“I want to be the best female football player in the world”
Kristin Gumaer knows exactly what she wants to do with her life: she wants to be a professional football player, and she’s already working hard to achieve her goal. Her love of football is immeasurable, and if her skills reach the level of her passion for the sport, she will realize her dream before long.
Kristin Gumaer is not a name that everybody recognizes, but that very well could change ten years from now.
Gumaer was born in 2001, and she comes from the small Norwegian town of Frosta, located between Levanger and Trondheim. She used to train three times per week with her team, Neset FK U16, which plays in the first division. But this was not just any team; it was the club’s U16 men’s first team!
Self-train every day to become the world’s best
As you can sense, Kristin Gumaer isn’t your average girl. She’s a footballer to the bone, and the 15-year-old Norwegian spends most of her spare time playing football. In addition to three weekly team practices, she spends two or three hours each day self-training so she can reach her ultimate goal: to become the best female football player in the world.
-Self-training is very important to me. With the club, I train about three times per week, which in my opinion is not at all enough if you want to be a professional. That’s why I started self-training (also because I love playing football, of course). There’s nobody telling me that I need to practice more; it’s purely my own choice.
I self-train almost every day. Some days I do strength training, while other days I’ll work on technique and speed. On average, I train two to three hours per day. I think this will help me in the football world. My coach and I have seen progress since I started self-training and going all in on football, so I think self-training will be crucial moving forward, she says.
Practice with the m-station for hours: “It never gets boring!”
Gumaer is a midfielder with Neset FK, and she distributes the ball with great confidence. It takes proper technique and precise passing to distribute the ball effectively, so Gumaer has worked on her technique and passing a lot.
-I’ve spent a lot of time practicing my passes (short as well as long), and also my finishes and dribbling. For dribbling, I’ve used cones in many different formations. For example, I zig-zag between the cones so I can train both feet. It’s a very simple exercise that’s good for training technique, she says.
One thing that has helped Gumaer in her self-training is Munin Sports’ m-station, which she uses every time she practices on her own.
-The m-station has helped me a lot in my self-training. I use it for every kind of exercise, but I’ve felt the most progress when it comes to my passes and first touches. I can make passes with my m-station for hours without getting bored.
I use it on a daily basis. It’s a teammate that never makes a mistake. If you make a good pass, you’ll receive a good pass. This is one of the unique features of the m-station rebounder, Gumaer says.
Here are examples of how you can do these exercises with the m-station
But the ambitious Gumaer doesn’t only focus on ball work. She also makes sure to train her body, which is also important.
-Some days I train without the ball; for example, when I’m training speed, strength, and balance. Those are equally important on the field.
Do you want to develop fast feet and be able to measure your speed? Watch the following to learn how:
Inspired by her idol, Alex Morgan
Neset FK isn’t a top level professional football club, so Gumaer deciced to move to Ranheim, where the Toppserien team Trondheims-Ørn is based, to play play women’s football at the highest level. That club is noted for having featured 40 Norwegian national team players since 1975. Brit Sandaune and Unni Lehn are among the most famous of those players, with 119 and 134 caps, respectively. Neither of them, however, is Gumaer’s hero. Her biggest inspiration is the Orlando Pride player Alex Morgan.
-I often use the Internet to find motivation. Youtube, for example. There I can watch my role model, Alex Morgan from the USA. She inspires me, but honestly I love football so much that I don’t need any external motivation for training. If you want to be a pro, you have to love the sport. That’s what I think, at least, she says.
But how do you go about self-training?
Gumaer has an idea:
-One thing that helped me get started with self-training was to set some goals to work towards, she says.
Who knows? If you self-train as much as Kristin Gumaer, you might just meet her at the 2027 World Cup.
The World’s Best Football Coach 2012: “3 things that will make you better”
If you’ve ever watched women’s football and thought that it isn’t nearly as exciting as its male equivalent. Read this and think again. Here you will meet the world’s best women’s football coach in the year 2012, Pia Sundhage, and she can indeed teach you a thing or two about how to improve as a football player. We at Munin Sports met her for at talk about self-training.
Pia Sundhage is one of Sweden’s greatest sports personalities. For more than twenty years she represented the Swedish women’s national football team, and won both gold, silver and bronze in the Euros and bronze in the World Cup. The Swede didn’t end her career before 1996 – and an active one at that, in which she also reaped four Swedish championships and four cup titles, and even a short tenure with the Italian club Lazio.
Since then, she has continued her career in the football world: Sundhage has fallen in love with the responsibilities of being a coach, a role she has taken up since 1992,first as player-coach and since then as an assistant. Since 2003 she has been the chief coach for multiple Swedish clubs, one American, and also the American and Swedish national teams, both with great success. She has won Olympic gold twice with the American women’s national team, and at the 2016 Games she brought home a Silver medal with her native country.
