Progressão

#176 Too much technique? Generic forcing in football

What happens when players become highly technical, but less effective in the game? In this episode of the Progressão podcast, we introduce generic forcing, a concept we developed to describe behaviour where players try to impose rehearsed technical solutions onto the game, instead of adapting their behaviour to what the situation actually offers. We explore how generic forcing emerges when technique is learned and practiced without sufficient connection to real game information. We draw parallels from jazz improvisation, where copying and forcing learned patterns can break the flow of music, and connect this to football training environments that emphasise repetition over adaptation. We also discuss observations from elite youth development, including recent changes at one of Sweden’s most successful ice hockey academies, where players had become technically sharper but less adaptable in the game itself. Through examples ranging from street football to elite-level players, we argue that technique is not the problem. The problem arises when players lose their connection to the game environment. This episode invites coaches, players, and educators to reflect on a fundamental question: Are we training players to repeat solutions, or to find them? Progressão is a book, a podcast, and a long-term thinking project focused on football, learning, and human behaviour from a complex, holistic, and ecological perspective. 🌍 More at progressao.fi 🐦📸 Follow us on X and Instagram: @progressaofi

#175 Skill in football: a player- and group-level phenomenon

In this episode of the Progressão podcast, we continue our discussion on skill in football. While skill is often understood as an individual quality — something that belongs to a single player — this episode explores skill from a wider perspective: as a phenomenon that also emerges at the level of groups and teams. We ask why it is important to talk about group-level skill. When skill is understood narrowly as individual technical ability, group-level behaviour is often reduced to tactics and pushed to later stages of development. In the previous episode, we discussed Arsène Wenger’s well-known house metaphor, where technique forms the foundation and tactical skills are learned later. This way of thinking can delay the learning of essential football skills related to coordination, cooperation, and acting together. In this episode, we explore skill as something that does not exist only in individual actions, but also in how players coordinate, adapt, and act together. Drawing on ideas from ecological dynamics and complexity, we discuss key concepts of group-level skill such as collective action, coordination, synchronisation, and synergies. We also return to the player level, reframing individual skill not as isolated action, but as co-action — skillful behaviour that is always relational, whether with or without the ball. Off-ball actions are discussed as fundamental football skills that should be developed early, alongside on-ball actions. This episode continues the reframing of skill introduced in our first English episode and connects directly to ideas presented in our upcoming book, including a visual figure that illustrates skill as something that lives in the overlap between player and group. Progressão is a book, a podcast, and a long-term thinking project focused on football, learning, and human behaviour from a complex, holistic, and ecological perspective. 🌍 More at progressao.fi 🐦📸 Follow us on X and Instagram: @progressaofi

#174 Progressão goes all English: skill in football

Progressão is now in English. This episode marks the beginning of a new chapter for the Progressão podcast. Until now, most of our episodes have been in Finnish. Our book, Progressão – How We Have Misunderstood Football, has been published in Finland and Estonia, receiving very positive and thoughtful reviews in both countries. The book is currently being translated into English, and as part of that process, the Progressão podcast is now fully in English. Progressão is a book, a podcast, and a long-term thinking project focused on football, learning, and skilful human behaviour. Our work approaches football from a complex, holistic, and ecological perspective, where players and all football actors are understood as living beings always in correspondence with their environment. In this first English-language episode, we turn to a fundamental and often-debated topic: skill in football. We discuss how skill is commonly understood, why traditional views can be limiting, and how skill can be seen as an embodied, relational phenomenon that emerges in the game itself. Listeners familiar with our earlier Discussão Mundo episodes may recognise some of the themes. Those episodes include conversations with Niklas Moisander (Episode 102), Duarte Araújo (Episode 75), and Jamie Hamilton (Episode 164). This episode serves as an introduction to our English-speaking journey and sets the foundation for future discussions on learning, training, and coaching in football. More information:  www.progressao.fi X: @progressaofi IG: @progressaofi

#173 DISCUSSÃO: Jalmari Nummiluikki

Me emme vielä tiedä, mihin kaikkeen keho kykenee. Tiedämme yhä enemmän, yhä vähemmästä. Mitä jalkapallopeli on ja mitä se voi olla, merkitä, avata tai synnyttää? Kelle peli kuuluu? Kuka sitä pelaa? Mitä on ihmisyys? Tämä on Discussão. Kun joulukuu saapuu, me hiljennymme, mutta ennen sitä avaamme ehkä koko vuoden vaativimman keskustelun. Sisällöltään tihein. Rikkain. Haastavin. Vieraamme Jalmari Nummiluikki haastaa ajattelusi kulkua, kuten Béla Tarrin Sátántangó (7h 15min), joka saa katsojan elämään ajan eri tavalla. Tässä jaksossa emme etsi vastauksia. Emme rakenna teoriaa. Emme perusta mitään valmiille. Me avaamme polun, jota ei ollut ennen tätä hetkeä. Polun, joka syntyy vain liikkeessä. Polun, joka ei kysy lupaa, ei tavoitetta, ei valmista muotoa. Jos etsit timantteja, tämä jakso sisältää niitä. Mutta ne eivät loista omassa valossaan. Ne täytyy etsiä, ja ehkä vasta myöhemmin huomata. Tervetuloa vuoden viimeiseen Progressãoon.

#172 Puolustaminen Veikkausliigassa

Tervetuloa Progressãoon. Kylillä liikkuu huhu, että Veikkausliigassa puolustetaan huonosti. Onko se totta? Tässä jaksossa pohdimme, millaista puolustaminen Veikkausliigassa on eri näkökulmista tarkasteltuna: * ajatusmaailma ja filosofia puolustamisen takana * prässin jälkeinen vetäytyminen ja jahtaaminen * matala blokki ja boksin puolustaminen * valmentajaprofiilit