AFLW FILM REVIEW ROUND 1 - BRISBANE v FREMANTLE + GEELONG v RICHMOND

 Video x 7mins.

• Brisbane Small Forward Structure
• Brisbane Width
• The Tactic That Won Geelong the Game

AFLW FILM REVIEW ROUND 1 - WESTERN BULLDOGS v GWS

 Video x 14mins.

• Lamb Forward 50 Stoppage Goal
• WB Kick to Advantage
• Moody Deep Forward 1v1
• Blackburn Loose Out of the Stoppage
• GWS Kick Out 1
• WB Lane Positioning
• GWS Kickout 2
• Grierson 1v3 Win

AFLW FILM REVIEW ROUND 1 - WEST COAST v PORT ADELAIDE + ESSENDON v HAWTHORN

 Video x 11mins.

• West Coast Defense
• West Coast Forward Structure
• Hooker Not Over Committing
• Port Adelaide Play Switch Attempt
• Perko Kicks Off the Line to Access Another Part of the Ground
• Essendon Not Wanting to Rush a Behind

AFLW FILM REVIEW ROUND 1 – NORTH MELBOURNE v GOLD COAST

 Video x 15mins.

• Gold Coast Possession Footy
• North Melbourne Center Clearance
• Emma King Decision Making
• North Melbourne Inside 50 Kick x 2
• North Melbourne Creating Space
• North Melbourne Center Clearance
• Gold Coast Defensive Switch
• Gold Coast Defense

AFLW FILM REVIEW ROUND 1 - ADELAIDE v MELBOURNE

 6min Video

• Adelaide Inside 50
• Adelaide Play On Handball Forward Half
• Adelaide Play On Handball Defensive Half
• Paxman Run

AFLW FILM REVIEW ROUND 1 - CARLTON v COLLINGWOOD

With 8 games per weekend I'm not sure if I'll get to every game for season 7 but we'll see how it goes!

Here's my 13min film review which looks at tactical and technical slices of the game like I have done in past seasons with all film review posts under the AFLW Film Review stand-alone membership which also contains reviews of all AFLW games from season 6/2022.

• Poor v Good Push Back Kick
• Carlton Defense
• Carl Forward structure
• Carlton I50
• Carlton No Switch
• Collingwood 100% options
• Sheridan Stoppage
• Carlton R50 v Coll F50 Defense

STUDY WEEK - SKILLED INTENTIONALITY

                                         

Full study link here.

