Career Story of Johan “n0tail” Sundstein. Johan “n0tail” Sundstein's Career Story “He's good at every game. It's even scary."
Fans call him "beautiful flower" and wonder how this cute little baby face does not match with a deep voice. He went from an experimental support to a four-time Valve tournament champion, but still, the first thing you find about him on YouTube is how he swears in Russian. In almost eight years of his esports career, Johan "n0tail" Sundstein changed three roles, matured and became a real "Big Daddy" for the Dota community.
Transitional age
As a child, rosy-cheeked Johan had two passions: computer games and dogs. My father forbade having a tailed friend, but with games everything was easier. Parents smilingly show journalists photos of little Johan sitting on a potty with a Game Boy in small hands. He did not part with his toy for a minute.
“If you saw him without a Game Boy in his hands, then either he broke it, or he did something at school and now he is trying to look like a diligent son,” his father said.
He grew up as a smart and quick-witted boy. Honest and open, Johan tried to find a common language with everyone. But at the same time, his mother was sure that he lived in some own world. He asked for a separate room for him, where the boy set up a play area covered with pictures and posters. Johan spent most of his time there.
n0tail considers Warcraft to be his first serious passion, which he met at the age of 12. During registration, he discovered that his nickname, Mister Hat, was already taken. It was urgent to come up with something new. And for some reason, the absolutely meaningless combination “notail” came to mind first. At that moment he had no particular tail in mind, and in general he did not think about tails. Just notail. This nickname passed with him to the first DotA, in which he did not spend too much time, and then to Heroes of the Newerth.
Johan may well call his 15 years a turning point in his life. While his friends were going through their first crushes and preparing for their exams, n0tail was able to devote himself to two passions at once. Mom took pity and gave her son a black Labrador puppy Pumba, who became Johan best friend. And HoN comrades offered to assemble a promising team to play not only in pubs, but also in online tournaments.
After the first successes in the professional HoN, Johan realized that there was not enough time to study. After the first year of study at the prestigious Falkonergardens Gymnasium in Copenhagen, excellent marks and a dozen diplomas, Johan came to collect the documents.
The director of the educational institution called the guy "spoiled and spoiled" since he preferred education to computer games.
Parents were also not happy with this decision, but the first prize money, which more than covered any scholarships, made it possible to take a different look at their son's hobby.
“It's just that for their generation, games are what you have to pay for. But not what they will pay you for, ”Johan was sympathetic to their position.
“He is good in every game. It's even scary."
At the age of 15, Johan was known in Heroes of the Newerth as one of the most talented mid players. He deftly handled the analogue of the Doter Puck Bubbles and the local Shadow Shaman. Although he loved games, dreaming of dedicating his future to them, he did not collect his teams. 15-year-old Johan was found in a pub by Yasha "nova" Markus and Tal "Fly" Aizik and offered to play together in the next online tournament. Support for organizations has not yet been discussed, but the Fnatic manager immediately became interested in them, making the young roster his side project. The very first championship for the new team ended in victory, a couple of thousand prize dollars and a professional contract.
“I made esports my dream when I was already playing very, very well. Money began to appear when I was 15-16 years old. We played for 3-4 thousand dollars in HoN. It was not some fantastic salary or money to live comfortably on, but I began to take it much more seriously, ”said Johan.
Fnatic's HoN roster is truly legendary. Now n0tail doesn't even try to remember the names of all the tournaments they've won. 10 thousand here, 15 thousand there. Only the record that is still remembered today remains in memory: Fnatic won four tournaments in the DreamHack series in a row, raising an incredible bar for future generations of players.
But while Fnatic's success was growing, the HoN esports scene was experiencing more and more more problems. Against this background, it looked fabulous and, most importantly, a rich country. Johan looked at the millions of prize money and multiplying LAN tournaments and even began to think that at one time he abandoned the first DotA so early.
“Experience is experience. Now I think it would be better to spend time on DotA instead of HoN if we knew that we would be moving to . But I don’t regret anything, we had a good time beating everyone in a row, ”Johan shared.
Connects him with the first DotA Short story. He played very little, more just for fun. I wasn’t even fond of certain characters, but I tried everything in a row. I especially enjoyed the appearance of each new character. He only remembers how once he was captured by the passion for EarthShaker. He saw his future teammate Trixi play this hero and literally followed him for several games in a row. I even tried to repeat his movements, but then I forgot about this case until the meeting in the same team. When asked about his experience with signature heroes, Johan laughs:
“Did I play Wisp? Yes, I quit the first DotA even before he appeared there!
