Story Highlights

Michel Bruyninckx is
innovating methods to
improve the brain's
performance

Standard Liege's
Bruyninckx leads way To improve decisionmaking, complex drills
in developing mental are designed to foster
capacity
concentration
Real Madrid's Jose
Mourinho is among those
interested in
Bruyninckx's ideas
Football, Johan Cruyff said, is a game you play with your brain. Michel Bruyninckx takes that claim more
seriously than most. Terms like pedagogy, didactical principles, cognitive readiness and differential
learning trip off the Belgian coach's tongue as easily as catenaccio as he explains his "brain centred
learning" approach to training young players. "When you make use of difficult words people feel
resentment," said the Standard Lige academy director, who is arguably the first football coach to develop a
training method specifically to target improvement in the brain's performance. "But when you see the
training you can see it works."
Bruyninckx is talking in his office in the 18 million state-of-the-art Academie Robert Louis-Dreyfus,
which is widely regarded as one of the best in Europe. Located in the Saint-Jean forest just up the road
from the club's Stade de Sclessin, the academy has a futuristic feel, particularly when set aganst the fading
industry of Lige. It is an appropriate setting for a coach who is as comfortable talking about neuroscience
as he is about football tactics.
The idea behind his approach is simple -- to make players think as quickly with their brains as they kick the
ball with their feet. "We need to develop an engram -- a neurological track -- in the brain," said
Bruyninckx, who aims for his players to be in a state of "conscious" learning at all times when they are
training and playing. It is about creating new connections in the brain's circuitry and hard wiring them in.
Key to this is the part played by myelin, an insulating material that forms a layer -- the myelin sheath -usually around only the axon of a neuron and which gets thicker when the nerve is repeatedly stimulated.
"What do good athletes do when they train? They send precise impulses along wires that give the signal to
myelinate that wire. They end up, after all the training, with a super-duper wire. That's what makes them
different from the rest of us," George Bartzokis, a professor of neurology at UCLA, told Daniel Coyle of
the New York Times in 2007.
The attraction of developing more intelligent players would seem obvious for any self-respecting football
coach, but the high drop-out rate -- "In England we've judged players by the time they are 17 or 18," said
the Southampton scout David Webb -- suggests the world of youth development in Britain could do with a

little more blue sky thinking. And why are they being rejected at such an early age when the brain is not
fully developed until the age of 25?
But it's not just the high wastage rate. In the 2008-09 season 57 percent of players at Premier League
academies were born between September and December, while 14 percent had their birthday between May
and August. That suggests that the more physically mature children in any given school year are being
selected by clubs, which in turn means an English Lionel Messi (born June) or Andrs Iniesta (born May) is
unlikely to be turning up any time soon. "We always thought that sporting activities were mechanical
activities, but we know that there are interventions from the brain," said Bruyninckx, warming to his theme.
"Think of what Real Madrid experienced during el Clsico when they were beaten 5-0 by Barcelona last
season. This requires high concentration and creativeness, which is only possible if you bring the brain into
a conscious process of performing. A new way of training -- actually synaptogenesis -- creating new brain
connections."
Bruyninckx is not the only coach advocating more intelligent and innovative approaches to training. "I
think that coaches either forget, or don't even realise, that football is a hugely cognitive sport," said the
Uefa-A licence coach Kevin McGreskin. "We've got to develop the players' brains as well as their bodies
but it's much easier to see and measure the differences we make to a player's physiology than we can with
their cognitive attributes."
The worry for McGreskin, who delivers workshops to professional clubs, is that for too long England has
been coaching players in "pretty much the same way, but expecting the end product to be different and
thinking somehow talent will magically appear."
The drills Bruyninckx uses -- "in five years I don't think I've used the same drills three times" -- start off
simply but grow in complexity to foster concentration and touch. This idea of "overload" ensures that the
players are more actively involved during an exercise even when they are not on the ball. The pre-eminence
of the team over the individual is key for Bruyninckx -- "we have to do it together" is one of his mantras -and as he shows a video of players performing various training routines he jokes that what they are is doing
is football's equivalent of social media networking.
"Football is an angular game and needs training of perception -- both peripheral sight and split vision," said
Bruyninckx. "Straight, vertical playing increases the danger of losing the ball. If a team continuously plays
the balls at angles at a very high speed it will be quite impossible to recover the ball. The team rhythm will
be so high that your opponent will never get into the match."
The idea of overload is as key for McGreskin as it is for Bruyninckx. While the Belgian might get his
players to speak in four different languages when they are doing strength and conditioning work, the Scot
has devised one exercise in which players have to throw a tennis ball and call out colours while they are
passing a football in sequence. "We are not providing kids with the challenges that they need to meet the
demands of the modern game," said McGreskin, who has recently started a project working with the Partick
Thistle first team. "Overload exercises help the player speed up the feet and the thought process."
McGreskin argues the decision making of too many players is not quick enough, a weakness that is caused
by their inability to scan the pitch when they are without the ball. It is a view supported by research carried
out by Professor Geir Jordet of the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences. Using Sky Sports' PlayerCam
function, Jordet examined 55 Premier League midfielders' head movements and found that the more these
players scanned their surroundings, the statistically more successful they were with their passes. "The
visually most active third of the players completed almost twice as many forward passes as the least active
players," said Jordet.
McGreskin added, "Don't forget almost 98 percent of the game is played off the ball. Even in a basic
passing drill I force the players to work on perception, scanning skills, technique, adjustability,
concentration, attention focus and attention bandwidth. It's quite amazing the effect it can have on players."

Bruyninckx is the first to admit that he is a bit of an outsider -- "when Darwin was talking about evolution
people thought he was crazy" -- but this summer the Belgian got a foot firmly inside the football
establishment's door when he was appointed head of Standard's youth academy. His growing reputation has
led to a couple of meetings with Real Madrid, including one with Jos Mourinho, an interesting
development given the way the Madrid club have lagged behind Bara in the development of young
players. "Mourinho immediately understood what I'm trying to do and he asked a lot of intelligent
questions," said Bruyninckx. "He also noticed that the organisation of the drills requires a greater team
involvement, more concentration, attention, a continuous inciting of perception and that intelligent playing
could grow a lot. I was most of all surprised by the fact he could instantly see how several technical details
would be in favour of his players and the straight coupling of the contents of several drills to his players'
individual characteristics was striking. He was not talking about a general programme but processed
directly the new insights to his daily training and coaching. He cares a lot about his players."

Before his appointment at Lige, Bruyninckx was coaching youngsters between the age of 12 and 19 who
were affiliated to first and second division Belgian clubs such as Mechelen, Westerlo, Anderlecht, SintTruiden, OHL Leuven, Vise and KVK Tienen. The youngsters, both boys and girls, had been selected by
the Belgian football federation and studied at Redingenhof secondary school near Brussels. Now
Bruyninckx is at an institution which has a very different raison d'tre -- to produce football players who
will help Standard win the Jupiler League before they are -- more than likely -- snapped up by other
European clubs.
With five grass pitches as well as an 800-seater stadium, an artificial pitch, a covered training area and a
luxury hotel with 30 rooms, the Lige academy, which opened in 2007, is much in demand. Since arriving
at Lige, Bruyninckx has received approaches from hundreds of young players from all over the world
wanting to come and train with the Belgian club. For weekend matches it is not unusual for 40 agents to be
watching games.
Bruyninckx's appointment at Lige followed the arrival of the club's new coach Jos Riga, another advocate
of brain training, who used it when he was coach of the second division club CS Vise. "It's such an
intelligent way to learn," said Riga of his academy director's approach. "The exercises are always based on
geometrical figures such as rectangles or diamonds. They start off simply but increase in complexity. You
have to be running at the same time and looking to see your partners' rhythm. You need to think about
putting the ball at a certain angle and you have to think about rhythm, synchronisation and movement. It's
not repetition without reflection."
Bruyninckx emphasises that each drill makes use of "tracing" which forces players to reposition themselves
as they would in a game. "My organisation is always referring to the reality of a game," he said. He insists
that the work he does as a coach incorporates many other aspects -- kinesiology, psychology, biomechanics
-- while his players also train with the rhythmic ball -- a small net with room for a football that is then held
by the hand to ensure that the ball always stays close to a player -- to maximise the number of touches.
Geoff Noonan, who is Fulham academy co-ordinator for the Under-7 to Under-11 age groups, decided to
order 150 of the balls for his players after meeting Bruyninckx at a conference in May. "The rhythmic ball
helps to open the hips, and is good for passes across your body, side-on volleys as well as helping a player's
weaker foot," said Noonan. "It also allows kids to practise at home and helps them to balance both the left
and right sides. The idea of home practice is really useful -- we've lost that culture of kids playing
impromptu games on their own and the rhythmic ball provides a way of replacing that."
Barcelona players' high technical level and non-stop movement provide the benchmark for Bruyninckx, but
Noonan argues that Bara's recent success as well as Spain's Euro 2008 and 2010 World Cup triumphs are
linked to the number of games Spanish youngsters play. "Having visited Spain the way the game is learned
over there is not by drills, because that doesn't teach game sense," said Noonan. "In Spain they learn
through a games-based approach to help develop and understand time and space. They might play 80-120
games a year, with lots of matches at tournaments and festivals. Playing so many games helps young