• Team sport is analysed/explained by assuming an attacking-defending dualism whereby the game is viewed from the separate perspectives of either the attack or defense and this fragmented perspective obscures/ignores the dynamic relations and constant co-adaptation between attack and defense
• Knowledge of the performance environment is better suited for supporting perceptual learning, intentionality and the split second adaptations of players during continuous interactions of team sport
• Communicating 2^nd hand knowledge about football to players is largely ineffectual if 1 aims to optimise skill development/team coordination
• Skill development is the term we use to encompass skilled performance, perceptual learning and collective behavior in sport
• These related process are reliant on players becoming directly attuned to, and adapting with, the dynamic properties of football performance environments
• Knowledge of a performance environment helps each athlete to perceive the surrounding layout of their performance environment at the scale of their body/action capabilities
• Individuals use this type of knowledge to regulate behaviors during continuous interactions with objects/events/other people/surfaces and features of the terrain in the environment
• Knowledge of the performance environment may be comprised of surrounding info from the continuous movements of opponents/teammates/ball, revealing available affordances of gaps/obstacles/locations/spaces for achieving competitive aims
• Talking about football concepts that are abstract/decoupled from the environmental properties of the performance environment remains the predominant approach of coaching
• Overly reductionist/analytical methodologies create isolated fragments of decontextualised knowledge and these fragments are unable top account for the socio-cultural complexity and sub-system interrelations of athlete's environments and consequently present deconstructed/unrelatable pictures of athlete development
• Traditional methodologies remain focused on knowledge about the game with football concepts used to prescribe a sequence of best decisions and optimal solutions aligned to predetermined game model/tactical plans but there can be no optimal chain of best decisions in team sports
• The interdependent/relational/situational game dynamics mean that the most functional decision at any moment may compromise future decisions as interactions of players are deeply contextualised and entirely dependent on emergent info of when/where/who
• No amount of abstract representations, football concepts or coaching plans are able to account for the reality that the decisive interactions of players (passes, dribbling, tackles, interceptions, fakes, feints) are emergent/unpredictable/unknowable
• Traditional concepts focus on knowledge about the game and in practice these concepts have become the learning outcomes with training coupled to methods that encourage the verbal recall of those concepts but not always coupled with the doing of that very same concept
• Affordances always have to be understood in the context of an ecological niche that implies the form of life of a certain kind of animal and therefore we define an affordance as a relation between an aspect of the socio-material environment and an ability available in a form of life
• Ecological dynamics underscores how an athletes relates to, and their interdependence with, an environment facilitates specific behavior, emphasising the importance of interactions that are continuously regulated by information from the performance environment
• This description captures how the athlete-environment system becomes highly interconnected, attuned and resonant, making it problematic to practice performance behaviors in isolation, away from typical contexts
• Behavior/skill development can only be understood in accordance with both the characteristics of a performer and the characteristics of a performance environment simultaneously
• The process of skill acquisition is better conceptualised as skill adaptation/development, or the deep attunement to/reasonance with, the surrounding information in a practice/performance environment
• Skill develops as players become more attuned to opportunities for actions/affordances presented by the environment (players, ball, boundaries etc) but not all environmental properties are equal with some aspects weighted towards different social/cultural significance such as attention/standing out to be more readily perceived by others such as a gap between a defender’s legs resonating a cultural significance for Brazilian soccer players who can nutmeg them
• Within ecological dynamics the interactions of teams/players are deeply interconnected and continuously shaped by the constraints of the environment/tasks where constraints act as information and are related to each individual/task/environment, embedded by socio-cultural contexts and shaped by socio-cultural forces
• In ecological dynamics perception is of affordances and behavior is self organisation under constraints
• Affordances are facts of the environment and facts of behavior being physical/psychological or none and it points to both the environment and the observer
• Socio-material entanglement stresses that affordances are not just situated in the materialality of the immediate behavioral setting but entwined within a more culturally encompassing, socially shared and historically developed constellation of practices
• Affordances/effectivities can only be discovered/used when intentionality and lawfully specifies possibilities are coordinated where the intentionality of an agent and the aptness of the situation give rise to the relational properties of effectivity/affordance
• Effectivity describes the property of the agent which allows them to utilise a feature of the environment
• Affordance describes the property of the environment which the agent orients to and utilises
• Situation X affords activity Y for organism Z on occasion O if and only if X/Z are mutually compatible on dimensions of relevance to Y
• Organism Z effects activity Y in situation X on occasion O if and only if Z/X are mutually compatible on dimensions of relevance to Y
• Lawfully specified ensures that the perception of affordances is direct where the agent doesn’t need a representation of (knowledge about it) or have to think to utilise it, they simply perceive it and these possibilities are created through the properties of the environment
• A player perceives an affordance to score a goal when properties of the visual field lawfully specify openings in the defense in the direction of the goal and they have previously at training developed the effectivity to kick the ball accurately through the opening but an affordance to score is not perceived without intention to score which is embedded within the social practice of scoring a goal
• Affordnaces are also subject to changes in environment such as kicking for a goal but suddenly a mother/daughter walk behind the jumper goals and you have to change the power of your shot so as not to hit them where you demonstrate skilled intentionality which is a skillful responsiveness to multiple nested/nesting affordances simultaneously
• Players embody/display skilled intentions when they deceive/unbalance opponents with fakes/feints which is the art of deception with affordances to deceive opposition players nested/hidden within the relevant affordances that stand out
• Skilled intentionality is dependent on shared perception/affordances with teammates and opposition where an affordance to fake a pass and deceive the opposition is reliant on the opposition perceiving the opportunity for you to pass and simultaneously their (nested) invitation to intercept that pass, meaning you can only successfully perform a fake if your immediate opponent's skilled intentionality (perceptual skill/attunement) allows them to perceive your action opportunities
• Skill development/creativity is inextricably reliant on the perception of shared affordances
• Intentionality is entirely dependent upon context, inherently concerned with relationships/affordances
• Rondo’s spotlight passing/receiving opportunities by creating a relevant field of affordances that invite players to embody the value of teamwork/collaboration, coordinating their movements to create passing affordances and maintain poss but they still have major gaps in game representation
• Intentionality relates to a players’ interactions with the performance environment being directed at someone/thing = directedness and is not about explicit goals/tactics/technique that must be applied but a more flexible/adaptable environment with multiple action possibilities
• Players direct their actions towards certain aspects of the environment but their intentional state/value directedness determine what kind of aspects are targeted and which affordances are discovered, exploited and invented
• When  value-directedness is rigid/inflexible it will limit skill development opportunities (affordance detection/solution) with some affordances standing out and nested affordances undiscovered so players intentions are value directed by competition, individualism, comparison, evaluation and social status
• Coaches/clubs need to re-shape player-environment intentionality with interventions at the macros/micro level
• Successful fakes etc mark the moments in which value-directedness facilitates the detection, selection and utilisation of nested affordances and it’s worth considering if training devoid of fakes etc is too rigid, as in environments where players told exactly what to do by coaches in decontextualised settings building unskilled intentionality which when teams/players coordinate with a narrow field of relevant affordances like junior footy players all being around the ball and bad teams going down the line constantly
• To shape skilled intentions of players coaches must build training around game representative concepts such as when in possession of the ball coaches can ask players to try and play through, around or over them in order to score and vice versa for for the defensive team, where they also aim to win the ball back
• Shaping skilled intentions aims to facilitate an optimal level of team coordination/self organisation without sacrificing opportunities for adaptive, instinctive and potentially creative play and by directing players towards local interactions we avoid imposing tactical plans that aim to control, and often inhibit, local interactions
• Patterns of team coordination/self organisation that emerge from local interactions are flexible/adaptive to local information meaning players can break these patterns in unpredictable ways
• Players who display skilled intentions will balance the nested intentions moment to moment as they coordinate their movements on/off the ball, in order to play through/around/over the opposition
• To train shaping intentions coaches will often use a Rondo where there are 2 defenders but they aren’t coordinating their efforts and they are being played through easily but then start connecting, they stop most crosses and regain possession more often and the coordinated defense creates new challenges for the offense as they now might have to play around the defenders rather then through them
• Coaches must be aware of the value-directedness that is shaping intentions and the extent to which it may become rigid/inflexible
• Gains in direct perception can be mediated through communication about the environment and explained in various ways (written, drawn etc)
• 2^nd hand knowledge about the environment can illuminate the value-directedness of player-environment intentionality and play a vital role in aiding coaches’ awareness of value-directedness bit it is vastly inferior to facilitating the direct perception of affordances in a sport specific environment
• Self organisation of collective behaviors may be optimised by methods prioritising knowledge of, or direct attunement to, the local interactions of the environment
• Prioritise learning through continuous interactions of players on the pitch and in games, not through verbal instruction of football concepts
• Shaping skilled intentions facilitates self organisation in local to global direction
• Coaches should distinguish between developing players understanding about the game (ability to talk about football) in contrast to developing understanding in the game via the perception of nested affordances

