As a professional football (soccer) player, I wound up living with the family of a senior member of FIFA's technical study group, where I was introduced to high-level match-analysis. I had rare access to extensive volumes of statistical data collected, organized, and maintained by the organization. These were the private archives accounting for what went on in FIFA-sanctioned international football match, over decades. There were so many metrics, ratios, and diagrams seemingly expressing all that took place on the field. An intricate statistical breakdown was included for  every competition, team, and player. Questions abound, and answers were found.

As intricate as the data, however, many one burning questions was left unanswered. The archives accounted for what went on in a match — goals, shots, passes, touches, steps, etc. The archives even accounted for whether or not each attempt of what went on was successful, so success rates and efficiency ratios could be known. Some player attempted some pass. It was successfully completed. It traveled from here to here. It was easy to see why the stars were the stars. Their ratios and success rates were much higher. But for all the experience and mastery on the field, there must be a reason why certain players were significantly more successful at doing things that come simply to all players at that level. Nowhere in the books did it mention of how this happened. Unsatisfied, my effort began to dig a little deeper.

The ensuing was a rigorous process (if not, a tad obsessive). A relentless investigator, following visceral and heuristic leads from my own experience and mastery of on-field circumstances, I had no certain objective but to exactly realize the how. Without imposition of rules or hypothesis, the search simply continued.

Key factors were uncovered with the help of a unique study setting — an ideal lab for perpetual observation, testing, survey, and development. Methods were developed for assessing suggested factors, of how the what occurs, to more-or-less likelihood. Application of these methods in observation began pointing to recurrent behavioral tendencies in individuals, groups, and cultures. With deep understanding of the circumstances of the environment, with access to so many participants in the lab, and with the ability to engage, interact, and play with each one, strong suggestions emerged. The productive and destructive tendencies inherent in perspectives, thoughts, option-identification, decision, action, and movement were well understood.

Realizations abound. Diagnoses emerge. I had not expected the work to come to this. It was exciting and complex, but very compelling. Prescriptive approaches became apparent, suggesting themselves. I began to construct and play with possibilities.

Over ten years, a new system-of-play has been developed for approaching and playing the game. It works like nothing I could have imagined. Testing and refining the concepts with teams of all ages and levels, has formed a gradual curriculum. Teachable principles and concepts have been organized into a comprehensive methodology.  Consistently, drastically, and quickly, its implementation has seen the correction of performance dilemmas inherent in individuals, groups, teams, and cultures, in the way behavioral tendencies were previously detrimental to, or deviating from, a performance closer to optimal.

Tactical and technical aspects of the curriculum are now understood in clinical terms, grounded in contemporary psychological and social behavioral theory. With little more than my own agency, necessarily, to assimilate and express what has emerged, a solution has self-organized for problem-identification, diagnostic, and prescriptive suggestion in the context of soccer. A comprehensive and cohesive system results, which is practically and critically useful, with players, teams, and cultures of beginner-to-professional levels of play.

Extracting the principle concepts, or stripping away the soccer-specific context, interdisciplinary significance has been realized. Insights are revealed about about individual, group, and cultural tendencies in other social-systemic contexts. Further, along these lines, observation has followed and theory resulted in decision, action, outcome, formation, and dilemma in many types of systems. This has included studies of economies, markets, corporations, organizations, education, relational behavior, psychoanalysis, biology, physics, sensory-perception, arts and even movements and constructs in religious and spiritual systems. Applications to epidemic social issues are especially interesting to consider, moving in ways abiding by the same governing principles on the football (soccer) pitch.

In all systems, movements and the manifestation of unique outcomes — the observable what  — occurs similarly. With respect to basic theoretical principles of motion, specific context is all-but-irrelevant. New theory has followed, as a principle method of approaching various, if not infinite, systemic circumstances. Application of this methodology may have utility, well beyond detecting and alleviating the sticking point in football (soccer) players, teams, and cultures.

I am excited to continue this work, with teams and in a new environment of academic research, peer review, and application.