players to see images in similar situations over and over again. What we need to do is give the kids a good
game sense -- understanding time and space -- and develop good technique. We need lots of games and lots
of different types of games -- 2 v 2, 3 v 3, 7 v 6 etc -- with lots of different tactics."
Noonan has brought in the consultant and author Mick Critchell, who in the past has coached Arsenal's
Theo Walcott and Southampton's Adam Lallana, and has carried out research in the way the brain works.
Critchell is an advocate of this approach based on small-sided games -- in essence a way of replicating
street football -- and provides a scientific explanation to support his argument. During a two-hour
exploration of the brain's workings and its development from birth until it has fully formed, encompassing
an in-depth look at its reptilian, limbic, neo-cortex and corpus callosum structures, Critchell explains that
while the left side provides logical and rational skills, the right side is the resource for more emotional and
intuitive skills.
He argues that the game in England has been taught through the left brain, which is too slow for a fastmoving game like football, and that players develop best when the right and left brain are working together:
the technique and the decision making. "It is essential to activate the right brain and analogous vision by
continually putting players in unpredictable situations," said Critchell, who walked out on an in-service
evening when he saw the Cruyff turn broken down into 13 different parts. "We therefore need to teach
small-sided games which are appropriate for the age and ability of each child."
The 68-year-old Critchell references a piece of research by John Moores University that found that more
than 50 percent of time in English academies is spent on fitness training or unopposed practices and less
than 20 percent on playing small-sided games. "Not only are we developing poor technical players, said
Critchell, "we are also creating poor decision makers. We need players who have the ability to play in the
future -- a vision to know what to do before receiving the ball. This won't change unless we get rid of the
drills."
A former secondary-school teacher, Critchell talks of the importance of the brain's place and grid cells -"space-mapping neurons linked to a memory-forming region in the brain called the hippocampus" -- which
allow players, indeed all humans, to map space. "In roughly 10 seconds, Paul Scholes will see a hundred
alternatives and then make choices that will draw on his place and grid cells," said Critchell. The grid cells
"act as though the playing surface has got triangles marked out all over it," he added. That makes the
playing of small-sided games like 3 v 3 so important "as it allows players to understand that shape better".
Listening to Critchell's advice, Fulham have also introduced a movement programme for all their age
groups. He points out that many African and South American children grow up in societies in which dance
is a major part of culture. In dances like the samba and salsa, the brain has to coordinate eight or nine
different body parts at the same time, which is great for balance, rhythm and body control. Noonan heard
Bruyninckx speak at a conference organised by Bacons College academy, a secondary school in
Docklands, the day before Barcelona's victory over Manchester United in the Champions League final in
May. Over the last few years the former USSR international Sergei Baltacha has established a thriving
football academy at Bacons College -- a number of his players also train with London Premier League
clubs -- and has developed a close relationship with Bruyninckx.
The Belgian insists that his players be as committed to their education -- "If I can affect your concentration
and attention during my training you will take it to school" -- as they are to their football development, a
belief shared by Baltacha. "Keeping the athlete grounded will stop us from creating 'Tin Sporting Gods'
who in their late teens or early twenties fail to reach their potential in and out of sport," said Tom
Eisenhuth, who works closely with Baltacha at Bacons College. "This model is the lifeblood of Sergei's
philosophy."
Bruyninckx estimates 25 percent of the 100 or so players that he coached before joining Standard have
turned professional or are in the women's national squads. The former Standard Lige midfielder Steven
Defour, now at Porto, and the PSV Eindhoven attacking midfielder Dries Mertens are the two most high-

profile players with whom the Belgian coach has worked. Another player Bruyninckx coached is the
Belgium midfielder Faris Haroun, who joined Middlesbrough in the summer from Germinal Beerschot,
scoring on his debut in the 3-1 win over Birmingham. On a trip to Belgium to meet Bruyninckx earlier this
year, Haroun joined his mentor for lunch and happily sat through a two-hour Powerpoint presentation that
included a hefty dollop of neuroscience. Haroun's concentrated demeanour was noticeable.
Perhaps what really differentiates Bruyninckx from other coaches is that he is not only interested in
creating better football players, but also wants to create better human beings so that if they do not make the
grade professionally they will be capable of going on to have fulfilling lives. "It's all about having
communication with your athletes and finding out how your players are organised," said Bruyninckx. "It is
important not to impose your ideas immediately. If a child has a recently divorced family, that child is not
emotionally available to learn something. We all see present-day problems and that sometimes the social
behaviour of players is not correct. We have to do it together."
Talking to a number of interviewees who have had experience of youth development both in the UK and
abroad, what is striking is the sense that European clubs have a more rigorous and analytical approach to
coaching young players. Villarreal have 76 coaches working in their academy, all of whom have physical
education and child development qualifications, while up to the age of 12 their players would be deployed
in at least three different positions during a game. "In Europe there is a real understanding of a child's
emotional development and where the kids have come from," said Webb, who is currently studying for an
MSc in Sports Psychology while scouting for Southampton, and has been a frequent visitor to Bayer
Leverkusen's academy. "I noticed there is more human and cultural understanding with foreign coaches.
And there is a real understanding of the type of coaching kids need at certain ages. It's a very systematic
and analytical approach to development."
Over the last few years the exploration of how talent is best developed has seen a proliferation of books on
the subject, notably Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers, Geoff Colvin's Talent is Overrated, Matthew Syed's
Bounce, John Ratey's and Eric Hagerman's Spark and Daniel Coyle's The Talent Code. As Critchell notes,
"Everybody is searching for the Holy Grail." Given the millions that are at stake in developing players the
search is only likely to intensify. Bruyninckx's theories may seem strange now, but as that quest goes on
they could become standard practice.

Cracking coaching's final frontier

Utrecht striker Dries Mertens is a product of the "brain centred learning" method
By John Sinnott

Countless reasons have been put forward to explain England's repeated failure at international
tournaments, so here is another one - a lack of intelligence.
Nothing to do with GSCEs, A-levels or university degrees, mind, but when it comes to football IQ, surely
England has been sitting in the dunce's corner for too long.
A year ago former England international Chris Waddle hinted at English footballers' cerebral deficiency
when he said Arsenal winger Theo Walcott lacked a "football brain".
So given its importance, why is the brain the one part of the body for which players receive no special
training or instruction?
That is where Belgian Uefa A licence coach Michel Bruyninckx comes in.
Over the last decade Bruyninckx has been training young players with what he calls "brain centred
learning", a common idea in education, but a new concept for football.
Based on the premise that the brain is at least
Bruyninckx's methods and philosophy touch on the
1,000 times faster than any computer,
last frontier of developing world-class individuals
Bruyninckx's intention is to make sure the young
players he trains are programmed to take full
advantage of the body's "hard disk" and become Tennis coach educator Pete McCraw
more skilful and intelligent footballers.

