Oh Baby! Episode 17! Touchline Theory returns after another lengthy hiatus, fueled by the emotional impetus delivered by our newest number one fan. Hailing from Brisbane, Australia--Jonathan, we welcome you to the family! Today, our dynamic duo waste little time recapping the months they've been out of commission, and instead leap headfirst into a classic question: what is tempo? .. and maybe why should we care?

As they soon find out, the term is hard to define. It carries musical analogues that can help us begin to grasp the concept, but a range of discussions surrounding units of measure leaves Martin and Will with a full appreciation for the difficulty at hand. Do touches slow the play down? What about passes? What about time on the ball? What happens when everyone sprints but the ball stays still? Vice versa? Does territory matter? Should this be split into x and y terms? If CBs ping the ball back and forth, can that clog our devised metrics? Is this a collective or individual thing? What do other smart folks in the field think? Are any of them right? Are any of them wrong?

The gang proceeds to investigate how tempo might impact scouting and the transfer of skills from one environment to the next. They chat about about the distinctions between attacking and defending tempos--who sets them, who responds, and the importance of changes or stable game pace. Is dT/dT the *real* term of value in all of this? Perhaps.

Are there some players that have the special ability to manipulate tempo on the fly? How does this compare to other sports like basketball? Doing some players accelerate or decelerate the play? How do individuals impact resistance to fluidity, or add some verve to the ongoing play? Is there anything empirically better about high tempo? Can we do less without knowing what more is?

Join us to hear our thoughts on all these items, and more--including a consistent misuse of Dan Burn as a quintessential Peter-Crouch-esque tall striker when he's actually a centerback (we'll apologize for this next week), Marcus' podcast debut, 120 bpm (unitless), Florian Wirtz the conductor, moral relativism, a dose of dashpot molasses, and a redacted skebop! for good measure.

Find us on Twitter @touchlinetheory.

Find Martin @MG_theory2, and Will @WA_theory!

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