In the previous blog post, we discussed primarily the differences between the game model and the game idea. The members of ForeFront Football have specialized in one particular game idea: Locational Play. It is not always known by this name, but rather by its earlier version, Locational Play, despite having notable differences—a fact that adds confusion when attempting to define it. It has a large number of followers for proposing a proactive and purposeful style of play, both when the team has possession of the ball and when it does not. This results in a team with a recognizable and distinctive playing style that combines aesthetics with functionality. Its peak came with Pep Guardiola at FC Barcelona, as he successfully adapted the classic Locational Play to modern football.
Subsequently, many other teams have modified their playing approach inspired by Locational Play, particularly regarding 2 of its 4 collective functions: the constant Repositioning of players to maintain communication channels with the ball carrier and the immediate desire for Recovery of the ball in any area of the pitch, rather than the classic organization of defending spaces near the goal. The other two—continuous multidirectional Redistribution through short passes and Organization around the ball in circular contour lines, contrary to the usual rational organization of the playing field—have only been put into practice in the same terms, regarding their objectives, by few teams. The primary collective objective of all these functions is to maintain possession of the ball for as long as possible and, through this, disorganize the opponent to be able to finish with control of both the ball and the game—something few teams practice consistently, as they employ a much more direct style of play.
Furthermore, when attempts have been made to implement it collectively, it has sometimes been done based on a type of training task design and a coaching intervention style that resembles the practice of a game model. Due to the characteristics of Locational Play, which advocates passing in small space-time windows, modeling decision-making for the infinite situations that may occur is particularly suboptimal for this type of play to be effective. The pedagogical exchange between coach and player must align with the game idea.
In other words, the practice of Locational Play is especially contextual, requiring the player to be autonomous in their decisions, which will be based on extracting information from the situation they are experiencing. This process is facilitated if the actions players perform naturally are integrated into the collective playing approach. Once again, Locational Play needs to move away from prescribed models, where players act based on positioning themselves in pre-established positions determined by the coach and performing actions dictated by the same.
If the player is trained to execute what the coach proposes, they may succeed in a certain number of situations. However, they will not have trained to adapt to many other situations not described in the model, meaning they will lack the necessary cognitive and coordinative tools to execute optimal responses in each situation. It goes without saying that this works against the player’s growth in understanding the game—something detrimental to their learning.
The ForeFront Football training program.
This is why, in the training program of ForeFront Football, which consists of pathways within the same knowledge dimension that allow progression by specializing in a specific competency—such as those discussed regarding game idea and pedagogical exchange—they cannot be designed in a disconnected manner. On the contrary, after initial pathways with courses (sections) of a divergent nature, the pathways intertwine due to the necessary convergence of knowledge, giving rise to innovative competencies that will enable the acquisition of concrete, interrelated, and extensive knowledge across all three pathways. In other words, the ideal approach is to implement Locational Play with a pedagogical exchange suited to this game idea.