Standard Liege midfielder Steven Dufour - in the past linked with a move to Manchester United - and
Utrecht attacking midfielder Dries Mertens, who came close to joining Ajax in the January transfer
window, are the two most high-profile players with whom the Belgian coach has worked.
"He has given me that crucial extra metre in my head that is so important," Belgian international Mertens,
who can kick the ball with both feet at a speed of 74mph, told BBC Sport.
There are plenty more players coming off the Bruyninckx production line - boys like Wannes van Tricht
and girls like Imke Courtois - while clubs such as Lille in France and Espanyol in Spain have been in
contact with other teenagers that the Belgian coach has helped to develop.
When Germinal Beerschot and Belgian international midfielder Faris Haroun came to work with
Bruyninckx, he could not kick the ball with his left foot. Two years later his former club Racing Genk
thought he was left-footed.
"Michel's methods and philosophy touch on the
last frontier of developing world-class individuals
on and off the field - the brain," renowned tennis
coach educator Pete McCraw stated.
"His methods transcend current learning
frameworks and challenge traditional beliefs of
athlete development in team sports.
"It is pioneering work, better still it has broad
applications across many sporting disciplines."
Bruyninckx coaches about 68 youngsters between
the age of 12 and 19, players affiliated to first and
second division Belgian clubs like Mechelen,
Westerlo, Anderlecht, Sint-Truiden, OHL
Leuven, Vise, KVK Tienen.
The youngsters have been selected by the Belgian
football federation and study at Redingenhof
secondary school near Brussels, an institution
which plays a key role in Bruyninckx's work.
With his methods endorsed by ex-Belgian
Barca's players touch the ball 100,000 times a year;
national coaches Paul van Himst and Robert
Bruyninckx's approach delivers up to 500,000 touches
Waseige, Bruyninckx estimates 25% of the 100 or
so players that he has coached have turned professional or are in the women's national squads.
Compare this one-man Belgian football academy's success rate to England where, according to the
Professional Footballers' Association chief executive Gordon Taylor, of the 600 boys joining Premier
League and Football League clubs at the age of 16, 500 are out of the game by the time they are aged 21.
"We need to stop thinking football is only a matter of the body," the 59-year-old Bruyninckx commented.
"Skilfulness will only grow if we better understand the mental part of developing a player.
"Cognitive readiness, improved perception, better mastering of time and space in combination with perfect
motor functioning."

A world away from the traditional "on me 'ead

son" philosophy of English football, Bruyninckx's
idea, which he began studying 20 years ago, is to
"multitask" the brain.
His drills start off simply but become increasingly
more complicated to challenge players' focus and
maintain their concentration.
Sometimes players train in bare feet to make them
more "sensorially" aware; at other times they
would play simple maths games while doing
physical conditioning work.
Bruyninckx emphasises teamwork ahead of
individualism, while aggression is frowned on players do not wear shinpads - with tackling seen
as the last solution to recover the ball.
"You have to present new activities that players
are not used to doing. If you repeat exercises too
much the brain thinks it knows the answers,"
Bruyninckx added.
Mainz coach Tuchel is rewriting the coaching rule book
"By constantly challenging the brain and making
use of its plasticity you discover a world that you thought was never available.
"Once the brain picks up the challenge you create new connections and gives remarkable results."
It is an innovative approach, though neuroscientist Jessica Grahn strikes a word of caution with the "brain
centred learning" label.
"It makes perfect sense to use lots of different approaches in order to maximize potential in people, because
they are all different," said Professor Grahn of the Centre for Brain and Mind at the University of Western
Ontario.

Highlights - Germany 4-1 England

"Similarly, well-rounded training is bound to be better than singular, focused, training. To say these multipronged approaches work because they use multiple parts of our brain makes it sound more scientific, but
really, that's about marketing.
"We can't do anything without our brains 'doing it' for us, so absolutely everything we train at involves
changing our brains."
Labels aside, what is indisputable is the enormous amount of research that Bruyninckx has devoted to his
method, which incorporates the idea of "differential learning", a training approach pioneered by Professor
Wolfgang Schoellhorn of Mainz University.
"The idea is that there is no repetition of drills, no correction and players are encouraged not to think about
what has gone wrong if they have made a mistake," explained Schoellhorn, an expert in kinesiology or
human movement.
Only two professional clubs have picked up on Schoellhorn's work - Spanish giants Barcelona and German
outfit Mainz - though in January he gave a lecture to the German Football Federation.
Working with Schoellhorn, Mainz coach Thomas Tuchel has incorporated drills of playing 20-a-side games
or 11 versus 11 in one half of the pitch to improve speed and agility, with wingers only allowed to move

within a specific space. Tactics would only be discussed using videos.

"Players have to take responsibility,"
Schoellhorn added. "They have to be creative
and take responsibility and have to find the
optimal solution. It's a whole philosophy.

In the UK intelligence is not valued

Ex-USSR international Sergei Baltacha

"In football you are fighting against a lot of tradition. The reason why Barcelona's fitness coach Paco
Seirullo and Tuchel were ready to listen was that they were already aware of this theory."
Mainz striker Lewis Holtby, who is of German-English descent, has described working with Tuchel as
"extraordinary", while his midfield team-mate Andreas Ivanschitz has quipped that you need to be a
university professor to understand the coaching sessions at the Bundesliga club.
Another German coach Horst Lutz, the founder of Life Kinetik, has worked with Borussia Dortmund or
Hoffenheim, in the area of "brain performance".
Perhaps not surprisingly the way Barcelona play football has key reference points for Bruyninckx and
during his training sessions players are continuously moving to better understand time and space when they
practise the drills.
He explained: "If a team continuously plays the balls in angles at very high speed it becomes impossible to
recover the ball. This requires high concentration and creativeness."
Not that Bruyninckx is only interested in exploring how the brain might best be used by his players.
Biomechanics, psychology and kinesiology are equally important in what the Belgian coach calls a
"holistic" approach to training.
"Many researchers warn that there is too much conditioning in our world and deliver athletes and people
with health problems both physical as mental," the Belgian continued.
"If that is the case we can't go on with our traditional approaches - we must look for other ways."

Bruyninckx points out that in Spain there is no

11-a-side football before the age of 15. He also
believes that if you want to produce technical
footballers then forget the idea of competition.
"I create players that can play to win at the right
moment, but firstly you have to explain that
learning is more important than winning games,"
he added.
In addition to his desire to cultivate talented
footballers, Bruyninckx has made it his aim to
create well-rounded human beings, who if they
fail to make the grade professionally, go on to
successful careers outside football.
He stresses at the start and end of each game that
players, parents, coaches and referees must greet
one another.
He has just returned from a coaching
demonstration at Dinamo Minsk for trainers from
Belarus, Ukraine and Lithuania, but before
leaving he took a wander round the Belarusian
capital and bumped into some of the youngsters Mainz striker Holtby has praised the quality of Tuchel's
training
he had coached.
Bruyninckx said: "They came and greeted and shook my hand. This is the most important message: they
respect me and they are telling me I've taught them a lot.
"It's about letting 'competition' go and opting for 'education and apprenticeship'."
Bruyninckx, who also uses his method to help elderly people and children with behavioural problems,
demands that his players also concentrate on their academic studies.
If they do not they are banned from training with him - in some cases for up to a month at a time.
That demand for academic rigour has had spin-offs for Redingenhof secondary school.

"Progressively over five years the school

Sergei Baltacha was handed his debut by the legendary
performance has improved remarkably,"
Dynamo Kiev coach Valery Lobanovsky
Redingenhof headmaster Yves Dewolf commented.
"The results of 80% of the children in the "elite group" have always been above the average results of the
regular secondary school children.
"The teachers' reactions are very positive regarding school performance and behaviour.
"The project has been extended to other sports as volleyball, dancing, basketball, table tennis, cycling and
from next year tennis."
Like Schoellhorn, Bruyninckx has admitted that he is fighting "a lot of traditional habits" in football, but
slowly the Belgian is beginning to win recognition for his work.
The Dutch Football Federation recently awarded its "More than Football" award - normally given to
professional clubs - to Dutch amateur team club Apeldoorn which has started to use the Bruyninckx
method in recogniton of its social benefits.
"I've never met anyone like him in football with the possible exception of Wiel Coerver," said Eurosport
commentator Herman Hobert, referring to the famed Dutch skills coach and former Feyenoord manager,
nicknamed "the Albert Einstein of Football".
"Michel is so inspiring, so enthusiastic, always open minded and friendly. He gives players freedom, but
also sets down boundaries that they mustn't cross. He demands very high standards," added Hobert, who is
involved with the Apeldoorn project.
Elsewhere Canada, the United States, Nigeria, Egypt, Austria, Germany, France, Brazil and Turkey have
been in contact with Bruyninckx about his method.
The one country to show minimal interest in the Belgian's approach is England.
"In the UK intelligence is not valued," stated ex-USSR international Sergei Baltacha, who is director of
coaching at Bacons Football Academy - the first football development centre in London - and has been
working Bruynincxk over the last year.
"But the brain - it is the most important thing; it is everything."

