GAME DAY PART 2: IN-GAME

 

Yesterday we kicked this series off with Pre-Game so let's move to some of the different aspects you'll come across In-Game.

GAME ASSESSMENT

• Game components are consistency of sport mechanics/actions + control sport skill/player placement + anticipation (player movements to recover to base position and then respond).

PLAYER ASSESSMENT

• Is the player making tactical errors or are they not aware of their positioning?
• Perhaps they are not moving properly in relation to teammates on defense or not close enough as they move to offense?
• Is it a timing issue where they haven’t played enough, is your team preparation archaic and/or has there not enough focus on game sense at training?
• If positioning is fine but your team still loses the ball then to say it’s an individual mistake is lazy and wrong but you still need to look at each players technical/tactical/physical/psychological output at the specific time to find any other weak links.
• In invasion sports, the key to understanding the problem can be found with the interaction of all involved players where if the pass was made just 1 second earlier then the receiving player might have had more time and space to make the next pass which then would have put them into positive space and a score opportunity would have occurred.
• So is it a player positioning mistake or has the coach not even coached them in regards to it?
• Observe 1 player x 5 – 8mins specifically on the game components and calculate a score (4 is high, 1 is low) for them.
• Also grade on the ball skills (controlling the ball/ disposing of the ball) and off the ball skills (positioning/reading the play, knowing when to attack or defend).
• Having teammates judge their teammates might also help in their learning (seeing v being told).

TACTICAL SPEED

• Speed is often confused with insight.
• When you start running earlier than the others you will appear faster.
• Being quicker than your opponent is of less advantage if they can read the build up of play better than you so create position specific scenarios at training for this.

SCANNING

• Great players scan their environment 6 – 8 times/10secs before they receive the ball to increase likelihood of possession.

TEAM SPEED

• If 1 player accelerates then 3 – 4 others have to join them to throw the opposition into disarray and disrupt as many as their defenders as you can.

PACING

• It isn’t just the distribution of energy resources but the rhythm/skill required to actually utilise the changes in effort
• Requires physical and psychological expression where both need to be on the same page as one without pacing skills can be useless at the end of games
• First you need to be physically prepared or you’re just prolonging the inevitable (get blown up) as the end goal is faster pacing
• Pacing is highly motivational so psychologically profile each player to see how they respond to different modifiers in training
• Rehearse pacing but make sure players learn how to win without being dependant on just a single strategy (starting well and tapering off v finishing strong)
• You need to know where pacing fits into your sport (MMA can be 2secs or 5min rounds, tennis can go for 2 – 5hrs, bball is 48mins split up by 24sec segments etc) to find the gaps you can exploit and gain advantage
• Pacing can also be deceptive as players can be fast but play slow and vice versa
• Less skilled players play aggressively as they often rely on effort over brains and coaches can be the same with their pre-game approach in what they say and instruct players to do
• Motivation, confidence, strategy and tactics will determine what pace is ideal
• Pace is not the same as speed and pace is more of a work rate type than speed with Lebron James, Lionel Messi and Rafer Nadal all being low paced athletes who have excellent speed/acceleration when scoring
• Mix up the same conditioning drill as 1 that has an end (5 up and backs) vs one that doesn’t (undisclosed time) and see how athletes match up with their outputs to see what they respond to best

HALF TIME

• Is 15 – 20% of the total game time
• Ask line captains questions to get their thoughts
• Ask line captains what opportunities are you seeing for us that we can take advantage of
• Sometimes you might only speak to players with specific roles or team lines that seem to be out of whack
• Each line meets x 90 – 120secs, the the coach meets with line captains x 60secs, then the coach meets with the entire line x 60secs for all lines that will take about 12mins all up
• Alternatively each line meets and writes on the white board 3 things they’re seeing then look what matches up from line to line
• Players will be on their own in as the coach moves from line to line
• 90 - 120secs beforegoing abck out the caoch and then gives their final address to the entire team to let everyone know what everyone else is doing
• Each line only has 2 – 3 objectives/game so this could take even less time then this, giving players more "free" time
• If a coach talks too much then squirt them with water