10,000 Touches

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9/13/14, 1:26 PM

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10,000 TOUCHES

Is it possible for young players to take 10,000 touches a day to improve

their ball mastery? Jon Townsend analyses the Dutch theory that could
develop technical ability at all levels.
By Jonathan Townsend

@jon_townsend3

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In the summer of 2001, I was fortunate enough to train in Holland for close to 16 weeks, playing with a
local team from Enschede in friendlies and tournaments. I saw how young Dutch players trained,
prepared and learned the game.
One morning, after playing a few hours of street football, I rode my bike to FC Twentes brand new
training ground in Hengelo hoping to see the rst team train. What I found was the clubs youngsters,
aged eight or nine, assembling on a small pitch just outside the main training fences corralled by a
team of coaches all holding clicking hand counters.
Each player had a ball and assembled into groups of six and, after hearing instructions, the whistle
blew. The entire eld of players began a series of ball touches in unison while the crew of coaches
clicked away with the counters. It didnt take me long to gure out what was happening; these players
worked through rehearsed ball movements in sets of 100-200 repetitions, at match speed.
After rounds of toe-touches, Cruy turns, drag-backs, pirouettes, juggles, dribbles, or paired one-touch
passing the players rested, rotated to a dierent station, and began another set targeting a dierent
skill. Admittedly, I was surprised at the smooth movements on display.
I watched for a few minutes, unknowingly inching my way closer before one of the coaches made eyecontact with me. He jogged over and spoke to me in Dutch. Gathering my awkward stammering and
shy disposition, the young coach deduced I didnt speak Dutch, so in near-perfect English, he asked,
You want to play? You want to join today? We just started.
To my astonishment, I agreed, after all, I rode 11 kilometers to watch a training session so the
invitation to participate was exciting. An older, more experienced coach shook my hand and, placing a
ball at my feet said, Hup, you start. Stoppen, you stop. Good? I nodded. Nothing complicated, nothing
elaborate. Each movement was modelled by one of the coaches before we commenced the training
session. More importantly, each drill was a progression from the previous basic exercise into a more
advanced movement.

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Since I started after the group, I continued to train with a coach as the players moved to another eld

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to play the older team - players my age. After 70 minutes, I was sore, I was tired, but most of all, I was
exposed. This wasnt a tness-focused session either, Id just never trained so rigorously and exclusively
on fundamental movements.
My technique wasnt as polished as some of the younger players. The coach told me I had completed a
10,000 touch workout and that each of his young players did it once a day, at least six days a week, and
I should do the same. He informed me theyd complete a variation of that workout daily, usually at
home, and every player knew its necessity. He equated the touches with putting money in a piggybank.
A tting analogy.
My narrative aside, in the footballing world its evident a visible gap exists between countries taking
pride in developing talent and those content just to qualify for a tournament or be on the same pitch
with the worlds best. The countries developing great players have gured out a culture-centered and
formulaic way to produce the talent in abundance lling their club system (all levels) and national side
teamsheets.

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The rest of the world, meanwhile, must unlock the secrets of building not only talented individuals, but
of a talented and capable generation of players. The approach is a game of numbers. Increasing the
number of functional reps each day builds a stronger foundation for more players to improve. The
higher the level of play (quality) plus the higher the competition and competency (quantity) equals a
better end product, regardless of level (professional, amateur, etc).
Before we delve into the theory behind the number made famous by Malcolm Gladwells bestseller,
Outliers, lets examine why theres a gap in youth development. Countries that plateau in developing
talent certainly harbour high aspirations for their players. Unfortunately, they also concede inadequate
execution committed to developing world-class talent.
These countries need to identify exactly what world-class talent looks like before initiating quick xes.
For example, in the US there exists a stale rhetoric rife with claims the USSF dutifully follows the same
methods of footballs elite up until recently - and it may take another generation of players to reap
these benets.
Footballs world powers, regardless of geography, breed players and fans working to create distinctively
national styles of football. For these countries, the sport is such a part of life that its closely entwined
with the larger political and social fabric of a culture. There, young players dont look at football as a
chore or extracurricular activity.