It’s dangerous to say, but if Pia Sundhage had been a male coach with the same qualifications, she wouldn’t have been a new name to the majority of the people who are reading this. Fortunately, the Swedish coach has had her share of recognition. In 2008 she was named the Female Sports Personality of the Year in Sweden, and she was awarded the Fifa Women’s World Coach of the Year in 2012, a year that also yielded one second place and two third places.
Because, when Pia Sundhage was a young girl back in the 1970s with big dreams about playing football, she self-trained every day to fulfill her dream.
–How much you should train depends on a lot of things, but in my case it was every day, seven days a week.
Of course it depends on age and level, but I will say that I, as an aging coach, still find it entertaining to this day! First of all, I like doing things independently. Back in the old days I used a wall, and enjoyed it. And enjoying what you do is the most important things.
It’s important if one wants to stay curious about what one could possibly do with a ball. And it’s not that you have to do it for hours on end. I don’t think so. You gotta enjoy it. Otherwise it will just feel like a chore, and that’s unnecessary.
But you should do it every day, and perhaps decide that the first day it’s gonna be 20 minutes, the second day 25 minutes, and then one hour the day after.
In my opinion it’s fundamental to reach the football elite. And if there is one thing I have learnt from my experiences, it is that curiosity should come from yourself, not from what the coach tells you to do, but for instance by looking at the players around you.
As a kid I would try out a lot of things. Try and fail, that’s the way. For me this was the only way to reach the elite level.
Take a good look on the challenge, test yourself, be curious, and imagine the things you can do with the ball. Those were the principles I followed, and also those principles that gave me chance to play as many matches as I did.
Pia Sundhage used to be an assistant manager with the China women’s national team, and here she learned a couple things about self-training that she didn’t in the US or even Sweden. Physique is a central element in those Western countries, whereas the Chinese are devoted to technique.
-In Sweden they talk about whether one is right- or left-footed, but in China, I realized, they aim at technical perfection. When I asked one player whether she uses the left or right foot, she didn’t understand the question, and asked what I meant.
I then asked which foot she felt most comfortable with, and she asked if that even matters. It did to me, so I asked her which foot she would use when taking a free kick, and she just told me it depends on the angle of the kick.
I have never got that kind of answer anywhere else, not even in the US.
And technical skills is something Pia Sundhage wants more of in women’s football, and she hopes it will change in the future – for example through self-training.
–One of the reasons I started out with self-training was a lack of coaches – the ones who were available weren’t really competent, so you needed to do something on your own and do it differently, if the goal was to reach the top and get better than the others.
Nowadays there’s a lot of talk about technical players, who compete in the World Cup, Olympics, leagues, and I think it’s obvious that we need to be more calm on the ball. It’s a good expression that I learned in the US.
They (female footballers, red.) have no problems with their fitness or attitude, but everyone, except maybe for Marta, needs to learn to be calm on the ball. I believe we can do so much more if we improve on a technical level.
And I think it’s interesting, because back in the good old days, every team tended to be very physical. Especially Sweden, but if you take a look on Latin America today, for example Chile, Costa Rica, and the likes, they really seem to be focused on the more technical aspects. And that is important for the women’s development.
So I also hope that self-training will get more common, so we can improve in that aspect. I also think that the rising popularity of women’s football will lead to more self-training among girls. When you talk with the managers about this, they will also emphasize the importance of self-training, so it might get better soon.
Technique isn’t the only thing you should work on, though. Pia Sundhage has named three things, that can always make you better, regardless of your level:
-If you think it’s fun and are looking toward taking it to the next level, there are three things that you can always improve while playing football
The first is to win. The desire to keep on winning, and you must win – even when you are competing against yourself. That was important to me when I self-trained.
Second, you must feel that you are able to do much more today than you were yesterday. That means, if you make three good free kicks out of ten the first day, you make four good kicks the next day, and five the day after that. That will inspire you to keep on going.
Lastly, I also think that it helps to self-train in the right environment. If you have a place that is easily accessible, that will make you tie your boots and find your zone, then it’s possible to go on and on and on, and you will definitely improve.
And if you’ve got the right place in mind, but is worried about the possibilities of playing football, Pia Sundhage notes the technological advances that have made it possible to use highly portable training equipment such as rebounders that can help you anywhere.
-I am actually happy that there is more gear available today. When I was young, I only had the garage door to play against. But now I actually use some of this training equipment to keep myself fit, since I think running is tiresome.
I like that it’s possible to change the angle (on rebounders), and that the ball will return in many different ways, but also that they will react to the power of your shot. It’s a great advantage. So I’m happy that there’s more stuff out there to inspire and help with self-training.
Pia Sundhage had 146 caps for the Swedish first team and scored 71 goals for her country throughout her career.