Bruyninckx will be speaking at Bacon's College School Sports partnership Coaching Conference on 27
May

Ballon d'Or trio light up World Cup

Brain Training, Is it the answer to

Englands playing and coaching
problems, A very interesting Article!,
what is youre view ?
Leave a comment

1 Vote

BRAIN TRAINING AND THE ENGLISH COACHING ISSUE

(this is the link to the interesting brain training link if you would like to
see)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/9421702.stm

This is an interesting view on the way we think about what kind of development we prioritize to our players
from when they are academy players all the way until they reach the peak of their professional careers.Over
the last 10 years UEFA A Licence coach Michel Bruyninckx has been training young players with a
concept of Brain Centered Learning and to remarkable effect, some players he has coached has come out
of his program a new player and being able to achieve techniques they were never able to do before such as
the story of Faris Haroun, who was sent to work with Bruyninckx and the Belgian International returned to
his club being able to use his left foot with enough ability his club thought he was a natural left footed
player.
Based on the premise that the brain is at least 1,000 times faster than any computer, Bruyninckxs
intention is to make sure the young players he trains are programmed to take full advantage of the bodys
hard disk and become more skilful and intelligent footballers (John Sinnott- BBC NEWS)
Many reasons have been given for Englands failures in major tournament and their lack of credibility to
compete on the world stage. In the summer of 2010 there could have been a million reasons and every
English man,woman and child had an opinion on Englands downfall. Questions have certainly been asked
and for the first time in my life in which i can remember past tournaments i saw and still see a collective
disbandment of belief in England in tournaments, people get worried when we play Algeria and there is a
new culture of a thought process that defeat and underperforming is the accepted characteristic in English
football and i find it hard to disagree as we build ourselves up in our minds and through the media to be the
all mighty all-conquering world-class England but in actual fact we are decades behind any other half
decent national team, outplayed by everyone in the world cup and the germans with a new team of
youngsters humiliated our national team.
Michel Bruyninckx believes that England have a lack of a football brain which hinders our ability to move
with the modern times of world football and that the old belief in England of on your head son is now
culturally detrimental to the state of the game in this country.I t is no surprise that Bruyninckx has had so
much popularity recently when he has Barcelona as his personal bibliography and the way they play using
his and professor Wolfgang Schoellhorn learning policy. England apparently develop physically strong and
quick players but they arent very clever players or receptive to phases of play in games which means they
miss opportunities in those phases and their brains dont allow them to see those creative opportunities
where as Barcelona,Mainz and other european nations adopting this modern training will be able to see
those opportunities.

With his methods endorsed by ex-Belgian national coaches Paul van Himst and Robert Waseige,
Bruyninckx estimates 25% of the 100 or so players that he has coached have turned professional or are in
the womens national squads.Compare this one-man Belgian football academys success rate to England
where, according to the Professional Footballers Association chief executive Gordon Taylor, of the 600
boys joining Premier League and Football League clubs at the age of 16, 500 are out of the game by the
time they are aged 21. (John Sinnott- BBC NEWS)
We need to stop thinking football is only a matter of the body, the 59-year-old Bruyninckx commented.
Skilfulness will only grow if we better understand the mental part of developing a player. (Michel
Bruyninckx -BBC NEWS)
Cognitive readiness, improved perception, better mastering of time and space in combination with perfect
motor functioning. (Michel Bruyninckx -BBC NEWS)
Bruyninckx points out that in Spain there is no 11-a-side football before the age of 15. He also
believes that if you want to produce technical footballers then forget the idea of competition.I create
players that can play to win at the right moment, but firstly you have to explain that learning is more
important than winning games (Michel Bruyninckx -BBC NEWS)
The reason i have put this last quote in Bold is because i think that is a very important aspect for us to
remember and if you look at my coaching theory and go down to small sided games you will see that this is
something i believe very strongly in. I think we have been massively let down by the FA as far as this is
concerned. Children should never be thrown into competition at the ages that they are in this country and its
been a fundamental structural issue since the beginning of organised football in England. Football should
always be a small sided until they reach 15 this is where they learn to deal with certain phases of play and
the improvement of their technique before boring them to death with tactical formulas
I believe there is one main reason for Englands failure in tournaments and the failure to produce enough
players with ability to be world-class in order to win tournaments and that is the fact that the standard of
coaching in England and the structure and hierarchy is appalling.England is far behind other European
nations in respect to coaching standards, i am not sure whether it is pure arrogance from the heads of the
FA that govern the coaching qualification procedure or whether it is incompetence to have let us get into
this dire situation, but you will never hear that from the top they will always tell you it is being worked on
and things are looking up but the stats and the facts behind the disaster and failure speaks for itself.

There are 2.25 million players in England and only one Uefa-qualified coach for every 812 people playing
the game. Spain, the World Cup favourites, have 408,134 players, giving a ratio of 1:17. In Italy, the world
champions, the ratio is 1:48, in France it is 1:96, Germany 1:150 and even Greece, the Euro 2004 winners,
have only 180,000 registered players for their 1,100 coaches, a ratio of 1:135. (Matt Scott The
Guardian)
This statistic is pitiful and as a coach fighting to achieve mine , and that is what it feels like a fight to get
that in England i can assure you it is tough, it is even tougher when the instructors dont turn up. In the last
few months i have heard of countless stories where instructors have not shown up for key parts of modules
leaving no explanation, a friend of mine who was due to take a Futsal coaching course through the FA
didnt turn up and then when they have finished the course the applicants arent hearing feedback and then
face another fight to retrieve their certificates which they have paid for and earned. This malpractice is
huge in respect to the reason why our ratio is so poor when it is so very difficult to climb the ladder here.
three years ago an official report concluded that coaching is the golden thread leading to international
success, but new Uefa data shows that there are only 2,769 English coaches holding Uefas B, A and Pro
badges, its top qualifications. Spain has produced 23,995, Italy 29,420, Germany 34,970 and France
17,588.Between them those four nations have provided eight of the 12 finalists at all the World Cups and
European Championships since 1998. England, meanwhile, have not appeared in a tournament final in 44
years. (Matt Scott The Guardian)
This is atrocious reading for people are trying so desperately to gauge a career in the game, to know that if
they were in any other european country they would be at the top of the game right now.What this has done
is drive aspiring coaches to leave England myself included i am looking to leave and go back to the USA or
anywhere there are more coaching opportunities. The price is also an issue, considering we have one of the
weakest numbers in B Licence coaches why on earth do we pay so much more for ours ?, you would think
they would be dropping the price and the ridiculous pass rate.The fact is european nations have B Licence
coaches creating programs for their children and their local communities giving young children an avenue
from the bottom to the top to train at an elite modern level and the children of England get the
Jose Mourinho wannabe on a sideline kicking a ball in the middle for an hour and shouting at young
children teaching them to be rude with the language they use rather than intelligent and progressive sports
people.Now i dont mean every coach is at that standard in England but the trouble is all of those B licence
coaches are at professional clubs and those professional programs arent available for the normal local
community so how are we supposed to develop a team capable of winning tournaments when we cant even
have the intelligence to accept the structure is wrong and needs changing.
Because of the above issue id tend to believe that it is the neglection of football development in this country
rather than we possess unintelligent footballers which is the reason for our downfall although
that doesnt mean that i dont think Michels Brain training is essential as it is a new modern development
in coaching and one we should adapt too and who would argue with his references from the way Barcelona
play.I will leave you with this revelation
At the current rate of progress it will take 123 years for Englands resource of Pro-licensed coaches
to match Spains today.
Coaching Corner
Michael Barr, Director of Coaching Eastern Pennsylvania Youth Soccer Association
Iwas fortunate enough to have Eastern Pennsylvania Youth Soccer send me to a coaching symposium in
London the weekend of the Champions League Final. The event took place at Bacon College, which has a
working partnership with the Fulham Football Club. The main presenter was Michel Bruyninckx,
trainer/coach of the Royal Belgium Football Federation who has caught the attention of many coaches in
Europe based on his curriculum of Brain Centered Learning in Football.