Fnatic officially moved their roster to in March 2012. For several months, players have been torn on two fronts, trying to snatch the last prize money in HoN and get in shape in a new discipline. As a result, the results caused sadness and despondency.
“You see, in HoN they are gods, but in DotA they are nobody! Too much difficult game for these casuals, ”they taunted on the forums.
But Johan was sure that it was not a lack of skill, but a lack of experience. For example, when players moved to a new discipline, it turned out that Fly was unable to manage with some heroes. He couldn't micromanage Chen and Enchantress, and Visage became his sore spot. N0tail decided that he was able to save the situation and moved to the support position. He spent 12 hours a day working on new heroes. He started several accounts in which he drove creeps through the forest in the lobby and ordinary pubs. He was not embarrassed that he, a successful midlaner, would now have to play support roles.
Johan: I could play mid lane, we could find a way out. But in Dota, I love the 5v5 game itself, and I don't really care what hero I play. The main thing is that there is mutual understanding in the team.
If Chen and Enchantress quickly entered the pool of n0tail heroes, then Visage remained at Fly's disposal. Now everyone admires his performance on this character. And then he gave control over the "familiars" that Johan played. And at this time, he could also plant the illusions of Naga Siren or Shadow Demon in the forests.
A year after moving to n0tail, he was called one of the best supports in the world. He had a record win rate on Io, crazy games on junglers and the idea of a mid lane double, which has become Fnatic's hallmark.
“He is incredibly talented. He is good in any game. In fact, it even scares,” Fly said about him.
The game is only 20%
Johan never considered skill as his main talent and the key to success. It is much more important for him to find a common language with teammates and improve the atmosphere in the team.
Johan: Finding good players is easy. Getting them to play as a team is another story.
They got lucky with the Fnatic roster. They knew each other for several years and were sure that they would hold on to each other to the last. Every change in this team was forced. Problems were solved by n0tail with an encouraging pat on the shoulder, heartfelt conversation and a suitable joke. While the commentators drew a bold cross on the former Hohner champions, they learned to listen and understand each other. A year later, tongue-tied commentators had to apologize for their distrust.
Your first The International in 2013, Johan recalls with delight. A huge tournament, crazy prize money and the feeling that you are at least a Hollywood star here.
“Probably, only at The International did I feel like a professional eSportsman for the first time. This tournament is just crazy. The way we were treated was just beyond my imagination.”
One by one, performances at TI became proof of his words about the importance of mutual understanding in the team. At TI3, they didn't have the patience. They felt like newbies big holiday pillboxes and were distracted by trifles.
TI4 was almost a disaster for which Johan was prepared in advance. A couple of months before the championship, the roster left Era for health reasons, but decided to return to The International, moreover, with serious showdowns involving Valve. The confidence in the team was undermined, and Fnatic could not even make it to the playoffs. Johan didn't even get upset. In an interview after the defeat, he said that it cannot be otherwise when the players do not trust each other. A few weeks later, the organization announced that the legendary Fnatic roster had disbanded. They were just a couple of weeks short of their two-year anniversary.
“80% of the game is internal team relationships. And only 20% is the game itself,” concluded n0tail in an interview. And he promised his father that next time he would definitely play in the final.
Johan came to The International in 2015 as part of the American team Cloud 9. Their unstable results for several months were quite consistent with their crazy style of play. There is no other way in teams with Jackie "EternalEnvy" Mao. But even before the start of TI5, rumors spread around the community that the relationship between the players is far from friendly.
Cloud 9 literally survived the group stage and advanced to the upper bracket. There they had to play against CDEC, the Chinese, who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere and did not leave a chance to almost any opponent. The evening before the match, C9 had a regular practice session. But something went completely wrong. The players stopped listening to each other, each insisted on his own. EternalEnvy couldn't take it anymore and just left the game. Johan silently pushed the keyboard away and went to smoke on the balcony.
During the team discussion, Jackie turned to raised voices:
We don't have a plan. We should have a natural instinct for how to play as a team when we get together. Any good team will break us to hell!