How the m-station is Utilized by Denmark’s Leading Football Academy
The m-station is used in the daily training routine of 2014-2015 Danish Superliga football champion FC Midtjylland. We spoke with the club’s ‘goal-box’ coach, Peter Johanesson, regarding the use of the m-station football rebounder at the youth academy and at the Superliga level.
The Jutlandic Heath, a Danish term used to describe a rather desolate landscape in Jutland, is home to FC Midtjylland, one of the leading football clubs in Denmark. In 2015, the club won its first domestic league title, finishing ahead of FC Copenhagen. In the following UEFA Europa League campaign, the club knocked out Premier League club Southampton before beating none other than Manchester United in Herning. None of this resulted from luck or star-player investments; it was the result of young players developed through the youth academy.
IT’S ABOUT OPTIMAL CONDITIONS
FC Midtjylland’s renowned youth academy was formed back in 2004, and since then, multiple players from the academy have made their way to the first team. The sole focus of the academy is to develop and enhance young players’ skills to prepare the players for the first team. We spoke with coach, Peter Johanesson, about how the m-station football rebounder contributes to this goal. Johanesson had this to say:
“To us, it’s about providing the players with optimal equipment. Without the m-station football rebounders, we would not have the right conditions for developing our players the way we want to.”
THE M-STATION FOR THE FIRST TEAM AND THE YOUTH ACADEMY
“Our academy players live right next to the artificial turf, so when they want to train individually they don’t have to go that far. Here, they’ll utilize the m-station rebounder to improve their first touch as well as their turns on their own.”
Johanesson emphasizes that the m-station is an effective device for training without other players or coaches around you. Continuous development is crucial for young players, so it is important that the players have the opportunity to train and improve on their own. The m-station offers young players that opportunity.
“The academy players utilize the m-station for improving on their own. They improve their movements and touches without having coaches next to them all the time. The kids are smart. They know what they have to do to improve.”
Johanesson has successfully used the m-station football rebounder to improve players’ ability to react faster on through-balls that carry great pace and unconventional movement.
“I use [the m-station rebounder] a lot during training sessions with the Superliga first team to help the players improve in 1v1 situations. The m-station can be used to make very specific passes, and we utilize the device to full effect by setting it up with an automatic ball launcher. The combination of those two devices is amazingly educating, because we can challenge the players even more and sharpen their reflexes. With the m-station and the ball launcher, we are able to create exercises suited for players at the on top level.”
According to Johanesson, the m-station has become indispensable to FC Midtjylland’s daily training sessions and concludes:
“Our players have developed immensely during their individual trainings thanks to [the] m-station, and for our part, there is no doubt that we will continue to use the device. We knew we wanted it, because it is simply that good”
If you have any questions about the FC Midtjylland use case or if you want to know how your football club can benefit from training with the m-station, please get directly in touch with our Marketing Manager, Simon Secher, at simon@muninsports.com.
Experience in-game situations with the m-station rebounder
Everyone who has played football knows that there is a major difference between practice and real games. During training and practice, everything is a bit slower, there is less adrenalin running through your body, and you do not commit to tackles as you would in a match. In other words, both your mind and your body are engaged differently.
Famous YouTuber Jorge Perez, the owner of the channel SoccerMachineTV, is known to provide great examples of how to properly do football exercises to improve certain aspects of your game. To Jorge, tools and devices for individual training are very important for those who want to improve continuously, as most players only practice with teams for a couple of hours each week. One of those tools is a football rebounder:
“One of the most valuable tools you can have other than having a soccer ball is a rebounder. It really opens up the possibilities as to what you can do: Receiving the ball and taking that first touch, which is a lot of what soccer is.”
THE REBOUND IS AMAZING! Naturally, since football is the biggest sport in the world, the market for football equipment and football rebounders is very extensive – Jorge knows a great deal about this:
“There are other rebounders in the market but the m-station really stood out to me!”
“The first thing that we have to address is the rebound, the actual bounce of the m-station rebounder. It’s amazing! It’s really something else. I’ve tried different rebounders, but normally when you hit the ball and it comes back it comes back at a slower pace. With the m-station, there’s virtually no loss of force. The pace that you send the ball, that’s how you’re going to get it.”
According to Jorge, with the m-station and the greater rebound pace it provides, practice becomes like a real game, because you are forced to think and react faster. The only way to improve is by continuously challenging yourself, and with its extraordinary rebound pace, the m-station football rebounder makes sure that you do just that.
“With the m-station, the football can come back pretty aggressively, which is actually a really good thing if you’re trying to practice for a game situation, because in a game you are not going to get the ball soft; you’re going to get the ball at a pace and everything moves a lot quicker.”