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It has very little to do with individual pride either; every player want to improve, they just dont know
how. For nations lacking success on the world stage, this disconnection between a countrys culture
and its football might be where the fracture lies. The how of anything is resolved when you identify the
why.
As with any functioning system, there must be a process. A measureable input that yields a predictable
output. Gladwells book Outliers suggests that, in addition to peripheral factors like luck and random
chance, mastery of a specic skill takes no fewer than 10,000 hours of focused practice and
performance. His research reinforces the validity of case studies lodged heavily in the theoretic, and its
quite impressive to say the least.
But in football, 10,000 hours of application doesnt really guarantee mastery; so how about 10,000
touches a day on the ball? Admittedly, there are countless factors at play regarding whether a player
becomes a professional. But what if the goal is to produce capable footballers at not only the pro level,
but at all levels?
One example is the approach I experienced on the training ground in Hengelo. Holland consistently
produces technically procient players. These players are products of a culture valuing successful
attention to detail concerning youth development and scouting systems feeding the larger clubs. Ajax,
PSV Eindhoven, Sparta Rotterdam and Feyenoord football mills continually churn out talented players
(output).
Perhaps Rinus Michelss Total Football combined with the famed Coerver method has paid dividends. In
these systems, ball mastery is not only an expectation, but a demand as it allows players to
dynamically aect a match from a young age, presumably producing happy players.
The Coerver Method is a coaching platform steeped in both pyramidal and pedagogical practices
developed by The Albert Einstein of Football, Wiel Coerver. The moniker is well-deserved as
development under this system requires progression through a structured process, beginning with the
basics of ball mastery, footwork, group tactics, passing and receiving, and eventually moving towards
individual moves and clinical nishing.
The repetition leads to habitual patterns of play and techniques to a point where complexities become
simple. Players integrating supplemental Coerver methods can easily get 10,000 touches a day. And
this method is no longer exclusive to the Dutch style (total football). Styles in Spain (tiki-taka), Italy
(catenaccio), France (carr magique) and Germany (gegenpressing) all utilized tactics requiring
technically sound players with the ability to interchange positions on the pitch; a skill acquired through
relentless repetition.
In South America, football has been a fundamental piece of culture ever since its introduction to the
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continent. As a result, the blend of football with culture has resulted in periods of domination by South
American players and nations. Three South American nations have won half of the 19 World Cup titles.
South America has also produced arguably two of the most inuential and talented players of all time
in Pel and Diego Maradona. Worldwide, fans are captivated by the creativity, ow, air and
completeness of both the Brazilian Seleo and Argentinas Albicelestes. In these cultures and
systems, players learn to maximize their eectiveness through rigid competition both at the club level
and territorially in local games. The combination of futsal and street football stresses good technique
and unrivaled creativity. Players are apt to get 10,000 touches a day.
Of course, these objective methods exist in the subjective world of football. One can look at the fact
Holland has never won a World Cup and other nations have shown they can beat the Brazils and
Argentinas. One can also look at the Dutch inuence on Spanish footballs tiki-taka stressing mastery
levels of passing, receiving, dribbling and nishing, and contend that Spain defeated Holland in the
2010 World Cup Final using Dutch-inspired methods.
For all the dialogue about producing better players in the US, England, or anywhere really, the
approach needs systematic re-evaluation. Producing the next Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi is
unlikely, let alone producing a generation of them. But looking at the discrepancies of players from
countries hovering just above average at best, grooming players to strive for measurable development
is essential.
Proactive social experiments utilize metrics and data to reinforce theoretical claims. At the basic
mathematical level, an average player can start working their way up to 10,000 touches and ideally,
amass between 60,000-70,000 extra touches a week. Over the course of a year that number equals
3,640,000 additional touches on the ball.
But what is the takeaway? Is this approach just another example of over-emphasizing the use of
statistics and gures in the organic game of football? And even if a player doesnt reach 10,000 but only
gets 1,000, the gure is somewhat arbitrary.
Ultimately, a countrys football federation should identify what the ultimate end goal is before drawing
any conclusions. Is it winning a World Cup? Many World Cups? Developing a strong domestic league
showcasing and retaining domestic talent? Very few players will reach the highest level, but the elite
players are always going to be the top players. The goal might be to raise the bar for all players. The
system isnt perfect; players will still have a poor rst touch, deliver an errant pass and will still du a
shot, but players must see the benet of getting 10,000 touches a day with a football.
The current generation of YouTube-addicted young people primarily watching fancy individual moves
conrms a large percentage of players aspire to be exhibitionists rather than functional footballers.
Undoubtedly, theyd be well-served to enrich their improvement by structured repetition, by any means
necessary.
A player doesnt need a coach to complete 10,000 touches a day, which is part of the problem. Young
players assume they need constant guidance and supervision and wont train otherwise, which is,
again, a cultural issue rampant with reward-seeking and needing players.
Improvement occurs with correctly and consistently implemented fundamentals. The players at La
Masia, Clairefontaine, La Fbrica, De Toekomst, Carrington and other academies understand the value
of supplemental training, but most of those players accumulated thousands of extra touches prior to
their acceptance in the academy. In fact, that may be why many of them were accepted in the rst
place. They separated themselves from the pack on their own. Coaches know those players put
themselves ahead of the curve.
Its easy to side with the quality over quantity argument, but the best players in the world didnt take
the chance. No, they played the numbers game. Perhaps 10,000 touches a day is like money in a
piggybank - a tangible investment. The method is subjective, but theres truth to the saying, The more
you learn the more you nd you dont know.

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