The day before the match against CDEC we start talking about these issues again. It will affect morale. We should leave tomorrow in a good mood, - Johan tried to calm his teammates.
The next morning, analysts and commentators expected a beautiful victory from Cloud 9. And they lost two cards in a row, having won back with their the best heroes. In the lower bracket, Vici Gaming did not leave a chance for the team that was falling apart before our eyes.
After TI5 I thought a lot about why CDEC were so successful. But if you look at them, you will understand that they are just a group of friends. These are people who care about each other. We have all seen how they are connected. I also remembered Fnatic, where I used to play, and realized that we were not as talented as many others. But at the same time, we were fine. And it's all thanks to friendship. I really wanted the same.
original genius
“After TI5, I thought about whether I even want to play further. And if I decided to assemble a team with someone, it would be Fly. I even think that we will now play together until we decide to retire. We will die one day, so to speak, ”Johan told about his decision.
Back in Seattle, he started looking for Miracle contacts and literally forced Fly to take Cr1t to the team.
“Before, I had to choose between friendship and skill players. This time everything was combined in one team.
They started under the monkey (business) tag. n0tail changed position again, leaving the role of support and midlaner to talented newcomers. Now he had to be a carry for a boy wonder from the pub, creating highlights even in the smallest moments. Again, I had to sit down in pubs to build up a pool of heroes. While the carries of other teams were measuring GPM and the number of creeps, n0tail became the “third support”, still fighting selflessly for his mid player.
"He only plays dumb heroes that don't require much skill," Peter "PPD" Dager commented on Johan's play.
The Fly and n0tail team arrived at the first Major under a new name. What does OG mean, none of them could explain. And the doors of the training room at the major in Frankfurt, the players wrote about a dozen possible transcripts, from frightening to the most stupid.
“And I like that no one knows what that means. Everyone invents for himself. Often, according to the proposed transcripts, you can understand the attitude towards us. When I can't figure out what mood my colleague is in for training, I ask, "What does OG stand for?" From the answer, it’s immediately clear that someone needs hot chocolate or just a moment of calm, ”said Johan.
From OG in Frankfurt did not expect exploits. Other teams have put together star lineups and have dusted off new trophies. After the group stage, OG went to the lower bracket, losing twice to Vega Squadron and confirming the doubts of the naysayers. Four days later, they defeated Evil Geniuses in the finals of the lower bracket, and then Team Secret stopped them in the grand finals. For the first time in a three-year career at n0tail, he earned a serious title. Analysts consulted the tables, not believing that he really had not won anything worthwhile before.
Fans of the team found a photo of that training room door and made their edits. They erased all other transcripts and left only one - Original Genius. Whether in honor of excellent drafts, or in honor of the victory over EG.
It's been a difficult and volatile season for OG The setbacks since the Frankfurt Major have spawned jokes about a "one-patch team" and that it's time to kick n0tail out of the team and take a carry. A real carry, not just another errand support for Miracle. Ignoring the waves of criticism, OG arrived at the Manila tournament and won it by going through the upper bracket.
“Okay, two patch team. And still you need to kick out n0tail, ”joked on Reddit.
About The International 6 Johan prefers not to remember and especially not to talk. The Favorites, the first team to win two tournaments from Valve, history makers. before the start of the tournament in the team profile, he said that he had doubts about his achievements before, but this year they did everything right, now he is ready to take Aegis.
And it all ended with two defeats in the playoffs. n0tail and his teammates left the stage in silence. In the post-flight interview, the usually talkative and sharp-tongued Johan sat at a loss for words. He muttered something about how difficult it is to get together at this tournament, how hard it is to catch the right mood. Something indistinct came out and I wanted to hide my eyes from the camera. When asked about the future of the roster, n0tail shrugged and said:
"No one knows what will happen in the future, even as far as I am concerned."
Johan, together with Fly, reassembled the line-up almost from scratch. They found themselves a new miracle boy and invited Gustav “s4” Magnusson to the team, whose esports career once began with a defeat from the legendary honers Fnatic. OG won two more majors, became the best team in the world again, but haters gonna hate. Now Johan is being accused of only being able to play heroes with illusions.
“But I don’t care what they all say. I can play any hero, any role. The success of the team and the relationships within it are much more important than my personal ambitions,” Johan smiles in response to these comments and pats his friend Fly on the shoulder.
