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typologie en voetbal

Developing talents using their Type preference

Bob's puzzle
Bob (45 years old) is a respectable trainer during 13 years in the same football club. He works hard, never gets ill, is dedicated to the team and spends a lot of spare time in his favourite football team. He already became a member when he was 8 years old. ”You know what you get when you deal with him”.
He leads a group of football players in the age of 17 24 years old. Bob likes most of the players, specially the hard working and the players with discipline. He prefers players who work hard above the players who makes the impression not giving a hundred percent of their energy.
He has difficulties with two of his players, Peter and Frank.
Peter is a good player. But in his behaviour he is rather unpredictable. Sometimes he is in a good mood, but then at once he does not like the training anymore and he does not cooperate. He cannotconcentrate for more than 15 minutes, always wants to do something different. He complains: “we always do the same exercises”. Peter wants more variety. Especially the exercises where you need your fine motor skills are boring (dribbling around the pawns).

Bob is convinced that Peter needs more practise in the exercises he offers (trainers manual page 42).
Bob tells Peter to follow his instructions . He is the trainer and he really knows after 13 years what a good training includes. The result however: Peter loses his motivation more and more, comes often too late. Bob thinks about some disciplinary measures against Peter. Probably the next match he is a benchplayer.

And what about Frank. Frank is in a different way difficult to handle for Bob…
He is very quiet, does always what Bob asks him (Bob likes that part!) but he seems to be anxious. He is too friendly during the match, does not coach his teammates enough and when he receives feedback (and Bob gives a lot of straight feedback) he nods apologizes and promises to do better next time.
Bob is convinced that Frank needs to be more aggressive and has to coach his mates. He asks Frank over and over again why he isn't able to perform according to his task. He gets impatient with Frank and tells him he gets one more chance to show progress. Probably the next match
he is a benchplayer.

Bob is puzzling. How can you treat those two players, to get themmore disciplined andmore successful?
It's a pity when two talented players as Peter and Frank are leaving . But what can you do?

Training according to type preferences
What is a good training look like for an ESTJ = Bob A well proven exercise, a lot of routine , discipline, task driven, using his fine motor skills
What is a good training look like for an ESFP= Peter Concrete actions, specially with ball, variety, flexibility, fun and action. He is good in exercises using his gross motor skills
What is a good training look like for an INTJ = Frank
Wants to understand the whole picture, wants to know why? needs time to reflect on what he is doing, wants a competent trainer, who knows what he is doing and can explain it. He is good in using his cerebral motor skills.

Helping Bob
When we accept that our thrives and our motivations are deeply influenced by our preference we cannot avoid them. The coach has to find out what the type preferences are and when he is training or preparing the next match he has to find the right language and exercises for each of his players.

Bob needs structure and logic. He wants a lot of action and he trusts on his experience. When he structures his training according to his preference he is the “be like me “coach, who does not honour the preferences of Peter and Frank. That means that Peter and Frank have to falsify their types. The result is less fun, spending a lot more energy and less results. Bob has to respect the need for variety and give Peter more freedom in the way he is doing the exercise. He needs to have more patience with Frank and
explaining more what his intentions are and what he wants to reach. Exercises where he can use his gross motor skills can make him better and giving him more confidence.

Only, when Bob uses the preferences of Peter and Frank, they will develop successfully.
When he lets them use their dominant function it will be easier for them to develop the other functions.. When Peter gets more variety it is easier for him to do some structured exercises. When Frank understand what he has to do he ismoremotivated.Peter and Frank starting in their comfort zone will help
them experience in their effort zone and develope in a more complete player.

When trainers and coaches had uses Type preference
from Sebastian Deisler ( I think his preference is INFP)
would he be in South Africa this year as a player of the
German Mannschaft?
Dick Otter (ENTP)

In 1992 John Niednagel wrote his “Your Key to Sports Success”.¹
He introduces the word Brain Typing. He believes that Jungs type preferences and functions can be
attributed to specific regions of the brain but also can be linked to specificmotor and spatial skills.
This topic already was addressed by Walter Lowen, a physicist who was interested in brainmapping,
related to personality.² Lowen found that each type was associated with a specific capacity and one by one these were developed in the child. In the first year the child develops the gross motor
skills such as moving the body and kicking . These correspond to the SF types.
Then between one and two years of age the child develops the fine motor skills such as hand-eye
coordination. These correspond to ST types.
Next, from the age of two to eight, the child develops verbal skills. These correspond to NF types. Finally, after the age of eight, the child develops intellectual skills. These correspond to NT types.
This means that each individual has the ability to use the capacity of each type. As the child goes through
these sixteen capacities, one of them stands out as the one that feels the most comfortable. The
comfortable one becomes the one most used and becomes the preference type of the individual.
Niednagel used this information to help people look at what sports they might excel in and what position
they might be best at playing.
The opposite is true as well. Katherine Benziger uses the term falsifying type. When children or adults are falsifying their type preferences they get tired, bored and ill. That is exactly what happens when the
sportsmen/women have to act outside their preferences.
Benziger writes in “Thriving in Mind”³ that “children learned when they were doing things that were just
right for their brain (--) they felt happy, interested and smart”.
In Europe specially Bertrand Theraulaz and Ralph Hyppolite worked it out and connected Brain Typing
and Motor skills. They are the founders of Action Type.
¹ J.Niednagel, Your key to sports success , Laguna Press, 1992 (page 62)
². W.Lowen, Dichotomies of the Mind,Wiley, 1982
³ Katherine Benziger, Thriving In Mind, Carbondale 2003 (page 3)
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