ADJUSTABLE, MULTIPURPOSE DEVICE
The m-station football rebounder allows you to practice every aspect of your game. Whether you are looking to improve your first touch, shooting, turning, or reflexes, the rebounder can be adjusted to serve your every purpose. This is something that Jorge also noticed when using the m-station:
“When you have a rebounder that’s just stationary, the balls are just going to come back in the same way every single time. You’re going to get used to it and really there is not a lot more you can do. With the m-station, you’ve got that straightforward passer, you can do basic flat passes, and then you can adjust and tilt it in different ways. So you can not only practice flat passes, but you can also do a more slanted one and you can do passing back and forth in the air. I’ve been getting a ton of drill ideas!”
Watch some of SoccerMachine’s m-station drills here:
A UNIQUE TOOL THOSE WHO WANT TO PRACTICE ON THEIR OWN
As an adjustable piece of equipment, the m-station football rebounder can be utilized in almost any scenario during a daily training session. Regardless of the exercise, the device can be used as a replacement for or in conjunction with coaches and other players. As Jorge says, the device is not only suited for training sessions with the team, but it is also a unique tool for those who want to practice on their own for several hours per day to become better football players.
“Overall, the m-station is a great piece of equipment to take your personal training to another level. The m-station is the best training partner and it will be there whenever you need it. The versatility of the rebounder increases the amount of drills you can do by yourself, which I think is valuable for a lot of you out there. It is a very valuable training tool for individuals serious about improving their game.”
A great offense wins games, but a strong defense wins championships. Conceding goals is just as impactful as scoring them, so if you have trouble scoring goals, it is imperative that you do not concede any. For young players, choosing to be a defender may not be as appealing as choosing to be a striker, because those who score goals are the ones most often acknowledged.
However, defenders are just as important as strikers, and being a defender requires even more concentration because every mistake can be especially detrimental to the success of the team. Fans forget the moment a striker misses an open goal, but they remember poor defending because it leads directly to goals.
Take your defending to the next level with these 5 drills for the m-station football rebounder and sign up for NEXT11. Sign up here to unlock new drills on a weekly basis and continuously improve your defending.
1. Headers — Clearing
Being able to clear the ball correctly with a header, especially if you are a center-back, is crucial. First of all, if you mistime your header and only graze the ball with the top of your head, the botched clearance is just as dangerous as the cross itself, and perhaps even more so as there is one less defender to take care of the ball. Secondly, by clearing correctly with a header, you are asserting dominance and the opposing team will be less inclined to try crosses again. This is a way of protecting the keeper, as many goalkeepers prefer shot stopping to dealing with aerial balls.
When performing this drill with the m-station football rebounder, make sure to keep your eyes on the ball and take a slightly offset stance before you jump.
2. Short passes — Interceptions and passing on the first touch
For a modern center-back, football is not just about tackling, heading, and marking. You need to be able to participate in the game even more; having a center-back with great skill on the ball allows greater options for a team during a game. Also, if you can pass both long and short, you reduce your limitations as a player. If the opposing team emphasizes marking your forwards, pass it short. If the opposing team pushes your defensive midfielders or your defenders up, pass it long.
To improve short passing, make sure to look up when you know where you will meet the ball to see where your opponents are. Next, lock your angle and kick the ball with the inside of your foot. For every move you make on the field, it is important to look up in order to give yourself an overview of the field and players’ positions. Do not make assumptions or pass blindly — learn how to look up while playing.
3. Crosses — Shoulder feint and crossing
Defense is not solely about center-backs; fullbacks are just as important, but not only for defensive reasons. In today’s football, it is important to be able to contribute on both ends of the field by dribbling, overlapping, and crossing. Coaches do not want a Gary Neville anymore; they want a Jordi Alba, a Marcelo, or a Dani Alves. Looking at Barcelona, the runs from Dani Alves and Jordi Alba are instrumental parts of the offense, as the players offer width and depth on their respective sides of the field. When Messi has the ball, Alba makes the deep run, and when Neymar has the ball, Dani Alves makes the deep run.
When crossing, as exemplified in this drill, approach the ball at a 45-60 degree angle, raise your arms to the side, and strike the ball with the inside of your foot.
4. Dribbling — Dribbling straight
As a fullback, you will have to create space for your teammates by almost always going wide. By staying wide, regardless of whether you are in possession of the ball or not, you demand attention and therefore stretch the defensive line of the opposing team, which ultimately provides space for your team’s more creative players to operate in. However, if you too are capable of dribbling, you demand even more attention, as the defender cannot stay 1v1 against you. Naturally, if you drag two players towards you, at least one of your teammates will have enough space to do something. As a fullback, you should stay wide in order to not take up space that is already occupied, which is why dribbling straight is important.
Point your toes towards the ground as if to strike the ball using your laces, and make small touches using the laces with the ball in front of you. Frequent small touches give you better control as you run.
