Change and belief

[lake district canary 4,816]

If you have ever tried to change something - maybe a sporting skill that you have had problems with - maybe like a tennis shot that is rubbish, or a fault in your batting technique in cricket, or if you have the yips in a golf shot - then you will know that when you make a change, the new way of  doing things often feels foreign, uncomfortable or can even feel just plain wrong, because it is different to the way you used to do things. Now that is true in a team sport too, only multiplied because of the number of people involved.  We are in the process of change - and it will not be comfortable for the players to start with - especially when trying to do it in a very competitive league.  It''s a bit like being in a catch 22 situation - you know you are doing something right and that it will work in the long run, but it isn''t showing right now.  The tennis shot that has changed the angle of the take back, or the follow through, or the footwork etc etc - it takes time to assimilate the changes and for things to feel right.  What happens then is that you have ups and downs of confidence - times when it feels right, times when it feels wrong, times where you question whether the changes that have been made were right.  This is where your belief system comes in. You have to believe in the changes you have made and that as time moves on those changes will feel more comfortable.  Every player will be trying to adapt to the new things - and for a team that is hard to do.  It has been said it will take time and that is undoubtedly true.  Uncertainty and up and down results are inevitable in the early stages - but what will underpin success for the project long term is the belief that it will work. Farke and the management team have to instill that belief in the players - and as long as they do - and stick to it - sooner or later the changes will start to take effect in a more certain fashion and we will all be much happier as a result.  The football of the late 80''s is a good benchmark (if you are old enough to remember it)  the football, as time went on became almost magical in the way the football looked so instinctive and fluid - but it didn''t happen overnight.  We''ve had just five games in this new regime.  Just five.

[Lessingham Canary 108]

True LDC, its not practice that makes perfect but perfect practice ! (Nick Faldo) just hope our new coaching staff are going in the right direction. Xmas will be good time to judge.

[hogesar 10,754]

Hopefully things will start to click after the international break.

[king canary 8,749]

Isn''t this what pre season is for?

[hogesar 10,754]

Unfortunately pre season isn''t long enough or competitive enough to get it all right.

[Move Klose 303]

This bloke is a massive Be11end !!!!

[TIL 1010 5,246]

You won''t win a Grand Prix if you are driving a Reliant Robin.

[Mr Apples 1,406]

You will if it''s a Grand Prix for Reliant Robins...Apples

[Ray 111]

LDC,

You raise a very valid point imo.

Change, and let’s face it change is what we are faced with, takes time to become the norm but why is this so?

It’s because the brain has billions of neural connections or pathways if you like, that it finds comfortable and form its sub-conscious thinking. In other words it is what it always does, ergo, it finds it easy to do the things it has always done, the brain likes that, anything else is conscious thinking which takes more effort. So it has a default position and any change in what it is asked to do, and let’s face it what ever the body does is controlled by the brain, it finds uncomfortable and just like a stretched elastic band it will snap back to its original position once the conscious switches off.

As you and others have alluded to, practice makes perfect, or close to it, why, because the brain is making new neural connections and when the ‘grove’ of these new neural connections becomes deeper than the grove of original connections, the new behaviour becomes the default position and as you said this takes time. Can this process be sped up, yes it can and the simple step of understanding what is going on in your brain is an ideal place to start, there are many other ‘tools’ that can be used too.

The question that needs addressing, is, imo, do we as a club have the knowledge and know-how to implement a speeding up of change, if not why not and what can be done to facilitate it?

If anyone is in doubt about the above, try writing your signature with left hand if you are right handed and vice versa, how much conscious thinking are you putting into that? It doesn’t feel natural and I’m willing to bet, just like the elastic band, the next time you are required to sign something your brain will have snapped back to its default position and you will pick up the pen with your ‘normal’ hand. Now translate this to what players are being asked to do (if indeed it is different to what they have practiced for years) and you will have some understanding of how challenging it can be. It will remain challenging until such time as the ‘wrong’ handed signature’s neural connections have a deeper grove than the ‘normal’ handed connections, which will be evidenced by you picking up the pen with your new ‘normal’ hand and signing your signature subconsciously with your new ‘normal’ hand.

