win the world cup (with style this time) in 2023!

The hierarchy of free play

What creates a great free play environment?

A friend with a ton of soccer experience cornered me at a conference, "I hate to break it to you but what you are doing can be done by anyone...I could go to the local park and have free play."

And I told him he certainly could and we would love that because we want to see it spread.  But he wasn't doing it right now, why?  He was simply threatening to do it, like I threaten to clean the garage...I know it's a good thing and needs to be done, but I have so many other important things to do.

But it did get me thinking.  Really, what are the elements that have made JOTP work?  Why was it so uniformly ignored?  

One of the reasons that I think free play is acknowledged but ignored lies in it's very very basic elements.  It takes forever in free play for one kid to learn one thing.  Why do it when in 20 minutes I can give 16 kids the basics of shooting?  Or dribbling?  How can we plan if we don't know where we are going? Teams have competitions, kids need to work together, get to know each other...etc.

My point here is that we are skipping steps of development.  Where there is no model in sports per se that show proper steps, there is in the world of psychology.  By studying these examples and also looking at examples of free play success stories perhaps we can unlock some learning cues that make certain places work so well and allow other coaches (like my friend) replicate it.

Maslow's Hiearchy of Needs

From Wikipedia:

Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a theory in psychology, proposed by Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper "A Theory of Human Motivation."[2] Maslow subsequently extended the idea to include his observations of humans' innate curiosity. His theories parallel many other theories of human developmental psychology, all of which focus on describing the stages of growth in humans. Maslow use the terms Physiological, Safety, Belongingness and Love, Esteem, and Self-Actualization needs to describe the pattern that human motivations generally move through.

Maslow studied what he called exemplary people such as Albert Einstein, Jane Addams, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Frederick Douglass rather than mentally ill or neurotic people, writing that "the study of crippled, stunted, immature, and unhealthy specimens can yield only a cripple psychology and a cripple philosophy."[3] Maslow studied the healthiest 1% of the college student population.[4]

The model is usually shown in the form of a Pyramid:

 

So Maslow's theory postulates that one foundation is fulfilled before moving up to the next. Get your needs met, take a step up.

How do you replicate a great free play environment?  This is how we qualify a great free play environment:

•               a) Soccer

•               b) Everyday

•               c) Everyone is welcome

The games in the favelas of Rio, the sun baked futsal courts of Sao Paulo, the school yards of Brooklyn (basketball) the frozen ponds of the Phalen area of St. Paul...what is it about those special environments that attracts and then produces players? Using Maslow we can identify five key elements of a great free play environment:

  Basics.  Kids need to know where their next meal is coming from. So if the place is not walking distance from home simple plans to reboot kids will go a long way.

The environment needs to be safe, not just for the parents peace of mind, but also for the kids who need to risk take within security. A physical shelter is key as well.

 Cooperation comes first.  Kids don't just want friendship, they need it.  Free play environments create a breeding ground to test and build friendships for life. 

This is where most clubs begin (and end), insinuating that all the other needs have been taken care of.  Because of this clubs have a lot of back filling to do.  Ask a club coach how much time he spends on managing kids issues, focus, motivation, attitude.  If done right, however, competition is key to the next step in motivation.  Here it is where skills training, skill games/contests and high tempo scrimmages against each where striving to achieve becomes a skill practiced and built over time.  This is all the kids need as far as competition, competing on travel club teams is indifferent to real learning and is not a real priority until the next step is achieved consistently.

 Have you ever been at that place where the world slows down?  This is where your highest abilities meet the highest challenges.  (Find the semi final of Euro 2000, France  v Spain and watch Zidane). It is not about success, but it is about the moment of success or failure.  It is autonomous, it is not thinking, it is being.   When you are here you know it and so do others. And you want to get back.  This is beyond competition, this is creativity, imagination, joy.  And getting their takes practice.  

Put all these 5 elements together IN ORDER, and no matter what the spot you have a powerful cocktail of creating self actualizers.  This is what we "reach" for.  And once there we want to go back.  But we don't jump, or skip steps, we step up and reach.  And like anything we practice,  we get good at it.  

Ted Kroeten

Joy of the People