5. Long passes — Switching the play
As mentioned earlier, a center-back’s participation in the build-up of a play is essential to a team’s success in many tactical systems. Most teams prefer to build up gradually from the defense rather than send long balls for tall strikers, as most strikers at top-level play are all about movement off the ball, first touches, and finishing. However, on occasion you might want to play a long ball to the wing or the forward, and as a center-back, you have to be prepared for this. Stay clear of a marking and run into a position where you can receive the ball to take pressure off your teammates. Playing a long ball does not necessarily have to be an act of panic.
Before you receive the ball, look up to understand the movement on the field. Approach the ball at a 45-degree angle, lean your body a bit away from the ball to create a straight line from your foot up through your hip and shoulder, place your standing foot 10-20 cm away from the ball (depending on your height), and point it in the direction of the pass.
Become A Better Midfielder With Just A Few m-station Drills
The midfield is what connects the offense and the defense. As a midfielder, you have to be able to attack, defend, and do everything in between. However, there are many different midfield roles, each with certain responsibilities depending on your team’s tactical setup. As a defensive midfielder, your main job is to prevent goals from being scored against your team, and as an attacking midfielder, your main job is to make sure that your team scores enough goals to eventually win the game. As a central midfielder, you have to do both of the above while staying focused for the entire 90 minutes of the game.
Here we present 5 drills that will help you improve your game using the m-station football rebounder. If you feel like taking your skills to the next level the NEXT11 training program teaches you how to become a better midfielder regardless of whether your job is to defend, attack, or do both. Sign up here to receive new drills every week to become a better midfielder.
1. Short Passes — Interception and Passing on the First Touch
As a defensive midfielder, your job is to maintain balance when your team is dispossessed. Fall back, position yourself correctly, and identify passing opportunities. Tackling, marking, and a great understanding of the game are essential to a strong defensive midfielder. As a midfielder, you will also be in control of the ball after intercepting it or receiving a short pass. Unless you are the Busquets / Xabi Alonso kind of defensive midfielder, you should execute a short, simple pass once you gain possession of the ball, thereby providing a stable environment in which the more creative players can thrive. N’Golo Kanté was a major factor on the Leicester team that brought home the 2015/2016 Premier League title. Many of his timely interceptions led to quick goals on the other end of the field.
With this drill, you have to look up to see where your teammates and opponents are, lock your angle on the player you want to pass to, and kick the ball with the inside of your foot.
2. First Touch — The Xavi Edition
Xavi is indisputably one of the greatest midfielders of all time. He is not a classic defensive midfielder like Daniele De Rossi or Sami Khedira, but he takes a relatively defensive stance on the field. In most cases, he is the first person to receive the ball from the defensive line. However, even in this deep position, some technical skills on the ball are required. The way Xavi controls the ball is unique, and to pay tribute to what he offers on the pitch, this drill is named after him.
When playing the ball off the m-station rebounder, make sure to dribble with the outside of your foot to keep your body between your opponent and the ball. Make your turn away from your opponent, and use your arm to protect your personal space and maintain balance to protect the ball from your opponent.
3. First Touch — The Fabregas Edition
Being able to make a good first touch on the ball is extremely important for a central or slightly attacking midfielder. There are different ways of controlling the ball, and we already introduced the Xavi edition. We now discuss a maneuver from another product of La Masia: Cesc Fabregas. At the age of 21, the Spanish midfielder became the captain of a promising Arsenal side, and he participated in both Arsenal’s incredible 2003-04 season and the 2006 Champions League final against Barcelona. Fabregas has always been renowned for having an exquisite and stylish first touch, which is why this drill is dedicated to him and his technical ability.
To execute a proper Fabregas Turn, stretch out your foot to meet the ball, and use your foot to guide the ball past you and in the new direction. Make sure to keep contact between the ball and your foot throughout the turn. The fewer touches you make, the better control you achieve.
4. Long Passes — Diagonal Pass
There are, as mentioned earlier, different types of midfielders, but even those specific types of midfielders have subcategories, like the central holding midfielder. There is the Daniele De Rossi, type of central holding midfielder, and there is the Xabi Alonso type. As the Xabi Alonso type of holding midfielder, you are partly a playmaker. Your job is to set up your teammates by delivering accurate long balls as well as short passes. Xabi Alonso is particularly well known for his extremely precise diagonal passes, which tear up defenses in an unparalleled fashion and contribute to his status as one of the most decorated players of all time.
When executing a long diagonal pass, you will usually be positioned on your own side of the pitch. The longer the pass, the more movement you force out of the opposing team. Before you hit the ball, approach it at a 45-degree angle. Lean your body a bit away from the ball to create a straight line from your foot up through your hip and shoulder. Place your standing foot 10-20 cm away from the ball (depending on your height) and point it in the direction of the pass.