Big Daddy
“N0tail is a player that every team needs. He will be serious when he needs to be, he will make everyone laugh when you are discouraged, and he will listen when everything is bad, ”EternalEnvy said about him.
The audience fell in love with Johan not so much for his playing skills, but for his sincerity. He swears if he doesn't like something, and sincerely rejoices when his friends are doing well. During matches, it can be heard from afar. He screams at the top of his lungs, because the game is high for him and this is how he expresses his emotions. You can't forbid him. For this, commentators, journalists and presenters approach him. Who else will let out a real battle cry before an important match?
Johan changed his nickname to BigDaddy, enjoying watching fans cheer for their " big daddy". And he fell in love with playing Meepo in the pub, because "one gets the feeling that the enemies shy away from fear, and no one wants to embarrass himself by losing to him." n0tail puts on a hat with earflaps, laughs in different voices and shows the middle finger to annoying journalists. While he earns prizes and titles, viewers collect photos and gifs from various tournaments. Johan's emotions can answer almost any question.
n0tail's parents and his girlfriend confess that they don't know another Johan. He is the same with teammates, spectators and relatives. And with his dog Pumba, who is already more of a father, because there is practically no time to take care of him. But that's just now. Johan is not going to focus on computer games.
My goals are much higher than the achievements in DotA. I want to make the world a better place and in achieving this goal I will stop only on the day of death. I would like to work with dogs, and I'm also interested in psychology. Yes, I would like to help people with the help of dogs.
In the meantime, you need to fulfill the promise made to the pope in 2014. Play in the final international.
One of the best players in history passed away last night
In one of his last interviews, the great Dutch footballer Johan Cruyff said that in the fight against cancer, which he was diagnosed with a few years ago, he leads 2-0. However, the disease nevertheless took its toll - on the eve of Cruyff was gone. In life, unfortunately, there is no extra time, as in football. The sports edition of BUSINESS Online presents a translation of an article by Miguel Delaney, which tells about what Johan Cruyff was like and why he is called the Great.
| Johan Cruyff (photo: fcbarcelona.com) |
"CRUYFF IS TO FOOTBALL WHAT BOWIE IS TO MODERN MUSIC"
Discussing the transfer policy of a certain European club, Johan Cruyff became excited.
“I read in the newspaper that this team is watching one player, two, three. They are idiots, because these players are so different, how can they consider them in the same position?
“There are many different things in football. The people who buy, the people who sell, or the people who decide to switch or not. That's what the team needs."
"This is absurd."
He will repeat the last two words four times in a 40-minute interview. Clearly, Cruyff is still frustrated by many orthodox things about football, a sport he has always considered narrow-minded and even narrow-minded.
Sometimes he spends time playing another sport and sometimes looks like an unremarkable pensioner. After finishing his golf game on a Thursday afternoon, he laments a few windy misses in the morning, and a group of teenagers nearby have no idea who he is, although some of them are wearing football jerseys.
For football, it is the same as David Bowie for contemporary music. His innovative mindset, which highlighted his great football talent, made him arguably the most influential figure in the history of football.
In the early 70s, Cruyff created the Ajax that changed football, a structure that he later introduced at Barcelona that dominated the understanding of the game. All this helped him to become the main figure of one of the founding philosophies of sports.
The way he thinks, thinks, was just as exciting as the way he plays. When asked about his career, he always answered in detail, conceptually. Many of his quotes have become legendary. Some of them are paradoxical, others are like timeless wisdom, still used in teaching children.
Once an answer to a question about Ajax in the 70s ended with this story:
“We have a typical mentality, because the Dutch are everywhere: from Japan to Indonesia, to New York, which was New Amsterdam, to Cape Town. The country is quite small and it is typical for it to always try something new and observe what is happening in the world. This is what they do. It can be a sport or a business, we see something similar in skiing, in hockey, in baseball. What can the Dutch baseball team do against the Japanese and Americans? You need to try new things. Maybe for 10 years you will not hear anything, because there will not be many people, but they will be capable.
“This is a country where everyone talks, everyone thinks, everyone has their own opinion... And that's why they are everywhere. it good quality but at the same time it is their worst quality.”
FOOTBALL AS A FORM OF SOCIALISM
Cruyff's big influence early age provided by the English coach of Ajax Vic Buckingham. He came to Amsterdam from Tottenham in 1959 and began to change Ajax even before the arrival of Michels and Cruyff.