Former England International Chris Waddle sees a real need for the FA to reexamine the coaching methods
used in English Football because the players in England have little flair, movement or confidence in their
game. The lack of success internationally for England could be a direct result of following traditional
training and not keeping up with newer accelerated means to train youth. Bruyninckx may be just what
English Football needs and what American soccer should examine very closely as other out dated
curriculums may be force fed to coaches, parents and players alike. With his methods endorsed by exBelgian National coaches Paul van Himst and Robert Waseige, Bruyninckx estimates 25% of the 100 or so
players he has coached have gone on to play at top professional clubs or National Teams. It is pioneering
work, better still it has broad applications across many sports besides soccer.
Bruyninckx began his presentation with a quote from Dr. Paul Bach-y-Rita, We see with our brains not
with our eyes. Bruyninckx feels we can make better players in a neural way in order to optimize rhythm,
timing and space. In watching Barcelona against Manchester United, they are a clear reflection of what the
outcome could be if those areas are emphasized.
In addition Michel sees the need for young players to control emotion and show respect to teammates,
opponents, referees and the game. Again, look to how the Barcelona players conduct themselves on the
field and off.
Slaven Bilic the National Team Coach for Croatia has stated, Systems are dying, and its about the
movement of ten players. Michels training involves constant movement and concentration.
He also believes in the strength of a strong social network in order to lower physical aggression during
matches, stimulate cultural integration and improve school performance.
Dr. Marc Comerford of Australia is a proponent of the strength of the pelvic area in preventing future
problems and persistent injuries for soccer players. Bruyninckx sees a reason for the lack of pelvic strength
is due to not developing players to be strong with both feet, which keeps the pelvis in the correct position
and utilizes both sides of their body. Without strength in the pelvic area injuries develop in numerous areas
of the body. Prevention of reoccurring injuries in players should be a major concern. Michel points out that
over half of all the World Cup Players in 2002 and 2006 took anti-inflammatory medication during
matches. All of Michels training sessions utilize skill and comfort. Players are told that tackling is a last
resort to win the ball. Often times warm up exercises with the ball are done without soccer shoes. Michel
brought out that the FIFA 11 was found to be a cause of pelvic issues and is now in the process of
changing.
Spatial awareness and vision is impeded if coaches do not develop training utilizing peripheral training but
continue to use central sight training. This vision can only be achieved when technique is introduced in
small groups and the spatial organization of the exercise is based on external focusing. Success of a training
session is based on cognitive readiness, spatial reasoning, temporal processing, skill acquisition in a soccer
context and developing perceptual awareness and skills. Also players will learn with greater speed and
precision if reinforcement and encouragement is constantly administered. He shares that competent players
need 500,000 touches on the ball a year but he is not a proponent of Gladwells 10,000 hours rule because
it leads to false expectations.
For a training session to be effective and for the brain to retain the information, the session should peak
curiosity, increase motivation, provide interest and be fun. Michel says, The environment plays a larger
role than genetics when developing players. Emotions shape the brain and help store information. In fact
Michel feels strongly that you can change lifelong behaviors and patterns even with professional players.
He practices what he preaches because in addition to soccer, he works with elderly stroke victims in
recovering stability and memory. Brain plasticity makes for life-long learning for everyone.
The other issue that Michel feels strongly about is the weeding of players born in the last half of the year.
How can we as coaches deprive players of quality training because of the time of year he or she may be
born; especially at early ages?

His research shows that synchronized tasks in training harmonize both team and individual learning. The
four pillars of training should be emotion, attention, concentration and motivation. His exercises often have
double tasking with a strong external focus from what an individual may be doing and leading to a final
result. All His exercises start in a simple way but lead to differential learning where players are challenged
to find optimal solutions. He believes in variable repetitions as opposed to repetitions in the same manner.
This may include utilizing different sized balls in an exercise, counting or posing questions as the exercise
takes place. In each exercise there should be continuous synchronization in an attempt to reduce perceptual
time.
He feels strongly that through Ballritmics you can improve coordination, agility, confidence and the
strength in all surfaces of the weaker foot. You can see Ballritmics in action by searching on the internet
Michel Bruyninckx or the term Ballritmics.
Bruyninckx s training information is in complete agreement with leading educators in the world, who are
attempting to improve education worldwide through compressing the time it takes to teach and learn the
basics of a curriculum using learner centered principles and practices. His goal is to creatively engage
players multiple learning systems, resulting in faster, deeper, and more proficient learning is the same as
newer education curriculum models worldwide.
We make connections with both sides of the brain with physical activity, where we crisscross the right and
left side of our bodies. Motor stimulation directly impacts brain development and academic achievement
for all ages. We can absorb more information faster if presented in a way that interests the learner. Positive
emotions in a relaxed, alert state improve both learning and motivation. Threats impair any growth within
the brain.
Internal rewards (e.g., a sense of pride and satisfaction with ones accomplishments) work better than
external ones (e.g., candy, money, special privileges.. trophies?) Brain research tells us that we are we
are naturally motivated by curiosity and novelty, meaningful activities, and successes (Jensen 1998, 65).
As learners we take in more information visually than through any of our other senses. Our brains actually
perceive information in images. Muscle memory helps us recall certain skills; it also helps us recall
information associated with certain actions. Physical exercise by children from birth to about age ten
stimulates the growth of neurological pathways in the brain needed for learning.
I will be corresponding with Michel in the future and plan to have him show coaches in our state the
numerous exercises he now utilizes with different player ability levels in his training. I am also attempting
to bring Michel to our workshop in February. Hopefully our Region and US Soccer may have an interest in
exploring the successful methods he employs. His training methods should not be ignored. It may offer our
country the opportunity to produce consistent, confident, well-rounded players and coaches in the near
future.
Interview: Michel Bruyninckx
Conducted by Lee Hodge

LH: Could you provide me a little bit about your background in coaching?
MB: full cv on website
At the age of 18 I started to train young players. I worked in grassroots and pro clubs. I also developed a
program for mental disabled people playing football.

Author Senseball
Major experiences:
Author courses coordination and running skills Flemish Training School
Coach coordination and running skills Uefas elite referees courses Monaco prparions 2nd round
Champions League
Coordinator Youth Academy STVV Sint-Truidense pro club
Director Flemish Recruitment and Perfection Academy Standard de Liege, pro club
Scout and youth coach RSC Anderlecht, pro club
Director KV Mechelen Youth Academy, pro club
During 11 years coach/coordinator Youth elite Academy of the Belgian Federation at the university of
Leuven
Director Youth Academy Standard de Liege
Managing coach Feeder groups Aspire Academy, Doha Qatar

LH: What have you learnt from these experiences?

MB: That football is continuously evolving. I began to understand we focus too much on performance and
dont approach potential in a correct way. Most of all our selections are based on early matured players and
we disrupt the players mental development. Learning goes about emotion and needs to guarantee learning
readiness is continuously present. We need to be sure that there is a growth mind setting and not a fixed
one. Studying the brain changed a lot my teaching strategies.

LH: How much emphasis do you put on winning, fun and development? How would you rate those in an
order?
MB: Winning needs to be the result of a good performance. Winning or loosing a game needs to be
considered as a learning process. It is matter of how you are going to organize your training concept: will it
be a short term approach proving you can win a competition or is it a long term process with proper shifting
goals to go to high performance. The level of fun will be depending on your final goal: grassroots player or
pro player. Pro player means not always aging fun.
Rating the principles I would say: development (children want to learn) fun (the correct matching of
learning flow in relation with the player s personal desire and grit) winning (as a part as a long term
learning process 10.000 hours rule sufficient resting)

LH: Could you provide me an example of a typical week at your football club?

MB: In an elite academy we try to organize about 20 hours weekly from the age of 12 years on. The
younger children come 3 or 4 times weekly but we give them a lot of homework (SenseBall drills to
improve kin-aesthetic capacity). Early starters can go to a higher level because they will develop their
fundamental skills in a better way.
In general we work with cycles of 6 weeks. In each cycle a number of coordination, technical and tactical
goals will be focused. For the youngest players there is also a multisports approach.
At the end of each cycle there internal workshops given by the coaches and team guides to share
experiences and improve understanding.

LH: What sort of attributes do you think a young player will need to play in the future game?
MB: fast passing great controlling capacities accurate and subtle passing receiving repertoires and
actions while moving at the highest speed skillful while runs with the ball at max speed in built
deceptive and unorthodox skill set up minimal ball touches or passes and precisely perfect and two
footed ball mastery skills playing with opponent in the back use your body and protect ball individual
covering techniques/skills (agility) being skillful regarding performance and anticipating changes of
game rhythm intelligent running and moving tactical intelligence more semi-positional players
(changes of positions)

LH: Can we coach players to be smart(er)? Could you provide detail on how players learn?
MB: If we want players to be smarter we need to understand how the players brain is organized. Learning
goes through the emotional center of the brain. So watch out if there is too much stress involved. Check
continuously cognitive readiness and train it conscientiously.
Learning needs to be logical: chunk up your learning information and guarantee you put retrieval structures
in your training organization. Learning is also repeating, but using repetitions with variable aspects (in
brain context= myelination). Always integrate your drills in the context of football, because the brain is
very sensible for context related activities (information is recovered quicker if the context is presence).
Apply the principle of the players are coaching. The bigger the players involvement the more they learn.