Finally a quote I like very much, from dear ol’ Winston Churchill, is;

“To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often”, so installing neural connection that embrace change make change easier and result in a speedier journey toward perfection. Is it easy, maybe not, is it enjoyable, I guess that depends on your ''thinking/neural connections/mindset''.

[Hoola Han Solo 448]

You also said these things about Hughton and Neil and they ultimately failed. Optimism is ok until it turns into blind faith.

[ROBFLECK 134]

I''m with Hoola...

This optimism seems blind optimism to me, did you actually see the game...it was school boy stuff!!!! Doesn''t matter what the new project is, those are things you do on the training ground and which should have been instilled in you by your coach when you were 8 years old!

I was optimistic too and I wanted to give Farke time etc...etc... but that has completely gone after watching that! If they play like that, they will get relegated...and that''s a certainty !

I don''t like posting a rant like this , but I genuinly believe we are rockbottom now and I can''t see us climbing out of the hole, as we don''t seem to be able to cope with what average sides throw at us.

[Ray 111]

HHS, I''m not quite sure what your point is but it is a Bank Holiday Monday and I''ve had a ''good'' weekend!

However I agree, with the fact hey ''failed'' because, imo, neither of them took on board, or understood, the part the brain plays, in fact Neil totally dismissed it in an interview.

Do all the top managers take on board the ''brain'' philosophy, probably not and they are good managers anyway, just imagine how much better they could be though?

[lake district canary 4,816]

[quote user="Hoola Han Solo"]You also said these things about Hughton and Neil and they ultimately failed. Optimism is ok until it turns into blind faith.[/quote]Five games.  Farke needs two seasons, if not three, to bring a new methodology to fruition.

[FenwayFrank 2,712]

I''m not sure I''ve got the patience to wait three seasons !

[Move Klose 303]

3 seasons your having a a laugh ain''t ya !!!!!!!!

If he cant get his team playing the way he wants after 1 season then I don''t hold much hope for him.

If You think any club in this day and age will wait 2 years for things to work then your deluded.

Blind optimism is exactly what this is. People all just assuming this will all work out.

[Hoola Han Solo 448]

I know it''s only five games and it would be ridiculous to sack him. However, if we''re dangerously hovering above the relegation zone all seasons will you still be beating this drum?

[Hoola Han Solo 448]

It''s 2021/22 season. NCFC are playing in the Anglian Combination. Lakey "give him time".

[Mr Apples 1,406]

"I''m not sure I''ve got the patience to wait three seasons !"Some people on here won''t have the patience to wait three minutes into the next game.God only knows what they''re like at birthdays and Christmas?Apples

[ROBFLECK 134]

[quote user="lake district canary"][quote user="Hoola Han Solo"]You also said these things about Hughton and Neil and they ultimately failed. Optimism is ok until it turns into blind faith.[/quote]Five games.  Farke needs two seasons, if not three, to bring a new methodology to fruition.

[/quote]

LDC , there''s gonna be some empty seats at the Carra if that''s going to be true... The supporter''s reactions weren''t always right but they told a story... You can''t expect that kind of patience, certainly after the opportunities the board have had , to get the club settled as a PL side or at least a top end Championship side!

[Van wink 2,994]

Hoola Han Solo wrote the following post at 28/08/2017 11:43 AM:

You also said these things about Hughton and Neil and they ultimately failed. Optimism is ok until it turns into blind faith.

They all ultimately fail, it''s a matter of when not if.

[Hoola Han Solo 448]

Good point winky, lambert would have been turned on if things went south

[lake district canary 4,816]

[quote user="ROBFLECK"][quote user="lake district canary"]Farke needs two seasons, if not three, to bring a new methodology to fruition.