"I knew Buckingham very well, because I lived near the stadium when I was little."
Even a discussion of the goals of the organization - the Cruyff Foundation - turns into something deeper. This is reminiscent of the phrase Bill Shankly about football as a form of socialism.
“What is sport, besides the physical exercises that you do for yourself? It's about playing together, trying things, getting better every day, winning together, losing together, helping someone. That's life. This is 100 percent life."
“Our foundation has 14 rules, and if, no matter what he does, he sticks to them, he will be a wonderful person.”
According to the first rule, you need to be a "team player": "To achieve something, you need to stick together." One of the last rules says that you need to try something new every day.
According to this, Cruyff's perspectives in an individual sport like golf would be interesting, since he was the player who most fully reflected the idea that individual skill only flourishes in a collective system.
“There are many well-developed individual sports. If we are talking about the difference between football and golf, then a golfer has a driver assistant, a hitting coach, and in football one coach for 15 people is absurd!”
“You answer yes, but in golf you need to drive, but in football you need your left foot, your right foot to pass, to control the ball, you need to see what your 10 teammates are doing, a lot of things are involved. . That is why many of them need to be changed.”
That was what Ajax did when Michels took over in 1965.
“Everyone is different, everyone is different playing qualities and skill, but everyone on the team must have the same mentality. This means that your qualities should be valuable for the team, because, after all, you cannot become the best player in the team that loses all the time. It's impossible".
“That's what I'm talking about. When you read a newspaper and see that a club is interested in three different players for the same position, you say: “How can you look at these three? Who are you looking for? Someone called a protector or a specific type of protector? It's a big difference."
 |
| (photo: fcbarcelona.com) |
"THE ONLY WAY THAT HELP YOU LEARN IS MISTAKE"
Eventually, the specific style of play became used throughout at a high level. With the help of Cruyff, this approach, originally developed at Ajax, was adapted by Barcelona and the Spanish national team, and later by Bayern. The principles remain the same: these clubs strive to control the ball, and if they lose it, they try with great strength to return it.
What is the difference between good and bad player? In the speed of thought. If you have it higher, then try to provoke an opponent who owns the ball into mistakes. And the most important thing is how quickly you can change the mood from attacking to defending and vice versa. The first defender is an attacker who can put pressure on the opponent by starting defensive actions.
“I think that the game of Barcelona is a pleasure for everyone who loves football, because the technical skill is at the highest level, and everyone Small child may try to do the same. Someone runs 100 yards in 9 seconds and you can't do it - it's not. If you want to play basketball, then you must be two meters tall. Otherwise, you won't be able to play. Here everyone can play and everyone can develop. This is the most a good thing what is in football.
“Many people think that making mistakes is a problem. I do not think so. Mistakes are about making you better until you learn something. The only way that helps you learn is through mistakes. By doing something well, you won't learn anything. It's impossible".
“Football is a game of mistakes. If you analyze them and put someone skilled in the place where the most mistakes are, he will reduce their number, which means he will add opportunities.
“We don't say the pass was good or bad. If there was an opportunity to make a better pass, why didn't he take it? Did he see it or not, or was he unable to fulfill it? We need to collect and analyze. Most of the time you need to analyze why he didn't do other things. That's where it all starts, a completely different game. If you analyze it, you can train it.”
Barcelona's transformation with the arrival of Cruyff in 1988 was almost as profound as Ajax's in the late 60s. Over the previous 28 years, the Catalans have won only two league titles. Over the next 25, they became 12-time champions, 4-time winners of the Champions League. Speaking of such a metamorphosis, Cruyff argues as if it were elementary.
“When we arrived, everything was bad. We started to change that. There was no point in continuing what was being done wrong.”
“I had a certain advantage, because I played there. I knew their mentality, I knew what they were doing, what they were thinking, so it was easier to create some rules.”
When his native Netherlands lost to Spain in the 2010 World Cup final, Cruyff called their game anti-football, expressing his support for the Spaniards.
“You cannot say that this is better than this, or that this is better than this. Many people compare Messi and Ronaldo. They are completely different. You cannot compare them. They are both great, but they are different. So you can't tell which one is better. You can only say who you prefer, whose style of play."