LH: what type of practices can we devise and implement to develop the players perceptual, cognitive and
motor skills?
MB: drills with a strong repetitive and synchronized foundation. We learn the best in a group, because
individual learning needs to be confirmed by the group.
Perceptual: continuous bilateral organized drills. Not focusing on one ball.
Cognitive: drills requiring a lot of concentration and using double tasking
Motor skills: rhythmic multisensorial integrated drills (training on bare feet)

LH: Can you provide some examples of practices that develop the brain?
MB: disco ergo sum make children move more let them learn to count when they are moving up and
down a stairs. Moving organizes the brain. Let them perform many left-right movements
Let them perform movements that go out of our conventional moving patterns: I.e. raising the left arm
forwards and the right leg backwards don t repeat this till it is automated

LH Could schools implement brain training methods in lessons? If so could you provide examples of how
they could achieve this?
MB: Absolutely. If children have to sit still continuously they do not develop in a healthy way. Train
memorizing techniques with movements: ask children to memorize a number of movements (hopping
forwards-backwards, hopping on one foot etc). Go to 8 movements and then change the order.

LH: Could you explain more about the senseball practices that you use and how they help the players
cognitive development?
MB: SenseBall has been developed to address a number of important issues regarding a healthy
development of skills and to endorse the brain functioning.
Recent neurological research proves there is a continuous interaction between the body and the brain. The
brain projects a mind set into the body and a particular body position can influence a mind setting (put a
pencil between the lips when you are feeling down and your mind set will change other position of the
jaw muscles).
With SenseBall we aim to influence a number of mental processes that have an influence on cognitive
functioning. There is one principle that always needs to be there: RHYTHM. Do not perform the drills
without rhythm!
First we aim to improve concentration and attention. Repeating this regularly there will be a transfer to
school performance. We try to create new neuronal networks so that the brain capacity grows. These
networks will be available at any moment. Rhythm guarantees that a child will be become calm and master
his brain energy in a better way.
Performing the drills in a cued organization requires a lot of concentration. Music will help to control the
movements through the rhythmic structure but it also influences the emotional status of the performer.
Processing music is directing to an upper part of the brain that has got an enormous influence on
developing football skills.
The fact movements are performed in a more controlled way we will address more to slow motor units to
be sure we develop the correct postural behavior.
A perfect posture will have an influence on moving quality and exclude many injuries.

LH: how can we transfer the brain training into a game?

MB: a game is not mastered by the muscles but by the brain. The more the brain is implicated in what you
are doing the better decision making will take place. The repetition of visible structures and the fact the
players will be challenged with tasks requiring to come to game solutions they have to find themselves will
influence their game.
Actually the whole Cogitraining organization is respecting the principle of dependent state processing. This
means that all the drills are organized in a way the global game context is always present. Building up drills
to complex structures challenges the players brain. Learning matching the brain organization is the key!

LH: what type assessment do you use for assessing players/trialist?

MB: I check the potential. Normally I want children to pass general moving and mental tests to determine
their moving potential and to find out with what sports they are matching the best. In a second stage I check
typical football skills and I want to find out what motivation they have (grit test). The mind setting is the
most important. I am also checking the parents attitude because their support will have an important
influence on their childs development.
During our training sessions we always try to focus on the relation between game readiness and skill
development. We process our scores in a graphic way to show the tendency in a players development.
LH: How do you provide feedback to players and parents?
MB: we provide continuous feedback. And from the first moment we explain we are not interested in short
term results. We continuously have a follow up regarding maturity. We want to know how a child is doing
at school and we want most of all to be sure that the emotional context is balanced. We ask our players to
tell us how they are feeling and if they are sleeping enough.
After each training session the coach appoints the player with the best work attitude. At the end of the week
we choose the best player of the week and we hang up his photo as example for the others.
Attitude means: concentration involvement respect technical accuracy team attitude

LH: Do you use video analysis? If so how is it used and what are your views on using this tool?
MB: we use video analysis, but we don t want to go to overshadowing (too much visual information). The
brain is much more relying on sensorial information. If we can improve the sensorial input we ll prefer to
make use of this principle.

LH: Finally, what impact do you think your methods will have on players performance in the long term?
MB: I think any small improvement of our methods will have an influence on a players high performance.
The world is continuously changing and we need to focus on the future game. Brain research is going to
change many things and we absolutely need to adapt our programs to the advises coming out of these
researches.

The fact that I could deliver many players to the Belgian national team (Steven Dufour, Porto, Dries
Mertens, PSV Eindhoven, and I could also train and coach several times Moussa Dembele, Thiebaut
Courtois etc) and this team is proving to play football in a modern and attractive way, is the best way to
show my ideas have some value. I am aware of one thing: the only constant thing in life is variability!!

LH: Thank you Michel for taking the time to answer the questions. Your ideas are inspiring and will
certainly help coaching practice evolve.
Interested to hear any thoughts on this, especially fbloke/other coaches working/has worked with young
kids:
Quote:
Countless reasons have been put forward to explain England's repeated failure at international tournaments,
so here is another one - a lack of intelligence.
Nothing do with GSCEs, A-levels or university degrees, mind, but when it comes to football IQ, surely
England has been sitting in the dunce's corner for too long.
A year ago former England international Chris Waddle hinted at English footballers' cerebral deficiency
when he said Arsenal winger Theo Walcott lacked a "football brain".
So given its importance, why is the brain the one part of the body for which players receive no special
training or instruction?
That is where Belgian Uefa A licence coach Michel Bruyninckx comes in.
Over the last decade Bruyninckx has been training young players with what he calls "brain centred
learning", a common idea in education, but a new concept for football.
Bruyninckx's methods and philosophy touch on the last frontier of developing world-class individuals
Based on the premise that the brain is at least 1,000 times faster than any computer, Bruyninckx's intention
is to make sure the young players he trains are programmed to take full advantage of the body's "hard disk"
and become more skilful and intelligent footballers.
Standard Liege midfielder Steven Dufour - in the past linked with a move to Manchester United - and
Utrecht attacking midfielder Dries Mertens, who came close to joining Ajax in the January transfer
window, are the two most high-profile players with whom the Belgian coach has worked.
"He has given me that crucial extra metre in my head that is so important," Belgian international Mertens,
who can kick the ball with both feet at a speed of 74mph, told BBC Sport.
There are plenty more players coming off the Bruyninckx production line - boys like Wannes van Tricht
and girls like Imke Courtois - while clubs such as Lille in France and Espanyol in Spain have been in
contact with other teenagers that the Belgian coach has helped to develop.
When Germinal Beerschot and Belgian international midfielder Faris Haroun came to work with
Bruyninckx, he could not kick the ball with his left foot. Two years later his former club Racing Genk
thought he was left-footed.
Barca's players touch the ball 100,000 times a year; Bruyninckx's approach delivers up to 500,000 touches
"Michel's methods and philosophy touch on the last frontier of developing world-class individuals on and
off the field - the brain," renowned tennis coach educator Pete McCraw stated.
"His methods transcend current learning frameworks and challenge traditional beliefs of athlete
development in team sports.
"It is pioneering work, better still it has broad applications across many sporting disciplines."
Bruyninckx coaches about 68 youngsters between the age of 12 and 19, players affiliated to first and
second division Belgian clubs like Mechelen, Westerlo, Anderlecht, Sint-Truiden, OHL Leuven, Vise,
KVK Tienen.
The youngsters have been selected by the Belgian football federation and study at Redingenhof secondary
school near Brussels, an institution which plays a key role in Bruyninckx's work.

