Charles:
On a low level of abstraction, soccer does offer a chance for a kind of
extemporaneous collaboration. A good coach will move the team toward that
concept, toward deliberate freedom of thinking, so to speak. In such a
state, players have a graeter sense of anticipation.
The first rule of offensive soccer is: Play Without the Ball! This
strikes most American youngsters I've coached as unintelligible. With
intense, consistent practice, meaning becomes attached to it.
I spoke to one coach a year ago whose team was superlative. "How do you
obtain such field discipline, such consistency?" His reply: "The kids
hate practices, because all we do is overlaps [a kind of pass where the
passer runs behind the receiver to his/her other side, into open space
ready to receive the ball back if necessary]. But when they get out on
the field, well...you see what happens."
What I saw in that team was a hightened sense of collaboration. These 18
and 19 year olds were constantly talking to one another.
Barry
-- Barry Mallis bmallis@markem.comLearning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>