“Football has always been limited (narrow). We say "he's a football player" but in baseball we say "pitcher", "catcher", "third baseman". Why is he a footballer? They are all different. A coach, in order to lead a team, must look at individual qualities. So I see the game in a completely different way."
Since 2011, Cruyff has been trying to return to Ajax the former philosophy, lost in almost 20 years. Former players appointed to leading roles at the club Dennis Bergkamp, Edwin van der Sar, Frank de Boer.
“Well-trained ex-footballers should be the decision makers at the club. Someone who is good at business can't make decisions related to football. This is absurd."
“Some clubs do that. We do it at Ajax. Of course, we will not get immediate results, but this is normal.”
“Everyone who works here, the great players who have ever played for Ajax, are here now. We all believe that we can achieve a result. Future will tell".
The reality is that mid-sized clubs are constantly looking to lose their best players, like Christian Erikssen to Tottenham.
“At a certain age they will leave because someone else will pay more. This is reality".
“We have new players, good players who need to be brought up. Who knows what will happen. We are all convinced that we will achieve something.”
With Cruyff, at least, it was never different.
Translation Timur Bayramov
It has been a hundred years since the first drugs were banned, and during this long century of war on drugs, our teachers and government have created a story for us about addiction. This story is so deeply rooted in our minds that we have come to take it for granted. She seems obvious. She seems to be true.
For his book Chasing the Scream, Johan Hari traveled 30,000 miles and found out what was really causing the furious war on drugs. During his journey, he realized that most of what we were told about drugs is not true, and also that there is a completely different truth, if, of course, we are ready to hear it.
Johan Hari, Chasing the Cry: The First and last days drug wars" From early childhood, the author tried to discover the nature of addictions for himself: what makes people obsessed with drugs or behavior that they cannot control? How can we help these people return to normal? If you try to determine the cause of drug addiction, the most obvious answer that immediately comes to mind will be the drugs themselves. Imagine that twenty people we meet on the street take a very strong drug for twenty days. There are very strong chemical "hooks" in these preparations. So, if they wanted to stop on the twenty-first day, they would experience terrible cravings for the substance. That's what drug addiction means.
One of the first studies to prove this theory was done on rats in the 1980s. The rat was closed alone in a cage where there were two bottles. One of them contained water, the other contained water laced with heroin or cocaine. In almost every experiment, a rat that tasted drugged water came back to it again and again until it killed itself. But in the 1970s, University of Vancouver psychology professor Bruce Alexander noticed something odd about the experiment. The rat was placed in a cage alone. What would happen, he thought, if we tried differently? So Professor Alexander built the Rat Park. It's like a rat amusement park, with colorful balloons, the best rat food, tunnels, and a few friends. In a word, everything a rat can only dream of.
Those rats that were isolated and unhappy became heavy drug addicts. None of the happy rats became addicted.
In the Rat Park, all the rats, of course, tried the water from both bottles, because they did not know what was in them. What happened next was completely unexpected. The rats didn't like the drugged water. They largely avoided it, using less than a quarter of the drug dose given to their isolated brethren. None of the happy rats died. Those rats that were isolated and unhappy became heavy drug addicts. None of the happy rats did.
In the human world, a similar “experiment” confirming the same facts was simultaneously taking place. It was called the Vietnam War. Time magazine reported that American soldiers "ate heroin like chewing gum." There is strong evidence for this: 20% of American soldiers became heroin addicts, according to a study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry. Many people were horrified: they understood that after the end of the war, a huge number of drug addicts would return home. But, according to the same study, 95% of drug-addicted soldiers just quit. After the change from a terrible cell to a pleasant one, drugs were no longer needed.
© Annie Wang
Professor Alexander argues that this discovery challenges both the right-wing view, which argues that drug addiction is the result of a moral decline due to the fact that people like to have too much fun, and the liberal view, in which drug addiction is considered a disease of the chemically attacked brain. In fact, the scientist believes, drug addiction is an adaptation. It's not you. This is your cage.
After the first stage of the Rat Park, Professor Alexander continued his early experiments, during which the rats were kept alone and forcibly drugged. He gave them drugs for 57 days - long enough to get hooked. Then he took the rats out of the single cages and placed them in the Rat Park. At first, the rats twitched a little, but soon stopped using drugs and returned to normal life. A good cage saved them.
You may be addicted to gambling, but no one will think that you are injecting cards into your veins. You can be addicted to something without any chemical hooks.