[/quote]

LDC , there''s gonna be some empty seats at the Carra if that''s going to be true... The supporter''s reactions weren''t always right but they told a story... You can''t expect that kind of patience, certainly after the opportunities the board have had , to get the club settled as a PL side or at least a top end Championship side![/quote]

Frankly, if people are going to spit out their dummies every time there are setbacks, we will never progress as a club  Now I know the answer is that the team has to do well on the pitch and it will bring people round, but all teams - even successful ones have times when things are difficult.  Patience and calm is needed - what is not needed is people dropping back into their apparent default of booing players, demanding new owners, demanding a return to old ways of doing things, when the going gets tough.  I don''t think wishing ourselves as an established PL club is a good thing either. Very few clubs do and even Southampton needed huge amounts of money to be where they are and we are not going down that road, as everyone knows.  Whether that is a good thing or not, time will tell - imo, so many clubs are going to have rich owners that the value of that money in time will become pointless, after all, what''s the point of investing millions upon millions of pounds if you are still languishing in the championship or lower?  Villa, Hull, Wolves, QPR, Fulham, Birmingham......the list goes on.

[Sussexyellow 55]

I am going to largely agree with your OP LDC.

Changing say your golf grip is difficult process and does need much repetition until muscle memory kicks in. However where I diverge from your theory is that the true muscle memory needed by football players is the ability to run - so that should not be an issue. However they do need to think about where they are running to, or when to press or not etc. And in that respect I can see where you are coming from.

When I played tennis often my best shots would come when I played instinctively and there was no conscious thought going into the shot - golf unfortunately does not afford that luxury, you always have time to think. Similarly great saves made by goalkeepers are likely to be an instinctive reaction.

So where you may be right is that it will take time for the players to react instinctively to where they should be in a situation as opposed to losing fractions of a second whilst they think about where the coach wants them to be.

[lake district canary 4,816]

 [Y] Sussex.  Although I disagree with you about golf. I find there is too much to think about when standing at the ball, so I try to forget all the coaching, the thought processes, the millions of things you should think about - and just relax and hit it.  Still never goes where I want it too though [:(] 

[king canary 8,749]

Three seasons? So if we got relegated this year and finished 16th in League One the season after you''d still want to stick k with him? Madness.

[Guest]

Face facts Lakey,he was,is,and will remain to be a third rate German reserve league coach. Neither his coaching or playing careers suggest he can make it here. Webber just copied what worked last season praying it would work again and has failed!! They both are surplus to requirements.

[FenwayFrank 2,712]

After five games ?

[Guest]

Before we''d even kicked a ball under Farke. He is not of the standard needed. For your interest this is the league we signed him from. Don''t be taken in by the Dortmund link.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regionalliga_West

It''s akin to signing Ian Culverhouse from the Linnets.

[Making Plans 957]

[quote user="lake district canary"]Now that is true in a team sport too, only multiplied because of the number of people involved.  We are in the process of change - and it will not be comfortable for the players to start with - especially when trying to do it in a very competitive league.  It''s a bit like being in a catch 22 situation - you know you are doing something right and that it will work in the long run, but it isn''t showing right now.  What happens then is that you have ups and downs of confidence - times when it feels right, times when it feels wrong, times where you question whether the changes that have been made were right.  [/quote]Jesus, we are talking about professional footballers here who have all had experience at different levels and they all get paid extremely well to ply their trade. They work for NCFC and like any other employee in any other business they are paid to accept, and adapt to, change.I assume that the players we have purchased were selected because somebody thought that they would easily fit into the system the new manager wants to play.Most of them have now had 2 months to adapt, get familiar with the system, get used to the other players and their surroundings and in all honesty that should be long enough. Certainly more than sufficient time to put in better performances that we have witnessed thus far.The problem is that most of the new signings appear not to have the basic football skills to be a success in the Championship and probably never will have and if you think we can wait 2 or 3 years for them to good then you''ve probably come to that conclusion too.

[City 2nd 193]

lake district canary wrote the following post at 2017-08-28 3:54 PM:

Hoola Han Solo wrote:

You also said these things about Hughton and Neil and they ultimately failed. Optimism is ok until it turns into blind faith.

Five games.

Farke needs two seasons, if not three, to bring a new methodology to fruition.

And you think the club can afford to give him two or three seasons? They cannot afford that, and you will see another exodus of players such as Pritchard, Murphy, Maddison, Oliveira and such like to keep the club afloat, with second rate players coming in who will not have the ability to take the club where it wants to be.

Crowds will drop off, increasing the debt. Did it take Huddersfield under Wagner 2/3 seasons? No. Farke and Webber need to up their game, and plans, otherwise they will both be collecting a P45 way before 2/3 seasons are out.