I think it was my grandfather who
gave me the Johnny Warren soccer coaching book. He saw that I had the talent to
do well in soccer. This was during my early days at high-school. I remember I
had the book in my drawer. I would only look at it as a gift from my grandpa.
It just happened that, when I made the Nadi team, I heard more about Johnny
Warren from Bobby Tikaram [Nadi vice-president]. I heard about his coaching
skills and what he had done for Nadi Soccer back then. He lifted Nadi to a
different level in soccer. He was an invited technical adviser. Bobby invited
him to come over here. This would have been in the mid- to late-1970s. So, all
along, I had this Johnny Warren book lying down in my drawer. Bobby told me
that Johnny Warren had done a tremendous job in lifting the performance of the
Nadi team then. For myself, as a club member of Airport Soccer Club, I took this
information very seriously and I went back to the book. I thought if Bobby is
the man who brought Johnny to Nadi Soccer than I am talking to the coach of
Pele. I was thinking in my imagination that it is like talking to Pele’s coach.
I thought I must go back to the book and see what is in there.
 |
| Savenaca Waqa (left) and Henry Dyer, 27 August 2015. |
I really started
learning the basics of controlling the ball; doing the wall-pass; cushioning it
on your in-step to get the feel of the ball; and doing the corner kicks. I
would practice in the backyard. I practiced kicking the ball through two narrow
posts. I tried to master all types of kicks. I eventually happened to improve
my skills in all these areas so that I could use them in a match. I would say
that Johnny Warren’s book was like a mentor to me in all aspects of the game
and it enabled me to improve my techniques in many areas. In my early days
playing for Nadi, I would get a tap on my back and this was my Phys Ed teacher
from Ba Provincial Secondary School (Master Gajend Prasad). He would comment
and say: “It is amazing and I am very happy to see that you are doing great as
a former student of Ba Provincial.”
As the years
went by I started to think that my success was more due to the book than due to
my own talents. I managed to pick up the various skills from the book quickly.
At first I had thought that Bobby had given me book but it was my
grandfather. I remember now that I had
the book in my drawer during my school days at high-school (Ba Provincial
Secondary School). However, the funny thing is that while at school I did not
believe that I would become one of the known soccer players of Fiji. I did not
share the book with anyone. It was like a gift. I did not show it to anyone. I
would go over the diagrams about free-kicks, etc., and then I would just put it
back in the drawer. I did not know that it was inspiring me all along. I give respect
to my grandfather because it was he who indirectly inspired me to put a bit
more effort into training and to make use of the book. While gelling with the
matured players of the Nadi team then I did not realize or take into
consideration that these stars had been coached by Johnny Warren himself. The
Fijian boys do not talk about these kinds of things. They are very quiet unless
you question them.
 |
| Nadi legends H. Dyer / Vivekanand ‘Boy’ Reddy. |
It was only
after Bobby had been talking to us (Kieran James and me) about this book that I
started to remember the Johnny Warren book. I had been thinking that I had made
myself a star. However, part of it was because of Johnny Warren’s book and also
due to my team-mates in the Nadi team. I must give full recognition to all of
the Nadi boys from that era because we had a very strong team. Anyone who was
selected in the team was treated like a family member and he was given space to
move around in. It was made so easy for him to spark. Back then the core of the
Nadi team or the regular players stood out in front of the crowd and any new
player who tried out or who came on as substitute was very fortunate to have
that opportunity. It gave the new guy the chance to fully develop and excel. I
always give respect to the Nadi squad of those years, Johnny Warren himself,
and the administration that we were able to play in that sort of positive environment.
The good thing about that time was that you would have someone on the field
telling you what to do and whether to go on the left or the right or the front
or the middle or the back. That gave us the confidence to go out and perform
better. I hope that this can be repeated in the current environment in
Nadi and in Fiji.
Some specific
skills I learned from the book were: cushioning the ball and getting the feel
of the ball, on your feet and on your head. I also learnt how to get the ball away
to my team-mates especially when I was in a duel in the air. Rudi Gutendorf
said that if we can win in the air then we can control the ground action as
well. Both of these two coaches place the same emphasis upon combating your
opponent in the air first and foremost. They believe that whoever controls the
aerial space also controls the ground because psychologically you have beaten
him first in the warfare in the air. When he is on the ground he is already
down. It takes him time to recover. By this time you are running circles around
him. So if the eleven players are beaten in the aerial battles you have
achieved half of the task of winning the game. Even if you beat six or seven of
them in the air (the key players) then that is it and you have controlled the
game.
I believe that soccer is a game where you have to
get aggressive and defensive and have got to be aggressive above all. In
modern-day soccer (if you watch the English soccer or soccer from around the
world, for example) you will see that they use all these tactics and they are
very aggressive and defensive. So I would say that to master the skills to play
the game better you have to put a lot of time into training. You have to do
tactical skills, tactical play, and stamina training (meaning endurance tests).
I would say that any top player would have gone through these experiences. To
become a better player you have to put in your individual effort. I know of
some of my club-mates (even my primary-school mates and high-school mates) who
were very talented, classy, and skilful and they would have become better
players than me but I see that they did not have a personal goal to push
themselves into strenuous training. Otherwise they could have been somebody
else today. I would say that it takes hard work and effort to get to the top in
anything in life. I only wish that I could have personally met Johnny Warren
during my soccer career or after. The same applies to Rudi Gutendorf. He is a
very old man (as at 6 February 2019). I wish I had been able to meet him again
after the conclusion of my soccer career. I read that Rudi Gutendorf holds the
record of coaching the most national teams.
[By
the former Fiji national team player Henry Dyer, as told to Dr Kieran James of
University of Fiji in Nadi, 25 March 2015.]
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