With his methods endorsed by ex-Belgian national coaches Paul van Himst and Robert Waseige,
Bruyninckx estimates 25% of the 100 or so players that he has coached have turned professional or are in
the women's national squads.
Compare this one-man Belgian football academy's success rate to England where, according to the
Professional Footballers' Association chief executive Gordon Taylor, of the 600 boys joining Premier
League and Football League clubs at the age of 16, 500 are out of the game by the time they are aged 21.
"We need to stop thinking football is only a matter of the body," the 59-year-old Bruyninckx commented.
"Skilfulness will only grow if we better understand the mental part of developing a player.
"Cognitive readiness, improved perception, better mastering of time and space in combination with perfect
motor functioning."
A world away from the traditional "on me 'ead son" philosophy of English football, Bruyninckx's idea,
which he began studying 20 years ago, is to "multitask" the brain.
His drills start off simply but become increasingly more complicated to challenge players' focus and
maintain their concentration.
Sometimes players train in bare feet to make them more "sensorially" aware; at other times they would play
simple maths games while doing physical conditioning work.
Bruyninckx emphasises teamwork ahead of individualism, while aggression is frowned on - players do not
wear shinpads - with tackling seen as the last solution to recover the ball.
"You have to present new activities that players are not used to doing. If you repeat exercises too much the
brain thinks it knows the answers," Bruyninckx added.
"By constantly challenging the brain and making use of its plasticity you discover a world that you thought
was never available.
"Once the brain picks up the challenge you create new connections and gives remarkable results."
It is an innovative approach, though neuroscientist Jessica Grahn strikes a word of caution with the "brain
centred learning" label.
"It makes perfect sense to use lots of different approaches in order to maximize potential in people, because
they are all different," said Professor Grahn of the Centre for Brain and Mind at the University of Western
Ontario.
"Similarly, well-rounded training is bound to be better than singular, focused, training. To say these multipronged approaches work because they use multiple parts of our brain makes it sound more scientific, but
really, that's about marketing.
"We can't do anything without our brains 'doing it' for us, so absolutely everything we train at involves
changing our brains."
Labels aside, what is indisputable is the enormous amount of research that Bruyninckx has devoted to his
method, which incorporates the idea of "differential learning", a training approach pioneered by Professor
Wolfgang Schoellhorn of Mainz University.
"The idea is that there is no repetition of drills, no correction and players are encouraged not to think about
what has gone wrong if they have made a mistake," explained Schoellhorn, an expert in kinesiology or
human movement.
Only two professional clubs have picked up on Schoellhorn's work - Spanish giants Barcelona and German
outfit Mainz - though in January he gave a lecture to the German Football Federation.
Working with Schoellhorn, Mainz coach Thomas Tuchel has incorporated drills of playing 20-a-side games
or 11 versus 11 in one half of the pitch to improve speed and agility, with wingers only allowed to move
within a specific space. Tactics would only be discussed using videos.
In the UK intelligence is not valued
Ex-USSR international Sergei Baltacha
"Players have to take responsibility," Schoellhorn added. "They have to be creative and take responsibility
and have to find the optimal solution. It's a whole philosophy.
"In football you are fighting against a lot of tradition. The reason why Barcelona's fitness coach Paco
Seirullo and Tuchel were ready to listen was that they were already aware of this theory."
Mainz striker Lewis Holtby, who is of German-English descent, has described working with Tuchel as
"extraordinary", while his midfield team-mate Andreas Ivanschitz has quipped that you need to be a
university professor to understand the coaching sessions at the Bundesliga club.

Another German coach Horst Lutz, the founder of Life Kinetik, has worked with Borussia Dortmund or
Hoffenheim, in the area of "brain performance".
Perhaps not surprisingly the way Barcelona play football has key reference points for Bruyninckx and
during his training sessions players are continuously moving to better understand time and space when they
practise the drills.
He explained: "If a team continuously plays the balls in angles at very high speed it becomes impossible to
recover the ball. This requires high concentration and creativeness."
Not that Bruyninckx is only interested in exploring how the brain might best be used by his players.
Biomechanics, psychology and kinesiology are equally important in what the Belgian coach calls a
"holistic" approach to training.
"Many researchers warn that there is too much conditioning in our world and deliver athletes and people
with health problems both physical as mental," the Belgian continued.
"If that is the case we can't go on with our traditional approaches - we must look for other ways."
Mainz striker Holtby has praised the quality of Tuchel's training
Bruyninckx points out that in Spain there is no 11-a-side football before the age of 15. He also believes that
if you want to produce technical footballers then forget the idea of competition.
"I create players that can play to win at the right moment, but firstly you have to explain that learning is
more important than winning games," he added.
In addition to his desire to cultivate talented footballers, Bruyninckx has made it his aim to create wellrounded human beings, who if they fail to make the grade professionally, go on to successful careers
outside football.
He stresses at the start and end of each game that players, parents, coaches and referees must greet one
another.
He has just returned from a coaching demonstration at Dinamo Minsk for trainers from Belarus, Ukraine
and Lithuania, but before leaving he took a wander round the Belarusian capital and bumped into some of
the youngsters he had coached.
Bruyninckx said: "They came and greeted and shook my hand. This is the most important message: they
respect me and they are telling me I've taught them a lot.
"It's about letting 'competition' go and opting for 'education and apprenticeship'."
Bruyninckx, who also uses his method to help elderly people and children with behavioural problems,
demands that his players also concentrate on their academic studies.
If they do not they are banned from training with him - in some cases for up to a month at a time.
That demand for academic rigour has had spin-offs for Redingenhof secondary school.
Sergei Baltacha was handed his debut by the legendary Dynamo Kiev coach Valery Lobanovsky
"Progressively over five years the school performance has improved remarkably," Redingenhof headmaster
Yves Dewolf commented.
"The results of 80% of the children in the "elite group" have always been above the average results of the
regular secondary school children.
"The teachers' reactions are very positive regarding school performance and behaviour.
"The project has been extended to other sports as volleyball, dancing, basketball, table tennis, cycling and
from next year tennis."
Like Schoellhorn, Bruyninckx has admitted that he is fighting "a lot of traditional habits" in football, but
slowly the Belgian is beginning to win recognition for his work.
The Dutch Football Federation recently awarded its "More than Football" award - normally given to
professional clubs - to Dutch amateur team club Apeldoorn which has started to use the Bruyninckx
method in recogniton of its social benefits.
"I've never met anyone like him in football with the possible exception of Wiel Coerver," said Eurosport
commentator Herman Hobert, referring to the famed Dutch skills coach and former Feyenoord manager,
nicknamed "the Albert Einstein of Football".
"Michel is so inspiring, so enthusiastic, always open minded and friendly. He gives players freedom, but
also sets down boundaries that they mustn't cross. He demands very high standards," added Hobert, who is
involved with the Apeldoorn project.
Elsewhere Canada, the United States, Nigeria, Egypt, Austria, Germany, France, Brazil and Turkey have
been in contact with Bruyninckx about his method.

The one country to show minimal interest in the Belgian's approach is England.
"In the UK intelligence is not valued," stated ex-USSR international Sergei Baltacha, who is director of
coaching at Bacons Football Academy - the first football development centre in London - and has been
working Bruynincxk over the last year.
"But the brain - it is the most important thing; it is everything."

A most important coaching lesson

by simon on September 14, 2011
UEFA A license coach Michel Bruyninckx states in Spain there is no 11 a-side soccer before the age of
15. He also believes that if you want to produce technical footballers, then forget the idea of competition.
He says I create players that can play to win at the right moment, but first you have to explain that
learning is more important than winning games. Please allow this gentleman to educate every youth
coach in the US and England. Nuff said.
In March this year the BBC reported about the Cracking coachings final frontier , an article based on the
theories created around brain centered learning and more specifically the methods used by Michel
Bruyninckx to integrate brain centered learning with football. The general idea being to multitask the
brain.
The article and the interest it generated urged me to meet with the man that has brought a new way of
thinking to the way we coach.
His drills start off simply but become increasingly more complicated to challenge players focus and
maintain their concentration.
A process that I have often considered as the simple design of coaching
When I was with my first coaching school, we used to describe the process as simply ABC, that you
could not get to C without A and B and that once you had worked out A to Z you could then
start creating words and sentences.
The idea is simple and logical, what Michel has done is ensure that as soon as the drill becomes easy, it is
made more difficult enough that it needs to be thought about.
He does this by ensuring both feet are being used, that players turn in different directions and even different
sized footballs may be used developing a players sensory perception.
Sometimes players train in bare feet to make them more sensorially aware; at other times they would
play simple maths games while doing physical conditioning work.
Bruyninckx emphasises teamwork ahead of individualism, while aggression is frowned on players do not
wear shinpads with tackling seen as the last solution to recover the ball.
He was recently made the Academy Director at Standard Liege, turning down interest from Real Madrid to
be close to his family.
To give you a good idea of what I am talking about here, have a look at his presentation of the Bruyninckx
method here.

