Being good in the air: Nature or nuture?

[thepolice123]

Was watching the CL semis and the commentator was bigging up Marquinhos at every set-piece opportunity like he's going to score. To be honest, I was genuinely surprised to see how much of a threat this guy is in the air. It felt like he's 2m tall and at the end of every high ball. Took a quick google and saw that he's only 1.83m. By comparison, Wan Bissaka is also 1.83m but extremely poor in the air. Shaw is 1.85m and Lindelof is 1.87m, both aren't very good either. Maguire is 1.94m, he is strong at defensive headers yet poor when it comes to directing them at goal. Varane is 1.91m and I don't think many would say he's better than Ramos who is 1.84m.

I can imagine some players have the physical gifts like a high leap and neck muscles to power a header but how hard is it to work on these two aspects in the training ground? I don't think it harder to work on compared to ball striking surely?

 

[RooneyLegend]

It's nurture in terms of timing but nature in terms of the physical traits to be dominant in the air. Marquinhos who you use as an example is a freak athlete, he can properly jump out of the gym. T.silva was the same in his physical prime. But obviously they've worked hard at the timing aspect of it.

I recall Wayne barely scoring a header for many years and then came back and suddenly he was knocking em in for fun. Rumor had it he had spent the off-season working on it as he'd been alerted that he was going to play as a 9 going into the 09/10.

Another fun one is when Cristiano was told if he could score headers he'd score 5 to 10 more goals a season and off he went and started working on it. But we all know the natural physical traits he has, marry that with hard work and it's a done deal.

 

[Cheimoon]

Apart from technique and physicality, I think there's a lot of awareness/positioning to it. For example, Frank de Boer was great at heading, and he measures only 1.81m. No idea how he was at jumping though; but I remember him as just having a knack for showing up at the right spot in the box for his headers.

 

[Borussia Teeth]

It can be worked on, definitely. The previous poster alluded to Rooney's airial improvement but let's not forget about Evra's set peice dominance in his later years.
Rashford, Greenwood, Bailly and Lindeloff should all be busy practicing.

 

[Deery]

Never was good at heading a ball towards goal, until I read a magazine and diving headers were in it, said to aim your shoulders as well as your head tried it with normal headers worked a treat.

Just a little tip..

 

[Massive Spanner]

well I nuture'd my dog and it didn't help.

 

[DWelbz19]

Having a good leap + timing/positioning. Falcao was one of the best no.9’s in the air in his peak and he’s 5’9. Icardi is/was very good in the air and he’s 5’11.

 

[ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg]

Will be interesting in 20 years when heading is outlawed in training. We may well see a big differential in those who are good, and those who are bad at heading the ball.

 

[Deery]

well I nuture'd my dog and it didn't help.

Could it jump higher?

 

[Gio]

It's nurture in terms of timing but nature in terms of the physical traits to be dominant in the air. Marquinhos who you use as an example is a freak athlete, he can properly jump out of the gym. T.silva was the same in his physical prime. But obviously they've worked hard at the timing aspect of it.

Well summarised.

Apart from technique and physicality, I think there's a lot of awareness/positioning to it. For example, Frank de Boer was great at heading, and he measures only 1.81m. No idea how he was at jumping though; but I remember him as just having a knack for showing up at the right spot in the box for his headers.

Aye, good as he was with his head, I don't think De Boer had a great leap compared to some. I think both of the De Boer brothers were impressive distance runners in their youth, which suggests they were more slow-twitch and not blessed with the explosive fast-twitch fibres that mark the great sprinters and jumpers.

 

[VorZakone]

As usual with many things, there is an element of nurture to an extent. Training, training, and training can definitely make you better at a certain skill.

But nature is nature. Some people are just better at a particular skill than others.

 

[Pavl3n]

Was watching the CL semis and the commentator was bigging up Marquinhos at every set-piece opportunity like he's going to score. To be honest, I was genuinely surprised to see how much of a threat this guy is in the air. It felt like he's 2m tall and at the end of every high ball. Took a quick google and saw that he's only 1.83m. By comparison, Wan Bissaka is also 1.83m but extremely poor in the air. Shaw is 1.85m and Lindelof is 1.87m, both aren't very good either. Maguire is 1.94m, he is strong at defensive headers yet poor when it comes to directing them at goal. Varane is 1.91m and I don't think many would say he's better than Ramos who is 1.84m.

