It is well known, as talented as he is, Kylian Mbappé has never been very fond of the head game.
However, since the start of the season, the PSG striker has already scored three goals in the air.
We analyzed the progress of his head game with three specialists in vertical relaxation.
The gesture was anything but trivial.
After rising higher than everyone else to smack this magnificent uncrossed head with the Blues, against Kazakhstan, eleven days before the shock against Manchester City, Kylian Mbappé completed his traditional celebration arms folded with a few taps on the skull.
All while looking Deschamps straight in the eye, as if to say "Did you see it, it wasn't just a pussy stroke yesterday!"
".
The day before, in fact, the Parisian had already found the way to the nets in training with a helmet, but the coach, who we know to be very much a chamberlain, had put this down to luck and hiding. neck which covered his face in the coldness of Clairefontaine.
“It's true that I don't have a great head game, but I have improved a lot already this year.
It's not a top level head game yet but it's starting to sound like what I'm looking for.
I will continue to work to mark others, ”he warned at the microphone of M6 before the meeting.
The figures attest to this: while he had only scored two small pawns in the head since his arrival at PSG, Mbappé has just investigated three since the start of the season (two with Paris, one in Blue), proof that something has changed about him.
To the point that we wonder if, like Karim Benzema before him, the beep of 9-3 would not very quickly add this arrow to his already well-filled quiver of skills.
Mbappé, where the quest for perfection
To talk about it, who better than Claudio “Air” Beauvue, the former Guingampese kangaroo, so comfortable when it comes to taking off to place devastating ball shots in front of goal? But before talking about pure technique and work in training, we asked him what he thought of this Mbappé head at the Parc with the France team. “We know that this is not his strong point but, for once, I found that he really applied himself to make the right gesture. He is in the right timing, the technique is good, the head is just uncrossed what it takes. Nothing to say, we see that he is working, ”applauds the striker of US Boulogne, in National.
It's true, he works. According to our colleagues from the
Parisian
, the number 7 of PSG has put a strain on training and no longer hesitates to ask his friends to send him high balloons to work his head game. Because he knows it, in his quest for perfection, if he wants to one day become the best striker in the history of football, he will have to become more complete and, therefore, more clinical of the head. In truth, if the former Monegasque was never a big fan of exercise, he is not an interstate nozzle in this area either.
No, if Mbappé has been reluctant lately to play the skull, it is because he has in memory some bad aerial encounters.
On two occasions, in fact, Mbappé suffered concussions after very violent shocks with Christophe Kerbrat (in 2016) and Anthony Lopes (in 2018).
“Obviously that must have slowed him down,” Beauvue understands.
But to be a good head player, you must not be afraid of going to a duel, you have to succeed in passing this stage of apprehension.
If he can do that, and he has already started, he will be more and more liberated and he will be able to win more and more aerial duels.
"
"He already has everything you need to jump high"
Now that the trauma is behind him, Mbappé will once again be able to concentrate on the improvement work. Head technique, of course, but also a sense of timing, anticipation and vertical relaxation. On this point, Claudio Beauvue has no doubts, “his room for improvement is enormous. "A bit like Thierry Henry, my idol," he says. He was not a specialist in the head game at the start of his career, but over the years he has grown very strong. It's easy for guys like that since they are so far ahead of others in many areas, they can work on their weak points quietly and progress at great speed. "
To fully understand the workings of good vertical relaxation, we gave a quick phone call in Japan to a specialist, Laurent Tillie, the coach of the French volleyball team, for whom jumps no longer have any purpose. secrets.
So, coach, what makes a good jumper?
“Already, you still have to have a solid genetic basis,” says the very recent Olympic champion.
And I think Mbappé saw them, seen his explosiveness, his speed, his incredible acceleration.
These are all the qualities that we find in the jump.
Afterwards, it's classic: a lot of muscle and sheathing for a solid trunk for a better transmission of the jump, thighs and strong glutes ”
“It is clear that he already has everything he needs,” says Mickaël Hanany, the holder of the French high jump record (2.34 m) now retired.
Afterwards, it may be a slightly different way of working to get him to have a more efficient head game.
To have a vertical relaxation, for example, it is necessary to focus the work on the plyometrics and the sequences of vertical jumps.
You have to have basic physical predispositions, but if you orient the work well on these axes, anyone can gain a little relaxation.
"
Size doesn't matter (too much)
For Laurent Tillie, it's like everything, it's all about repetitions:
“You should know that in volleyball, we do between 150 and 180 jumps per player and per training, we really become kangaroos! ". But jumping high isn't everything. And, unlike volleyball, continues the coach of the Panasonic Panthers, “in football, there is more external information to take into account. In addition to the trajectory of the ball, we must take into account those of other surrounding players, that of the defender with whom we are going to duel, the way in which we will take the ball with the head, etc. These are all parameters that can alter the quality of the jump. "
On this point, again there is no mystery. Claudio Beauvue: “You have to repeat the exercises in training, crosses, set pieces. And as and when you see the fruit of all this work hatch and, the fact of progressing, it also makes you love the exercise. You gain confidence, you end up having your bearings and over time it becomes a natural gesture. For the former pretty
Côtes d'Armor
jumper
, size is not a problem, contrary to popular belief that there are only large poles to dominate the sky. From the height of his meter 74, the boy knows what he is talking about.
“As I'm not very tall, I always try to get a head start on the opponent by anticipating what my teammate is going to do.
At the time, I was a fan of the Chileans Ivan Zamorano and Marcelo Salas.
Despite their small size, they were helicopters, guys!
I often watched them on TV and I was super attentive when they nodded, I was careful of their way of positioning themselves, of triggering their calls, of jumping.
"With a teammate like Mauro Icardi, a knockout doctor when he's not on Insta posting (love) stories, Mbappé has everything you need to learn and progress.
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