5. Basic Football Skills — Fast Feet
Having fast feet and quick reactions is important for any type of football player, but being able to think quickly and react accordingly with the ball is especially crucial for wingers and attacking midfielders. Technical ability is one thing, but if you do not have strong reaction time, technical skills will not help you much. Beating your marker is easy without a ball if you are simply faster than your opponent, but beating him with the ball at your feet is a greater challenge. It requires pace, agility, balance, technical ability, and determination, and this set of skills can be enhanced with a specific drill focusing on your reflexes and rapid turns with the ball.
To improve your foot speed and develop stronger reflexes, stand on stand on the balls of your feet. Bend your knees, keep your arms in a natural running position, and pull your right arm forward when you tap the ball with your left foot.
Marcus Allbäck is one of the most skilled Swedish forwards of all time. For many years, Allbäck played at a very high level in some of Europe’s biggest leagues, and he participated in several tournaments. Self-training is one of the reasons he was so successful. Now he’s sharing his experiences with us.
Sweden has delivered heaps of world-class forwards over the years. The next big star could be AIK Stockholm’s 17 year old Alexander Isak but for now it’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic who makes the headlines. The Swedish superstar’s name is almost synonymous with Swedish football itself, but there was also a time before him. Back then it was Henrik “Henke” Larsson who scored goals in large numbers, first for Celtic, then with FC Barcelona. But there’s a Swede who has represented Sweden in more countries than Larsson has, and who put Swedish football on the world map, and that’s the now retired Marcus Allbäck.
The former Swedish national team player represented Sweden in his final international tournament in 2008, when he traveled to the Euros in Austria and Switzerland with his team. His career was coming to an end, but oh, what a career he had. It didn’t take him to Barcelona, like Henke’s, or Juventus, Manchester United, or PSG, as is the case with Zlatan’s career, but it gave him a chance to prove Sweden’s capability for producing efficient sharpshooters.
With two stints in Danish football, one in the Netherlands, one in Germany, one in England and one in Italy, the now 43-year-old Swede is a well-traveled man. At Örgryte IS (in Sweden) he got his early schooling, and at the Dutch SC Heerenveen and the Danish FC Copenhagen Allbäckdeveloped his talent to the fullest. He scored countless goals, but if not for the self-training in addition to his club practices, he probably wouldn’t have done so. The Swede is therefore certain that self-training is a necessity if you want to make it to the top in football.
–Self-training, in my view, is an incredibly important part of success. I don’t think anyone has made it to a high level without self-training, he explains without specifying how much effort you should put into it; that depends on oneself and one’s level of ambition.
It’s important to find a good balance. For example, if one has many practices with the club, it’s also important to rest and give the body a break. I recommend doing self-training after normal training, and also once in a while on days when you don’t have club practice. I think it’s important to train both what you’re already good at and the techniques you need to improve.
To me, self-training is something you start at a young age and continue doing throughout your career. The exercises and situations will change with time, but it’s all about what you want to be able to do with a football. You get to decide how much you want to train and how good you want to become. There are no shortcuts. It’s hard work.
No matter where you live, you can make use of a training tool, such as the m-station football rebounder from Munin Sports. And the m-station is a training tool the Swede is quite enthusiastic about.
I own an m-station, but it’s mostly my son, Rasmus, who uses it. Sometimes we use it together, and we’ll try to hit it with a good strike so we can volley the ball towards the goal. It’s very obvious to me that Rasmus is getting better.
I would recommend the m-station. It’s really top notch.
“m-station-time” with Marcus Allbäck and his son!
Train with matches in mind and with teammates
The seasoned Swede would often train game-specific moves, and not only as a young player; he did so all the way through his 21-year career.
–I was a forward, and I wanted to prepare for situations that I felt would emerge in matches. For example, I practiced volleys all the time, and with both feet, not so far from the goal—quite close, actually. I just focused on kicking the ball perfectly with the left and right foot.
To get more out of self-training, it’s a good idea to include teammates. That’s what the Swede did in the Netherlands, where he played for SC Heerenveen.
-I have an example from my time in the Netherlands: We had a Finnish national team player, Mika Nurmela. He played on the right wing, and he would make some fantastic crosses, so after training the two of us and a goalkeeper would stay on the field and practice attacks.
I would make a pass to Mika from outside the box, Mika would run to the sideline and make a cross that I would try to score off of, and the keeper would try to protect the goal, which of course was very difficult since I was the one shooting towards goal, Allbäck says with a grin, and goes on: But in that way, all three of us got some practice.
Self-training with teammates paid off for Allbäck. He scored 25 goals over two seasons, and with an average of about one goal for every two matches, he secured a move to Aston Villa in the English Premier League. With enough practice and hard work, you can also find great success; all you have to do is get down to it and take the initiative to self-train. One way to get started is to talk about self-training with someone on your team.
–Talk to a teammate and try to find an exercise that both of you think is fun. Or talk to an assistant coach or another leader on the team and find out if they might be able to help you out.
