David Tenney is the High Performance Director of Austin FC, in MLS, a former Master’s Student and a Certified Coach by the Official School of Tactical Periodisation, and currently is finishing our Training for Trainers Course.  He talked with us about this new age that football is currently living, where data and Performance Departments are consolidated in Football reality.

TP: Yes, because the line between losing control and not losing it is very thin. And the dose control is essential…

David Tenney: If they trust you, on the Thursday your session can be at the highest level because they know we can give everything today in the dose given, because tomorrow we’ll be okay. Right, so it’s even the Friday, yes, but the Thursday is even more so of if they have the trust and the quality of the Thursday session is then at such a higher level.

And so I think that’s, it’s actually one of the things I’ve learned and I found from the methodology going through is that, again, the Thursday session is your non-negotiable, and probably then Wednesday and Friday are less than I would be doing before the course.

TP: You have players from many different backgrounds, you have the South Americans, with a more South American culture, you have those with a more American culture, and eventually some of the players that also played in Europe. How is it?

David Tenney: We currently have three players from Scandinavia, three Argentinians, Paraguayan, Colombian, and then many Americans. So yeah, it’s… But again, I think the core is they all want, you know, they want to play. It sounds cliche to say, “oh, they want to play”. Yeah, that’s… especially for the South Americans, everything has to be through the context of a game because they love playing.

I think that goes back to the emotional part, that goes back to the emotional piece. And, you know, I think that’s, it’s interesting sometimes you see why a, you know, a more Germanic, Northern European type coach can struggle with those types of players.

I played in Germany and having played in Germany at times, there’s very little emotional interaction between the coaching players in Germany. But in South America, it is so important. It’s everything, right? To have that emotional understanding and also the love of playing.

So again, it’s funny, I feel like it sounds very cliched to say that, but, you know, again, if we understand athletes, footballers as humans first, then I think it’s a big challenge that I found. I have to, within myself, look at, be more emotional as a person as I interact with these players. That’s made me a better practitioner, I think.

TP: Have you already felt some struggle with the fact that the players with this methodology must be always alive and focused?

David Tenney: I think that’s what makes the first 15 minutes of every training session so important. And I think that’s, and normally I’ll do about half of the warmup sessions here. I think what happens in the first 20 minutes of training sessions really helps drive what happens the rest of the training session, right?

I had a friend of mine that worked for, what’s his name, Roberto Martinez, right? As you, he’s now Portuguese National coach, isn’t he? Yeah. Well, a friend of mine worked with Roberto Martinez, who was American. And he said, after Roberto Martinez was hired, he came to me and he said, I just wanna let you know, you’re never allowed to do the same warmup twice ever, ever. Because the players need something different every single day. And I think the culture he came from, it’s very true. You have to, again, you’re, that’s that merge. You have to have this feeling of where’s the team at from a cognitive standpoint? Where’s the team at emotionally? What do they physically need? How can I create something in this first 20 minutes that’s safe physically, that engages cognitively, emotionally, and you see it on Twitter all the time. It’s the fun games, it’s tag, it’s what are those first couple exercises? And then what’s the first exercise that involves the game model that’s challenging?

To me, that’s all the art of the coaching, because you’re right, what you don’t want is the case of, I just shut down and I get through practice, and I only have to work two, three, four different moments over the training session. Other than that, I’m not cognitively engaged. That’s the art of coaching in so many ways, isn’t it?

That goes back also to the culture side too. And I know, let’s say an American player, an American player, his mentality first is always, I’m going to run first, I’m going to think after that. But as long as I’m running, I’m good. And then I think within the context of Tactical Periodization®, where the cognitive piece and we’re trying to have more functional games related to our game model where the cognitive piece is probably more important than the physical piece but as an American athlete and I say athlete not footballer athlete they’re ready to run first and so now if you’re giving them a lot of direction and not asking them to run a lot, that’s taking time for them to adjust to that. And then on top of that, if you have, it’s interesting that the Argentinians, if you look at the Argentinian and the Mexican cultures where they´re used to very long training session with a nice fun rondo for the first 20-25 minutes in there you know if you go to Argentina they’re doing the game with the center circle, with three players in the center circle, with the fun, you know, keep away game for 25 minutes until the coaches are ready to start. And they’re used to this really long session where, okay, there’s some important moments at the end, but we’re going to get there. This is a nice, slow practice. We’re going to get to the important stuff, which is a very different mindset than I have this much energy for each player and I’m trying to make the exercises to take the team from here to here over the course of that period of time.

TP: How has been your approach with these players that, you know, when they say “coach, today I think, I feel like I need something more in the end. Can we do something?” What is your approach with, when you have this kind of approach from the players?

David Tenney: It’s interesting. I mean, I think that’s where my NBA experience is very interesting because the NBA, every player has something after practice that he wants to do to help with his game. So it’s important to manage. And then I think you really have to assess what is the load of that. And if the load is low, but it’s really more for the psychological, then I think you can… I think you always try to work with the player to make it a manageable load, understanding that psychologically the player really…

TP: Yes, some of them, they are very specific in their demand. They say, “I’m used to do this.” It has happened to you?

David Tenney: Yes, it’s interesting. Normally, this is what I find is interesting about that. Normally, it’s what they are already good at, and they oftentimes have some weakness somewhere else that they don’t really want to work on at all.

TP: So you say that usually it’s with those players that already have a big coverage of space when they play?

David Tenney: I find a lot of times, let’s say, it’s a very technical slow player, let’s say. And they like to do lots of passing and receiving, and passing and receiving, and passing and receiving, passing in tights spaces, little passing exercises. But they’re already good at that. And maybe they’re doing that again to feel psychologically safe. And as long as the load is manageable, I think that’s okay. But to me, what I find is really interesting is most of the time, the players want to do things after practice that they’re already very, very good at, when there’s other things that they probably should be working on, but they don’t really want to work on those things. That’s what I find is interesting. I don’t know if you found that same thing. And yes, there is a point where you do want players to keep working on what they’re good at, because that’s what gives them confidence. That is true, but I do find oftentimes there’s certain types of players that want to do a lot of work all the time, but it’s often on things that there’s already their strength.

TP: Have you ever felt that Tactical Periodization dind’t work in this group and how are you manage that if it ever happened?

Don’t miss David Tenney’s comment in next week’s article.

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KEYWORDS: TACTICAL PERIODIZATION; TRAINING; FOOTBALL; SOCCER; SPORTS SCIENCE; GPS.