Integer

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INTEGER FOOTBALL OFFERS A HOLISTIC and INDIVIDUALISED FOOTBALL TRAINING PROGRAMME, COMPLETE WITH ADVICE, TRAINING, GUIDANCE AND MENTORSHIP IN VARIOUS ASPECTS OF THE BEAUTIFUL GAME; TECHNICAL, PHYSICAL, NUTRITION, psychology AND personal DEVELOPMENT.

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Founded in 2016 by Simon Clifford - one of the most innovative, experienced and highly regarded one-to-one coaches in modern English football - Integer Football is regarded as a forward thinking training programme, striving to develop the football players of tomorrow.

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““Simon Clifford is quite simply the best one on one coach that I have seen at work in any sport in any country in the world”
”

— Sir Clive Woodward

COACHING philosophy

At Integer Football, the philosophies, values and culture form the core of the training programme. We have a culture here of whole self development and continuous improvement, in all areas of life – on and off the pitch.

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““We missed a trick in not meeting with Simon much, much earlier, embracing some of his methods and seeing if he was willing to work with us towards incorporating them into a national programme”
”

— Sir Trevor Brooking

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Antony Gordon England visualisation

I was really pleased to see Antony Gordon recently talking about visualisation and some other topics in his insightful interview with Gary Neville on The Overlap.

I have worked with players on visualisation for a long time, since my early days of coaching around 30 years ago. Overall, I see this as a tool that really works, though it is possibly not for everyone, and of course we have to look at the individual. For many, visualisation helps players enter the flow state, where “action and awareness merge. Time flies. Performance goes through the roof” (Steve Kotler: Rise of Superman). Some of the elite players I have worked with would find visualisation really useful and it would be a big help to them in their preparation for a game, however with others it would sometimes lead to them overthinking, leading to a negative effect. For those that it worked with, though, it was key to their high level performances.

So, what would this visualisation process look like? A day before the game, I would encourage the players to visualise the stadium, the journey, dressing room, the kit they would be wearing and so on, as well as moments in the game. The idea being that when they got there on the day and these things were happening around them, it is like they have already been there and lived it, so there is less to stress or worry about. They are prepared in their mind. Usually you would visualise things that you could control, however from the Stoics I learnt to add some visualisation of things that could go wrong and events turning out badly. From this visualisation you can work out how you would react in those situations and come up with a plan of how to get out of it. In the same sense as before, should this ‘terrible’ event happen in real life, you have lived it before mentally and already have prepared your reactions and route out of it. This can be massively helpful – particularly in a game of football where there are so many uncontrollables and things that could go wrong for you in a short space of time. You need to be able to reassert your focus and get your head back in the game.

Working in coaching for many years I have always been learning and looking at new ways to help improve the player. One of the most important lessons that is always present is that we are all different, and so must cater our approach to each individual.

Another topic mentioned in The Overlap interview was strength and conditioning training – again something that splits opinion between players. Gordon says he thinks it could possibly take away his agility but concedes it would probably make him faster and more explosive. You will have some who will find S and C is central to their performance and training, but also have players who really don’t take to it. In my time being around Wayne Rooney at Everton youth teams around 1998-2000 and also in conversations I have had since then with coaches of his, I know Rooney was very big on visualising but was not really the biggest fan of S and C work. He was of the opinion that it too much S and C work may make him too big, resulting in him losing his natural athleticism.

Resistance training helps us to become more robust, recover quicker, is a base for our mobility and flexibility and will of course make us stronger which can be a base for getting more explosive. Many studies for example Comfort and Matthews (2012) give great support to the fact that resistance training is helpful in directly improving areas such a speed and acceleration. Not to mention the direct benefits of just building strength for the game, such as holding players off or being stronger in tackles. If done in the correct way, it can also be key for speed and power.

Ryan Flaherty – the current head of performance at Nike – argues that for optimal speed and power, an athlete should be able to deadlift 3x bodyweight, for example. I have been working with players on this school of thought for many years, and have seen great benefits of doing so and having such resistance training as key to their training programme. I have worked with some young academy players who have gone from one of the slowest in the squad to the quickest (this is in periods after puberty and growth). To go back to Rooney’s point however, I can see where he is coming from for his own personal reasons and again, catering to the individual.

In the early 2000s when he had signed for Manchester United, I was invited to Carrington by Sir Alex Ferguson with Socrates to spend the day at the training ground and observe. Before heading in for lunch with Sir Alex, I stayed out to watch some of the players do some extra bits of training after their session, and one of the things that stood out to me was Rooney’s natural athleticism. He went in goal for the extra training, and was the very best goalkeeper I saw that morning. He was unbelievable. The way he could move his body, jump, dive and so on was just incredible. He had this natural athleticism and mobility – he had skills not only with his feet but also body that had been honed on the streets of Croxteth playing football . A good S and C programme which would include agility and change of direction training would not have lost any of these natural elements, only added to. Possibly Wayne’s career could have lasted longer, have had more physical longevity and been more robust from injury. It is interesting to think that it could have maybe added to what Wayne had, which with his already high level is a scary thought!

Thank you for reading this week’s blog post.

Integer Football is a bespoke individual training programme based in Harrogate and Leeds, that works to create better players from the inside out. We focus on all elements of the beautiful game to create a total footballer prepared for the game of tomorrow. To contact our team and to find out more on how you could join our programme, please see our Join page.