Another example of an experiment that is going on around us, and of which you yourself may one day become a participant. If you take up running and break a rib, you will probably be prescribed diamorphine, the medical name for heroin. In the hospital, you will be surrounded by people who take heroin for pain relief for just as long. The heroin you get from your doctor will be more pure and effective than what addicts take on the streets. Those get it from dealers who add impurities to the drug. So, if the old theory about addiction is correct, the drugs that cause it will obviously make your body need them. Then a lot of people leaving the hospital should immediately go to the streets so as not to give up their habit.
But the strange thing is that this almost never happens. As Canadian doctor Gaybor Mate explains, those who use medical drugs simply stop doing it - despite months of use. The same drug, used for the same amount of time, turns people using the "street version" into heavy addicts, but people in the hospital almost never become addicts.
Street addicts are like rats in the first cage: isolated, alone, with only one source of solace. Hospital patients are like rats in a second cage. They return home where they will be surrounded by the people they love. The drug is the same environment is different.
This gives us a much deeper thought than just the need to understand drug addicts. Professor Peter Cohen argues that human beings have a deep need to connect and form bonds. This is how we achieve satisfaction. If we can't connect with each other, we become attached to something we can find: the sound of a roulette wheel in a casino or a drug-taking ritual. Cohen believes that we should stop talking about "addiction" and replace it with the word "attachment." A heroin addict is addicted to heroin because she cannot be completely addicted to anything else. So the counterbalance to drug addiction is not abstinence. These are connections with people. You may be addicted to gambling, but no one will think that you are injecting cards into your vein. You can be addicted to something without any chemical hooks.
© Annie Wang
Everyone will agree that the habit of smoking is the most common addiction. The chemical hooks in tobacco are based on a drug called nicotine. Therefore, with the advent of nicotine patches in the early nineties, many experienced a fit of optimism: now smokers will be able to get everything from chemical hooks without negative (even deadly) consequences. They will be released.
However, the US National Health Service found that only 17.7% of smokers can quit their habit with patches. But that's not all. If chemicals account for 17.7% of addictions, that's still millions of lives ruined. What the study proves is that the chemical causes of drug addiction are very real, but they are just the tip of the iceberg.
This should have a huge impact on humanity's war on drugs. After all, this grand war is based on the assertion that we must physically destroy a number of chemicals that occupy the human brain and cause addiction. But if not only drugs lead to drug addiction? If the lack of connections with people leads to it? There is an alternative. It is possible to build a system designed to help addicts reconnect with the world and leave their addiction behind.
Johan Cruyff
Cruyff is worthy of not being forgotten, periodically recalling his activities in football, both as a football player and as a football coach. And the point is not at all that he deserves to be remembered for himself only because he would be the owner of three golden balls.
I do not intend to describe and list all his merits, titles, and awards in this short article. The article is not about that. I want to show this outstanding football player and coach through the prism of his own statements and thoughts.
Naked statistics say little. Unless it removes any doubt that this athlete was outstanding. His thoughts about football will make the portrait more lively and natural. One of my students helped me in this work - Anatoly, who is keenly interested in the history of football, who looks at football history not as a collection of dead figures and facts, but as a living organism, where, through the thoughts, statements and actions of certain football players and football coaches, it is possible to identify trends in the development of world football in a given period.
Here are some quotes from Johan. First quote: "NSome people love to balance the ball in the air and really think it's great. But at the same time, the defenders of the enemy manage to return back. Such people belong in the circus"What is there to say?
Absolutely agree with him. Any effective manipulation with the ball that slowed down the attack, at least for a few tenths of a second, is already harmful, this is a sharp decrease in the sharpness of the attack, up to its breakdown. Show-offs aimed at narcissism, this is a foreign body for team play, even if they are pleasing to the eye of the fans.
Show-offs are not needed in the attack, but actions that accelerate the attacking actions of the team as much as possible. I have already said and will say many more times that the counterattack should be not only unexpected, but also lightning-fast, like a knife strike.
If you can take the ball, handle it and pass it to your partner, but at the same time, you can make this pass in one touch, then you must make it in one touch! It is necessary to accelerate the attack in all possible and impossible ways. This is the essence of football.
Second quote: Players who, although they are not leaders, but try to be, always shout at partners for mistakes. True leaders know that such mistakes cannot be avoided.- again agree in everything, but with one caveat.
