Football is simple but the hardest thing to do is play simple football.
Johan CruijffRead
Every professional golfer has a seperate coach for his drives, for approaches, for putting. In football we have one coach for 15 players. This is absurd.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Effective coaching requires specialized attention in various skills, much like in sports training.
Johan Cruijff's quote highlights the disparity in coaching practices between different sports. He points out that while professional golfers have specialized coaches for distinct aspects of their game, football often relies on a single coach to manage multiple players and responsibilities, suggesting that this approach may be insufficient for optimal performance. This observation calls for a reconsideration of coaching strategies in team sports to ensure that players receive the individualized attention they need to excel in specific areas.
Themes
CoachingSportsTeamworkPerformanceTraining
In practice
Example use cases
During a sports conference, to illustrate the importance of specialized coaching.
More from Johan Cruijff
All quotes βPlaying football is very simple, but playing simple football is the hardest thing there is.
Johan CruijffRead
Choose the best player for every position, and you'll end up not with a strong XI, but with 11 strong 1's.
Johan CruijffRead
If you have the ball, you must make the field as big as possible, and if you don't have the ball, you must make it as small as possible.
Johan CruijffRead
Someone who has juggled the ball in the air during a game, after which four defenders of the opponent get the time to run back, that's the player people think is great. I say he has to go to a circus.
Johan CruijffRead
Technique is not being able to juggle a ball 1000 times. Anyone can do that by practicing. Then you can work in the circus. Technique is passing the ball with one touch, with the right speed, at the right foot of your team mate.
Johan CruijffRead
Similar quotes
There's a pride in representing your country on a stage like the sport of wrestling, which I've done since I was five years old. There's nothing that can deter me other than my own decision to leave the sport.
Jordan BurroughsRead
You see how Spanish, Italians, Portuguese play football. I don't say they are perfect, I say English football has a few things to learn from them in the same way they have a lot of things to learn from English football.
Jose MourinhoRead
Gowdy had a love affair with the microphone and the fans had a love affair with him. American sports fans truly lost an icon, a legend who never felt he was bigger than anyone else. He had that humility that made him special, and he made everyone feel like they were so important.
Dick VitaleRead
At 17, I already had responsibility because I took care of my family, but in the football I was young; I wasn't experienced or the captain - I was just in the team.
PeleRead
A clean, hard-fought wrestling match is the most honest of athletic contests. There is no technological interventions, no teammates to blame, no panel of judges to bias the score. In wrestling, you compete or you quit. No alibis. I like that
Dan GableRead
In sports, I refused to do any interviews that were just going to become human-interest stories. Don't turn me into a tragic heroine.
Aimee MullinsRead