Brain

 Centered  Training  for  Football  -­  Michel  Bruyninckx  

 
Michel’s  session  was  based  around  simple,  but  effective,  football  exercises  that  as  
well  as  improving  the  skill  level  and  technique  within  young  footballers,  also  work  
the  brain.  It  is  Michel’s  theory  that  much  of  football  is  played  with  the  brain  and  so  
developing  that,  along  with  technique,  is  where  success  lies.  
 
As  with  all  the  coaches  that  were  present,  he  was  looking  for  all  elements  of  his  
session  to  be  game  related.  
 
He  started  off  with  the  following  exercise:  
 

 
 
Within  this  drill,  Michel  was  looking  for  quick  movements  and  players  playing  with  
as  few  touches  as  possible.  He  wanted  to  see  them  move  the  ball  with  one  or  two  
touches.  He  was  also  constantly  reiterating  the  fact  that  players  should  be  
controlling  the  ball  with  the  back  foot.  
 
He  then  moved  from  that  exercise  to  this  one:  
 

 
 
At  first,  the  group  demonstrating  had  trouble  with  this.  Michel  was  not  happy  with  
the  way  they  turned  around  the  middle  cone  and  wanted  them  to  make  sharper  
movements  rather  than  looping  curves.  Once  he  introduced  the  ball,  his  focus  was  
on  obtaining  good  quality  set-­‐ups  from  the  players  involved.  He  wanted  to  make  
sure  that  those  players  stopping  the  ball  stopped  it  in  an  area  where  it  would  be  
easy  for  the  player  coming  around  the  cone  to  take  over.  “Leave  it  as  you’d  like  to  
receive  it”.  
After  completing  a  number  of  variations  with  that  exercise,  he  moved  onto  another  
passing  exercise  that  was  based  around  moving  the  ball,  and  mastering  angles.  This  
exercise  can  be  found  below:  
 

 
 
Once  the  players  had  mastered  the  sequence  in  which  they  had  to  move,  Michel  
talked  about  making  them  concentrate  on  more  than  one  thing  and  having  the  brain  
multitask.  He  did  this  simply  by  counting  1-­‐8.  A  slow  tempo  meant  that  the  boys  
could  play  without  much  challenge.  However,  when  he  quickened  his  counting  1-­‐8,  
the  tempo  of  the  exercise  quickened  with  it.  Once  the  players  began  thinking  of  how  
quickly  they  needed  to  play,  and  how  focused  they  needed  to  be  on  receiving  and  
distributing  the  ball,  their  movements  began  to  go  out  of  sync  and  they  no  longer  
moved  to  where  they  were  supposed  to  within  the  exercise.  
 
The  next  passing  exercise  he  moved  onto  was  another  that  was  centered  around  
early  decision  making,  movement,  and  attention  to  your  surroundings.  The  exercise  
can  be  found  below:  
 

 
 
Again,  Michel’s  focus  was  on  giving  the  players  more  to  think  about  than  just  the  
pass.  He  mentioned  that  their  concentration  must  be  on  3  things:  
 • Who  has  the  ball  
• Who  can  receive  a  pass  
• Where  the  open  cones  are  to  move  to  once  you’ve  played  a  pass  
 
These  elements  are  constantly  changing  and  so  their  focus  must  remain  within  the  
exercise.  Then,  when  the  coach  starts  shouting  “in”  or  “out”,  there  is  another  aspect  
that  they  must  focus  on.  This  returns  to  my  earlier  comment  about  how  he  is  looking  
for  players  to  multitask  and  focus  on  numerous  things  at  the  same  time.  Also,  as  he  
did  earlier,  he  began  counting  during  the  exercise  to  increase  the  tempo.  Yet  another  
thing  that  the  players  need  to  be  able  to  concentrate  on.  
 
The  final  part  of  Michel’s  session  was  another  small  passing  and  movement  exercise.  
It  can  be  found  below:  
 

 
As  with  all  of  Michel’s  exercises,  it  looked  very  simple  but  requires  players  to  think  
and  focus  on  a  variety  of  things  as  they  complete  it.  Their  first  focus  is  on  passing  
with  the  correct  foot,  with  the  correct  weight  on  the  pass.  Their  second  focus  is  on  
turning  and  completing  the  running  element  of  the  exercise.  This  is  important  as  if  
they  travel  too  slowly,  they  begin  to  interfere  with  the  group  that  comes  directly  
after  them.  
 
Although  the  exercises  within  the  session  were  simple,  you  could  see  from  the  
player’s  responses  that  they  were  being  challenged.  The  exercises  often  broke  down  
due  to  incorrect  movement  from  the  players  or  poor  passing  due  to  concentrating  
on  another  aspect  within  the  exercise.  It  was  certainly  evident  that  working  on  this  
from  an  early  age  could  see  considerable  development  in  a  player’s  ability  to  
process  information  quickly  and  multitask.