Posted in Coaching, Theory |

4 Comments

Meeting Michel Bruyninckx

August 29th, 2011 |

Author: admin

Michel Bruyninckx has caused a stir advocating his brain centered learning techniques and recently become
Academy director at Standard Liege after eleven years at the Elite Football Academy Royal Belgian
Federation.
I was lucky enough this summer to meet him at the incredible facilities of the Standard Liege Academy in
Belgium. Here we had a chance to discuss his methods, ideas, concepts, techniques and philosophies.
Im happy to share what I learnt with you too.
The first thing that we discussed was the extent to which all of his players are evaluated for their athletic
performance.
Michel picked up a book which stipulated over 200 different evaluations that could be made on any one
athlete, from a standing jump, to the length of their stride, to lung capacity.
It became very clear to me that a core select of these measurement would be worth making on young
athletes in the Total Soccer Schools system.
However, to go to the extent of making all 200+ measurements is obviously very time consuming and
something that is affordable by the teenagers on full time contracts from some of the largest clubs in
European football at the Academy. Which incidentally has schooling and accommodation for a great deal
of them, all on campus.
To give you an idea of the benefits of performance evaluations read this.

or
Lead the way
The importance Michel put on showing me these evaluations, was highlighted by showing me a
predominantly right sided player that was out of balance (seen clearly in pictures of his posture) had over
the course of his coaching method been made strong enough to play both on his left and as his right, to the
point that new observers could not tell whether the player was left or right footed.
The long term benefits of this, besides the obvious adaptability of a player with a well rounded technique,
is a player that is less susceptible to injury due to compensations made of a body that is stronger on one
side than the other.
I will be writing up, over the coming weeks, the notes I made of this meeting and the things that have
become apparent to me since.
I hope you find them interesting.

Talent isnt born, it is grown!

A new football concept
For years the football world has been thinking that improving a players physical potential and developing
ingenious tactical plans would guarantee a high standard game leading to remarkable results. Recently the
Spanish National Football Team proved irrefutable this was not correct. It goes all about a concept
emphasizing rhythm, timing, spacing and exceptional technical and mental skills. Something Michel
Bruyninckx and Jos Riga also understood many years ago.

Brain Centred Training

Based on 20 years of study and experimenting, Brain research proves that our concept is very valuable,
because our method respects a much extended number of Brain Centred Learning principles.

CogiTraining Method
Guaranteeing a player agrees to practice - not training - 20 to 25 hours weekly, (and excluding bad external
influences that could affect the player s motivation), is fundamental.
It is also important to understand that, learning is always supervised by emotion and there will never be a
learning process if we dont trigger emotion in a correct way. Learning readiness and simultaneous
multi-tasking are the keywords of our CogiTraining Method.

SenseBall Practice
Besides, the continuous search for drills to enhance the number of ball touches and specific football skills
has a tremendous influence on the development of a players skilfulness. One specific tool of the
CogiTraining Method, the SenseBall Practice delivers a perfect solution to guarantee the individual
technical development.

The Academy
Due to the growing interest for Michel Bruyninckx and Jos Rigas work, we decided to launch an
Academy which will allow clubs, trainers, coaches and players to be taught with our Method.
Michel Bruyninckx has been applying this new concept in the formation of future young professional
players and Jos Riga is doing the same with professional adult players. This makes them complementary,
and able to develop a complete method for the football game of the coming years.

Is football changing and evolving?

The requirements of present-day football have grown a lot. In the FA's syllabus "The Future Game" Dick
Bate states: "The game will evolve dramatically over the next two decades and it is critical that those
responsible for the development of our young players prepare for what is ahead."

What do we have to focus on in the coming years

according to "The FA's Future Game"?
Young players
o Outstanding technicians, excellent at mastering the ball. o The
awareness and vision to formulate the "pictures" of what they are
going to do next. The game being played two steps in advance.
o The mastery of technical ability, awareness and creation of time and
space must be prioritised in our coaching work with young players.
The player of the future
o Release the ball accurately and instantly over a variety of distances
using BOTH FEET and any surface will be vital. o The capability to
operate in congested areas with speed and precision, ensuring the
protection of possession at all times, will be crucial.
o The ability to receive the ball and exchange passes with others whilst
moving at optimum speed. Many keywords for the future game are
there: outstanding ball mastery, quicker decision making, accurate
passing and dribbling with both feet, moving at optimum speed,
playing in congested areas.

How are we going to anticipate the football evolution?

We need to understand that the growing requirements of the future game can no longer be addressed by the
traditional programs. For many years we have been focusing too much on the development of the body not
aware of the enormous potential we possess in our brain. This too physical approach also explains why the
game quality was rather poor. Besides profound research on top performers proved they duly took into
account the influence of the brain and that it is an essential key of their success.

Go to a higher level of individual performance with the

SenseBall Practice!

Benefits

Through repetition (myelin 10.000 hour rule), improve general ball

mastery.
Rhythm influences cognitive readiness: improve attention and concentration.
Better timing: slow and fast performances exclude postural problems.
Space: cueing: improve precision of ball mastery.
Temporally reduced influence of strength enhances the learning process of
motor functioning.
Naked feet - multisensory integration and sonification (listen to the sound of
the ball touch) reinforce motor functioning learning.
Music delivers a better emotional and learning environment.
Patterns and retrieval structures help the brain to learn better and quicker.
Team learning enhances a lot through synchronized performances.
Close and focused attention (not dividing your attention to several tasks)
delivers long-term plastic changes regarding football skills.
A better visualization of a skill can improve performance:
o to get the clear image of a movement in your brain before applying the
skill;
o to be able to watch the performance of a performed skill and to make
a analysis;
o the faster you can imagine something, the faster you can perform it in
a correct way.
Needs

Structured drills to anticipate chunking.

Determine swinging patterns: hand that holds the net must stay in front of
the belly button during lateral swings.
Improve functioning of the feet in space without touching the ball: sagittal
and lateral moves with both feet.
Fluent changing of standing foot.
Combine different rhythms (swinging SenseBall and moving leg laterally in
faster rhythm).
Always stay in balance while performing.
Mixed movements of hand, foot and SenseBall (unconventional moving: foot
backwards-ball sideward).
Typical football skills
o make use of all parts of the feet in open space;
o make use of all parts of the feet in cued space (precision lower
speed);
o check position of feet;
o introduce different pathways while kicking.
Drill book to record the performed drills
o organise your training moments;

record training time;

record number of repetitions;
record sleeping time at night.
Record the time watching a drill and representing the performance in the
mind (imaging the movement in the brain)
o watch the drill;
o imagine the drill in your brain;
o make an analysis of the features of the drill (coach yourself);
o apply the drill.
Questionnaire
o info regarding body characteristics (length trunk, legs);
o info regarding action type (mental profile).
o
o
o

Thanks to its overall design, our Method result in a young footballer who practices it being able to touch
the ball an average of 500,000 times in a season (whereas it has been calculated that a professional player,
in all the practice sessions and games in which he participates, only touches the ball approximately 50,000
times per season).
All those benefits and needs are processed in the SenseBall Training Programs. Through our videos in your
personal account after buying a SenseBall Trainer you will have access to all the necessary material.

Training time
The 10.000 hour rule: it seems that it takes the brain this long to assimilate all that it needs to know to
achieve true mastery (Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell study K. Anders Ericsson 1990).
The 10.000 hour rule requires a special program. In math, science, musical composition, swimming, X-ray
diagnosis, tennis, literature, no one, not even the most "talented" performers, became great without at least
ten years of very hard preparation. (Nobel Prize winner Herbert Simon and William Chase).

The deliberate practice concept

Deliberate practice is characterized by several elements, each worth examining. It is an activity designed
specifically to improve performance often with a coachs help; it can be repeated a lot; feedback on results
is continuously available; its highly demanding mentally and heavily physical in sports; and it isnt always
much fun.

The effect of repetition

When a child learns to play piano scales for the first time, he tends to use his whole upper body -wrist, arm,
shoulder- to play each note. Even the facial muscles tighten into a grimace. With practice the budding
pianist stops using irrelevant muscles and soon uses only the correct finger to play the note. He develops a
"lighter touch, and if he becomes skilful, he develops "grace" and relaxes when he plays. This is because
the child goes from using a massive number of neurons to an appropriate few, well matched to the task.
This more efficient use of neurons occurs whenever we become proficient at a skill, and it explains why we
don't quickly run out of map space as we practice or add skills to our repertoire. (Bill Jenkins)