Over the years, we’ve seen the best drilled teams come out on top in various competitions – be it international or club football. Gone are the days where players are made to just warm-up and start kicking a ball about in training sessions. The modern game has seen a steep rise in the number of various training methods adopted by sides around the world. Some teams have even hired special trainers to conduct training sessions to develop individual motor skills and teamwork.But at the other end of the spectrum, there are the bizarre training methods which are either considered sheer brilliance or downright idiotic. We take a look at five of these methods.
#5 Pep Guardiola: Bucket-ball
Pep Guardiola, the man behind Barcelona’s tiki-taka years which held the world in thrall for almost a decade, is known for his innovative training methods which improve ball control.
The bucket-ball training drill he devised as part of Bayern Munich’s pre-season preparations very recently, is the latest training video to have drawn admiration and attempts at emulation in many training grounds all over the world.
In this drill, three players juggle the ball between themselves, and move towards a bucket without letting it drop to the ground. The aim is that one of the three put the ball into the bucket with some part of the upper body.
This drill can be imagined to be very effective when Bayern break on counter-attacks in the upcoming season, apart from being an exercise in ball control. Defence can turn intoattack in seconds, with three players breaking forward, without letting the opposition get a single touch of the ball.
A perfect recipe for the clinical machine that can be Bayern Munich! And still bring a smile to the players doing it.
#4 Alberto Zaccheroni: Wobbly balls and poles
Japan managed only one point in the 2014 World Cup, but some photos emerging from their pre-tournament training sessions had many dumbfounded as to what oriental black magic the team was up to.
They were seen balancing themselves on huge wobbly balls. In reality, it was only a modernization of the ‘resistance sprint’ exercise that sprinters have done for ages by running with a tyre tied to their backs (while at the same time, concentrating on body posture and movements of the hands while running).
Some were seen handling long poles while being precariously balanced on these strange wobbly balls. Befuddled newspaper reports talked of the sight as an esoteric dance routine, but this man was probably engaging in rotational twists.
Zachheroni’s training methods clearly stress on building muscles in parts of the body crucial to turning swiftly while playing. But as seen from the sting-less Japanese attack in the World Cup, they would have done better by emphasising on finishing.
#3 Nigel Clough: Underwater exercises
Brian Clough is one of the most recognizable managers from the 20th century because of the number of glories and controversies accumulated over his career. But his son Nigel is well on his way to emulate his father’s crazy streak, if his training drills are anything to go by.
His time in charge of Derby County from 2009 to 2013 was marked by an obsession with afternoon swimming sessions. Robbie Savage, one of the fittest footballers of his generation, apart from being one of the ilk who would never back down from a challenge, talks of his sessions with Nigel Clough.
"There was one (training drill) though I hated and it would make me look for excuses before going in."
These were the steps of the near-inhuman drill devised by the younger Clough:
- Drop a brick to the bottom of a 25m swimming pool.
- Swim down and push the brick along the bottom of the pool.
- Come back up when you need air and go back under until you have pushed the brick the length of the pool.
#2 Dave Bassett: Siege training in the army
If there is an existing line of thought that football is war, manager Dave Bassett can only be found guilty of taking it too literally.
In his time in charge of AFC Wimbledon in the 1980s, he trained his team with the help of the British Army. The idea was to help with team bonding and help players reach the physical levels required by the military force of the country. But ever so often, it grew clear why army training is not compatible with football after all.
On one occasion, the team had to work together to attack a fort, where the army held a captive. The team camped outside the fort for the night and ‘attacked’ at dawn, the affair soon descending into utter chaos.
Punches were thrown from both sides, and what was supposed to be a fun training session got completely out of hand.
#1 Glenn Hoddle: Superstitions
Glenn Hoddle is a radical evangelist, refers to himself as a 'spiritualist' with a unique connection with God, and is seen as a loner and an outsider by most of the football fraternity. Accordingly, his beliefs about training and man-management are on a track quite different from any other football manager in the annals of modern competitive football.
He had once said, "Most people look for answers outside themselves, but the answers are on the inside. We are all equal in God's eyes." Therefore, he lay more in store by a footballer's inner constitution than by things like his ball control or his physical conditioning.
England's lacklustre performance in the 1998 World Cup has been largely blamed on Hoddle's cult-ish approach to the preparation for it. At the centre of the ensuing controversy that followed was Eileen Drewery; a faith-healer and Berkshire housewife, whose mode of training players was to touch them on their heads to cure all kinds of 'ailments'.
In his book called Red, Gary Neville calls this England campaign a 'massive waste of time'. He reveals that Hoddle's pre-match routine consisted of 'moving around the players, shaking their hands and touching them just over the heart'.
Before the quarter-final match against Argentina, Hoddle asked his team staff to walk anti-clockwise around the pitch to create positive energy. There is no way of knowing whether the touching in various parts had any effect on the England players. But this anti-clockwise motion apparently could not produce enough positive energy - England lost to Argentina on penalties and were sent packing their bags.