Public spanking of a football player by a coach or a football player by a football player is bad manners. The shouting of one football player at another during the game is not as harmless as it might seem. Not only does this cry bring out of the state of psychological balance of the screamer and the one who is being shouted at; it also has a destructive effect on the psychological stability of the team as a whole. That is why I constantly say that arguing with the referee is a direct harm to the team, even though he (harm) is clearly not visible.
Johan, in this quote, says that you should not yell at your partner, since such mistakes cannot be avoided. Everything is correct. But. On a partner, especially in public, categorically it is impossible to shout! Moreover, regardless of whether such a mistake can or cannot be avoided.
Third quote: Surviving the first round of a tournament was never my goal. Better to be in the same group with Brazil, Argentina and Germany. Imagine, after the first round already minus two opponents. Perfect!"- I have not heard anything like it. Bravo, Johan!
This phrase clearly says that Cruyff was always focused on winning the tournament, and not on participation, on the fight, on the way out of the group and other crap. After all, how simple and how wise: I left the group of death as a winner - it means that I have already removed a couple of serious rivals from the road, securing myself in the quarterfinals, semifinals, etc. game with an easier opponent.
Fourth quote:It's terrible when the talent of young people is evaluated on the basis of computer statistics. If this was practiced in my time, I would not fit Ajax. After all, I could hit the ball with my left foot for 15 meters, with my right foot for a maximum of 20 meters. My technique and tactical literacy cannot be identified by technique- and there is logic in this.
What is more important: the ability to get around the opponent "one on one" or his athletic data? What is more important: running speed or the ability to give ultra-accurate diagonals? Decide for yourself. In this matter, I unconditionally side with Cruyff.
Fifth quote: The quality of a football team has nothing to do with the sum of the qualities of the best players. The only thing that matters is how all the players function together as a team"- remember the famous phrase of Lobanovsky:" I am not creating a team of stars. I'm building a star team." It's the overall team conditions that matter, not the sum of the individual players' conditions. It's not a fact that several superstars bought by the club's owner will find a common language with each other.
The history of football knows more than one such case, when tens of millions of dollars were thrown into the wind precisely for this reason. There are dear players, but there are no games!
Sixth quote: In general, I do not like today's football"- why love him? For rudeness? Or for the lack of elementary technical training? Maybe for a total violation of the sports regime? Probably for provoking the judges by deliberately staging a violation of the rules by an opponent? Perhaps because club football traditions are becoming a thing of the past , and instead of them, bazaar transfer traditions appeared?
Seventh Quote: Players now can only shoot well when their shoelaces are properly tied. At one time I hit the gate, not paying attention to the shoes, and the outside of the foot, and in general from both legs. In other words, I was six times better than today's players."What, immodest? Yes, immodest, but truthful.
Cruyff hit with both feet different parts feet. Now, far from everyone kicks with one foot, and those who do have no idea how to hit accurately and strongly with the outer part of the foot. And where does this smart come from
yu, if we don’t train, but jump over barriers?
Eighth quote:Often many honored former or current football players and coaches are asked, name your symbolic team in the history of football. And everyone starts to name the best players in their position in history. Here's what I'll tell you, according to this principle, you will collect the best players from players in your roles, but in no way best team in football history"- bravo Cruyff! Bravo !!!
It is good that there are specialists in world football who speak in a similar way to what your obedient servant says. I imagine how unpleasant it is for my opponents. After all, calling me crazy, you will have to put this label on Johan Cruyff, Brian Clough and other, albeit few, but world-famous football specialists.
Often Johan criticized Messi for the fact that he sometimes squanders his talent and does not work to the maximum. I have said the same thing over and over. Moreover, Cruyff saw it from the inside, working with the team, and I see it from the side of the fan. Same with Cristiano Ronaldo.
I have repeatedly said that my coaching stick would have visited the back of both Lionel and Cristiano more than once for the fact that they play and train at half strength (if, of course, they played in the same team, where your obedient servant would train her).
On March 24, 2016, Johan Cruyff, the personification of total football in the second half of the twentieth century, passed away. And it is not his fault that, without having had time to be born, total football immediately died. I have already written about the reasons, and I think that I will say this more than once.
Blessed memory of a man who loved football with all his heart, and not himself precious in football!
