The Doctor’s Chair: The blanket defence is a psychological and tactical weapon

Puke football

But only when it suits certain commentators to say so. What about the positive benefits to so called 'blanket defences'. Our sports psychology consultant Emmett Hughes takes a look at how teams not only use the defensive style to win games but to get inside the minds of their opponents. ___________________________________________________________________

Some football styles fit the mentality of some teams and players more than others. Kerry football fans would often be heard to say that they would hate to see a full-on 'blanket style' game being pursued by the county team. Yet something very close to it did win them an All-Ireland last year, and there was very few complaints as they embraced a more defensive style to tackle Donegal. I think it's funny when people look at a blanket defence and see it just as a negative, but fail to see the discipline and work as well as preparation that goes into the level of concentration required to make it work successfully. Even teams that play an open style of football require huge mental preparation in how resilient they are and the fitness required to implement it correctly. Whatever style of football that a team pursues means the team has to be mentally prepared to put their body through the training required to get to that level. From a psychological point of view the blanket defence exemplifies so many strong psychological traits that every manager in the world, in whatever sport, would love to see from their team. Resilience, discipline, in some cases bravery and confidence are all things you want to see in any team, in any sport, and that you associate with the very best players. For a manager or coach it is key that they can identify the key traits that they want to see in their team, and emphasise these every time his side take the field Because the blanket defence is relatively new I think it's fair to say that it is being used not only as a tactical but also psychological weapon. Right now it is very prescriptive and it is one that aligns itself to traits that you associate with mental toughness and that's why is is very popular at the moment. The blanket defence preys on teams getting frustrated by facing a wall of men every time they get the ball, or not being able to create opportunities to score points. It then works doubly as along with the frustration of not being able to score yourself, your opponent breaks your own defence down to score almost whenever they want. If you know you're playing a blanket defence then frustration should already be built into the approach to the game and what will happen out on the pitch. You may need certain techniques to deal with it to keep players in the game and so players can keep focused but they need to be quick. You can't exactly get a flipchart out on the sideline if your wing-forward has forgotten what he needs to do to cope with being double or triple-marked. Different people respond to different things such as just taking a second to breathe, while for others it may be 'self-talk' or trigger words written down somewhere or maybe a message on a wristband. This is all pre-rehearsed and in built into the preparation. It has to be done regularly and needs to be built into the training so it has an effect in a game. If it's not done in training then when you're in an Ulster semi final and under pressure then you're less likely to know how to cope. Clones is not somewhere that you don't want to know how to cope with.

It is clever play by any manager to go out and say to his players that our aim today is to frustrate our opponents so much that they  lose the run of themselves and aren't able to cope, not only what we do on the pitch, but that we affect their mentality in a game. There is something that can bring a team together by achieving a level of frustration in your opponent and that means you have a better chance of winning. That can be a goal to get so close to them for the entire 70 minutes that you see the frustration in their play and see players 'lose their cool'. There can be an almost perverse sense of satisfaction from watching a team almost disintegrate due to their annoyance and inability to cope with your style of play as a manager. The key thing is to have the players also aligned with that goal too.

You can contact Emmett here