You must figure out on your own how to effectively self-train and perform exercises—it all depends on how good you want to be. You can find so much inspiration on the Internet today. The most important thing is that you find something that interests you, and that you feel will make you a better football player.
Marcus Allbäck represented Sweden for 9 years. In those years he had 74 national team appearances and scored 30 goals for the national team. Since then, he has been an assistant coach for the Swedish national team. In 2007, he scored 11 Superliga goals for FC Copenhagen in a golden season for the Danish club. He helped his team secure “The Double” and find great success in Europe, where they beat Manchester United 1-0 in a tough match in Parken Stadium—a match in which Allbäck scored the winning goal.
Learn How To Become A Better Striker with the m-station
Football is about scoring more goals than the team you are facing. If your team has trouble scoring goals, you will probably not make it far in the tournament. Strikers are usually the ones deciding the outcome of the game, which is why most of the greatest players of all time are strikers, wingers or attacking midfielders. This is also why the most expensive players of all time belong to at least one of these positions. As a striker, you are in many cases the star of the team, and people will wear your name on the back of their jersey.
It takes confidence, technical ability, and determination to score goals, and the satisfaction from scoring a match-winning goal is unparalleled. The m-station football rebounder allows you to improve every aspect of your game. Here, we present a 5 striker drills as examples of how you can improve using the m-station. You can also sign up for the NEXT11 training program to receive new training drills each week. With just a few clicks, you can become a better striker. Sign up here to start scoring more goals.
1. FINISHING — FIRST TOUCH AND FINISHING Most strikers in modern football are all about movement, technical ability, and finishing. Luis Suarez is a prime example of which qualities a striker should possess: pace, off the ball movement, exquisite finishing, and confidence. Most top strikers in today’s football are technically gifted players, because the idea of a target man in the box has faded in recent years. As a technically gifted forward, you should be able to receive the ball and finish immediately. For attacking players, the first touch is everything. If you fail your first touch, the attack slows down significantly and your chances of scoring are severely reduced. It takes determination and confidence to translate a first touch into a finish, but once you are able to do this, you are much scarier to face for a defender.
First, swing your kicking foot past your standing foot. Hit the side of the ball with the inside of your foot. Finish by bending a bit at your hip and swinging your kicking foot through the ball.
2. DRIBBLING — LAUDRUP FEINT To be a striker in the style of Suarez, Agüero, Messi, and Ronaldo, you must be able to dribble. If you are able to drag two or more players towards you, you are creating an immense amount of space for your teammates on the pitch. In fact, dribbling is more about proposing a threat than it is about actually dribbling past the defender, because once the defender realizes he needs backup against you, you won the war by requiring an unusual amount of attention from the defending side. Michael Laudrup is one of the most technically gifted players of all time, and he was in many ways an inventor on the pitch. As one of the most elegant players on the pitch of his generation, Laudrup has a legacy that still affects modern football today.
To perform the Laudrup feint, take a wide stance. Drag the ball sideways; do not kick it. Finish by playing the ball forward with the inside of your foot.
3. FINISHING — FINISHING WITH VOLLEY The year is 2002, and the stage for a Champions League final is set in Glasgow, Scotland. Roberto Carlos receives the ball on the flank, he hits it high, and the attack seems to have stagnated. However, in the box, a certain Frenchman named Zinedine Zidane times his volley perfectly and smashes the ball into the back of the net. To this day, that goal is one of the most iconic goals in modern football, and it defines one of the best midfielders of all time. Hitting the perfect volley is extremely difficult, and even for the best players in the world, hitting it like Zidane did is something that happens once in one-hundred attempts. Naturally, it takes skill, but it also requires a certain amount of luck.
To give yourself the best chance of hitting the perfect volley, your standing leg should be pointed at the goal. Keep your arms to your sides to stay balanced, and point your toes at the ground. Hit the top half of the ball to keep it down. 4. DRIBBLING — FAKE SHOT, CUT 180 Faking a shot is not what most people think of when discussing dribbling, but it is at least as efficient as dribbling, if not more so. To most people, dribbling requires strong control, pace, and technical ability, but by faking your shot, all you need is a superior mind. When faking a shot, you have to understand and anticipate the movement from the defenders. In other words, you have to understand what they expect you to do and react accordingly by doing something else. This takes some quick thinking, but if you pretend that you are about to shoot, the defender will react as if you are about to shoot. Instead of actually shooting, you fake the shot and turn the other direction to make the change even greater.
Initiate the drill by lifting your arm. Pull back your striking foot and swing it towards the ball. Stop the swing right before you hit the ball. Make your next move quickly and accelerate with the ball.