I can imagine some players have the physical gifts like a high leap and neck muscles to power a header but how hard is it to work on these two aspects in the training ground? I don't think it harder to work on compared to ball striking surely?

That can't be!
I know, I googled it and it says he's 1.85, but I don't believe this for a moment.

 

[Dominos]

That can't be!
I know, I googled it and it says he's 1.85, but I don't believe this for a moment.

Google heights are quite often suspect to me.

There's no way Shaw is 6ft 1. Likewise Wan Bisakka being 6ft doesn't seem right.

Google has Shaw being 5cm taller than Phil Jones And yet..

Spoiler

 

[Pexbo]

Tim Cahill should at least be mentioned in this thread

 

[SadlerMUFC]

I played with a guy who is 5'6 and scored more headed goals than anyone on our team. Tim Cahill used to score headers for fun. Some players are just so good off the ball and good at directing headers. Then of course there's the freaks of nature like CR7 who will just jump over their defender to win a ball

 

[calodo2003]

Mostly nature, but helped by nurture.

 

[Bastian]

Marquinhos is excellent. But if John Terry can cultivate his left foot, you should really be able to develop most areas of your game.

 

[Eriku]

Fabio Cannavaro at 175 cm was ridiculously good at timing his leaps. If I had to choose I’d go for technique and timing over physical attributes.

 

[Raees]

Mentality plays a huge role as well. This needs to be nurtured as early as possible ie lack of fear when going in for the header. The more fearless the player, the more likely they are to be effective in the air as they won’t flinch when competing for the ball knowing they might collide heads or get elbowed. This will enhance their timing and accuracy as they can focus on the ball no matter what.

I managed to improve my heading in my mid 20s but it’s still the weakest part of my game so I’d say whilst you can nurture it somewhat at any stage like Rooney did, the earlier it is already part of your game the better and of course it does help if you’re blessed physically but IMO it’s not the be all and end all as guys like Baresi have proved.

 

[paraguayo]

I assume its a lot like rebounding in basketball. A lot of the best rebounders in history were not that tall, but very aggressive, explosive etc

 

[Bekkalokk]

I played football at a reasonable youth-level in Norway, and I was the top-scorer for our second team the season I got rid of my hair. Being 16/17, I felt kind of "tough" with my new appearance and that season I ended up scoring about 10 headed goals out of a total of 30. I think it has a lot to do with mentality.

 

[Pow]

Didn't Ronaldo always have a good header in him even when younger

 

[Bertie Wooster]

As others have said, it's nature in terms of your height and / or having a good spring. But it's nurture as regards learning to read the flight of the ball, time your jump, and the accuracy of the headers, etc.

I've long considered this as regards defenders attacking set pieces. There's so many centre backs for whom winning headers is their main attribute, and so get plenty of headed chances from set pieces, but are rubbish at directing headers accurately and rarely score.

Those defenders who score plenty win no more headers, so only have as many chances as those who don't score many, but just make more of them. And I assume that must be down to putting in more practise of those types of accurate headers as well, rather than just being content with their main job of headed clearances as far and high as possible.

If so, it's pretty poor of so many defenders, given how important set pieces are, not to put plenty of work at improving their accurate heading at goal from balls put into the box. Or, if they do try, then it's pretty poor from them and the coaches, seeing as how heading is already a key attribute of theirs, not to manage to improve their accuracy levels.

 

[MrMarcello]

Wasn't Evra pretty good in the air?

 

[criticalanalysis]

Was watching the CL semis and the commentator was bigging up Marquinhos at every set-piece opportunity like he's going to score. To be honest, I was genuinely surprised to see how much of a threat this guy is in the air. It felt like he's 2m tall and at the end of every high ball. Took a quick google and saw that he's only 1.83m. By comparison, Wan Bissaka is also 1.83m but extremely poor in the air. Shaw is 1.85m and Lindelof is 1.87m, both aren't very good either. Maguire is 1.94m, he is strong at defensive headers yet poor when it comes to directing them at goal. Varane is 1.91m and I don't think many would say he's better than Ramos who is 1.84m.

I can imagine some players have the physical gifts like a high leap and neck muscles to power a header but how hard is it to work on these two aspects in the training ground? I don't think it harder to work on compared to ball striking surely?

Shaw is as good as it gets for full backs in defensive aerial situations . He's very good and perhaps underrated in this aspect.

Maybe not in the open pitch but in the box, his positioning, jump and body strength means he very rarely gets 'beaten' or lets the attacker get an easy header.

If we're talking about set pieices then it's a shitshow for everyone including Maguire so that's more of a systematic issue.

 

[Dr. Dwayne]

It's all nurture. No one is born with the ability to read the flight of a ball, time their jump and direct it with their head. This is a skill that is improved with practice.

 

[MichaelRed]

Nurture, why this is even a question on a United forum is baffling given that we likely all saw the transformation of Cristiano Ronaldo from completely useless in the air to probably the best in the world.

 

[Tarrou]

I’m pretty tall but it took me a few years of men’s football to become a threat from corners.. it’s partly physical obviously but there is tonnes of skill involved

I probably didn’t reach my peak as far as heading ability until I was 30

It’s way easier to defend than attack, of course

 

[AkaAkuma]

It's said that boys on average have greater spatial awareness and within that there will be a spectrum of ability.

So, some players will naturally be better at positioning, reading the flight of balls and perfecting trajectory.

 

[Stack]

There is a short book which you can find as a PDF download called "The Talent Code"
Its worth a look for anyone interested on the whole idea of natural talent and can be quite challenging to accept some of its theories.

 

[kaiser1]

Canavaro Ayala were short guys who were treats at set pieces

Klose one of the most notable headers is just 180 cm

All probably scored more headers than Jan Koller at 202cm

 

[RedCurry]

It’s more nurture than nature.

 

[Cloud7]

I would say nurture. C Ronaldo is probably the best header of the ball I've seen in my time watching football, and he wasn't really like that in the early parts of his career.

 

[bosnian_red]

Attacking headers have less to do with being tall than defensive headers do where all you care about is heading it away. Maguire is great in the air, gets his head on everything, but terrible at actually directing the headers.

 

[littleman]

Attacking headers have less to do with being tall than defensive headers do where all you care about is heading it away. Maguire is great in the air, gets his head on everything, but terrible at actually directing the headers.

hard to direct things on a slab

 

[SambaBoy]

A lot of it is willingness too. Using Ronaldo as an example, a ball played inwards of the touchline on the halfway line, he wouldn't go and compete for it, and it wouldn't look like he was ducking out of it necessarily as he would be 10-15m away. A ball in the box and he would sprint or do anything to make up that 10-15m to win the header. Vidic had impeccable timing when it came to heading but also was willing to run 10-15m to compete. On goal kicks, some CB's will start their run as soon as the big is kicked and be dominant in the air whilst some will sit back and deal with it if the ball comes towards them i.e Lindelof.

Some tall players will only compete if the header is right to them. Evra was more about timing of the leap, he would often sit back and sprint forward allowing him to get a big leap as he's a fast and explosive player. He was excellent in the air.

Cavani heading ability is down to training, the way he directs his headers towards goal and his ability to control them is excellent. Same with Rooney for a while in the 09/10 season.

 

[GueRed]

Athleticism, timing, bravery and technique are key to being good in the air.

Some of those qualities can be nutured.

timing is everything.

 

[youngrell]

Not sure if it’s been mentioned, but a lot of the problem for those who are deemed poor in the air is the lack of desire.

You can have poor heading ability but still win the header/battle if you have the desire to do so. Too many of our players have little to no desire to win headers, I’m sure their technique would be fine if they actually wanted it.

 

[SirAF]

 

[Peyroteo]

Evra was the first player I thought of when I read the title, I think mentality plays a big part. Being fearless when attacking the ball is probably the most important thing

Ronaldo was always great in the air, he scored a bunch of headers even as a teenager. See Euro 2004 for example. He improved as he got physically stronger but he was already good at it.