5. FIRST TOUCH — CHEST CONTROL AND FINISHING First touches and technical ability are not all about good footwork. At some point in a game, you will receive the ball in a position where you cannot use your legs or feet to control the ball. Aerial balls are inevitable in a game of football, and chest control is the best way to deal with aerial balls and avoid heading the ball uncontrollably. Players like Lewandowski and Robin van Persie are extremely good at receiving the ball at chest height with their backs turned away from the goal of the opposing team. At the 2014 World Cup, James Rodriguez scored the goal of the tournament by making a directional first touch with his chest and laying the ball off to his left foot.
To do it like James, look over your shoulder before you receive the ball. To maximize ball speed, make sure it is your chest that hits the ball, and not the ball that hits your chest.
If you have any questions about the m-station or these drills, please do not hesitate to get directly in touch with our coaches at coach@muninsports.com.
m-station used by Real Madrid stars
We are proud to announce that one of the top football websites in the United States, TopDrawerSoccer.com, has published an article about how Cristiano Ronaldo uses the m-station football rebounder to perfect his skills. Check out Cristiano Ronaldo and Isco using the m-station here
With 16 goals in Champions League 15/16, Cristiano Ronaldo once again made it clear that he is made of something very special. The Portuguese winger has now scored a stunning 545 goals in his career and he has been among the best players in the world in almost a decade.
One of the secrets to his success is his relentless training discipline. No other footballer can claim to have worked as hard and focused at the training ground where Ronaldo has brought his physical and technical skill to perfection. As his former coach in Manchester United, Sir Alex Fergusson said to UEFA in 2009:
-There are some players, such as Kaká, Messi and Ronaldo who are innately gifted. But this is not enough, and there is a practice element which becomes very important. If you watch Cristiano Ronaldo, he practices after every squad training session, and quite a few others do the same.
As a coach, we dedicate parts of the training to improving touch, movement, passing and speed of play, but the special quality, the detail, depends on the player being willing to sacrifice himself after training – this is a hallmark of the great players. If the big talents only rely on their natural ability, they won’t have that extra edge. They must do something extra on their own.
One of the things that set Cristiano Ronaldo apart is his amazing ball control, and as the picture in this article shows, he and his teammates in Real Madrid practice with the m-station from Munin Sports that has become the number one rebounder choice for the best soccer clubs in the world. It is also found at Champions League clubs like Arsenal, Bayern Munich, Dortmund, Ajax, Benfica, Manchester United and Chelsea and it is the first rebounder in the world that create passes at such a high quality that it has been adopted at such a broad scale at the top level of international soccer.
And something indicates that Cristiano Ronaldo’s use of the training tool started at Manchester United where his former skill coach, the dutch technique specialist Rene Meulensteen who served 6 years under Ferguson, used it a lot.
-The m-station is a fantastic training aid which I use often during my training sessions with young and top professional players. It improves touch, control, accuracy and agility. It is repetitive, challenging as well as enjoyable and can be used in a variety of training settings, says Rene Meulensteen about the m-station.
A recent study from the Swedish Football Federation show that Meulensteen, Ronaldo and all the other players who use the m-station isn’t just doing it for the fun of it. After practicing with the m-station in four weeks students from the Swedish FA´s elite high school improved their ability to control the ball with their weak leg with more than 41%.
NikeTown: the Unique Football Experience with m-station
Nike is a giant in the world of sports equipment. The iconic “Swoosh” logo has become a symbol of great quality and stylish design. Nike has stores all over the world, some of which are NikeTown stores.
In NikeTown, Nike offers customers a unique way to try out equipment. Instead of customers trying on products and simply walking around the store, NikeTown has coaches available to help customers experience a realistic football setting with training drills and more. The goal for Nike is to create the ultimate football retail experience, and that’s just what they’ve accomplished. Nike is really taking the customer training experience to the next level; you have to experience it to fully realize how unique it is.
A NikeTown store in London has chosen to use the m-station football rebounder by Munin Sports to enhance its customers’ football retail experience. The store has designed its customers’ method of testing football boots around the m-station, as the quality of the m-station is just what Nike is looking for to improve the customer training experience even more.
This means that each day more than 50 customers try out their new boots with the m-station. Nike has gotten great responses from customers regarding the m-station football rebounder. Specifically, customers have emphasized the incredibly realistic touch and feel when kicking or receiving the ball from the m-station. We are currently working on adding a digital layer to the experience in order for the coaches to give feedback to the customers.
For us to be collaborating with one of the world’s biggest suppliers of sports equipment and apparel is a testament to how far Munin Sports has come, and it’s something we’re very proud of. We’re currently working on expanding our collaboration with Nike, and we already have some new projects with them in the pipeline. We’re very excited to share details with you, and we’ll certainly do so when the time comes.
Find more info on the m-station football rebounder here.
If you have any questions about the NikeTown case please get directly in touch with our Marketing Manager, Simon Secher, on simon@muninsports.com.