STUDY WEEK - UNDERSTANDING/MODELING TEAMS AS DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS

                                                      

Full Study Link Here.

• Understanding teams involves not just understanding isolated mental/behavioral processes in the individual but demands theories/models for how interacting with other people shape thought/behavior in real time
• Whereas a system exists independently of whether or not it is recognised as a system (when something is part of a system it behaves differently then if it wasn’t), systems thinking is a matter of perspective
• For an astronomer the galaxy is the system and the earth is an element of the system and for a climatologist the earth is the system and the atmosphere is an element
• Systems and subsystems can have fuzzy boundaries but when we use the word system, we invoke explanations/understanding precisely at the system level rather than the constituent elements of the system
• Behaviors can emerge at the system level that are not encoded at the level of isolated elements and is the distinction between compositional/compilational emergence in team cognition
• Compositional emergence means that properties at the team level (team knowledge etc) are isomorphic to properties at the ind level (sum of in game knowledge etc)
• Compilational emergence means that properties at the team level are non-isomorphic to properties at the individual level where the team properties only emerge through the process of team interaction
• An attractor is a behavior that a system settles on over time after (possibly) displaying initial transient (settling in) behavior
• A perturbation is an outside disturbance to a system that forces either a reorg of the behavioral trajectory towards an attractor or moves the system towards a new attractor
• Synchronisation is where 1 or more coupled oscillatory processes become coordinated in time across some proportion of frequency
• Fractals model either spatial or temporal processes in which similar patterns occur across multiple scales (timescales etc) of measurement, meaning it displays a temporal nesting property such that smaller copies of a pattern are nested w/in larger copies of the pattern, a property called scale-invariance
• Scale-invariant properties are fit by a power law distribution and these laws are a signature of self organisation and long memory effects
• Self organisation is a process wherein order at the global scale emerges from and constrains component behavior at the local scale and long memory effects are correlations that persist over longer timescales than those that characterised local variability within the system
• Just as there are different scales of analysis (local v global, short v long timescale etc) there are also different levels of analysis including perceptual-motor, cognitive-behavioral and neutral
• Perturbation training is a team training approach that draws on the system proposition that when a coordination pattern is perturbed, all team members (not just those directly affected by the perturbation) must readjust their interaction patterns at a local scale to maintain system stab and team effectiveness at a global scale
• Well placed perturnations (unexpectedly cutting a communication link etc) exercise the potential coordination space of a team beyond routine conditions by forcing them to develop new solutions for novel coordination problems
• The prediction for team training is that by introducing perturbations during team skill acquisition, we increase the flexibility/adaptability of the team members, thereby enhancing team performance in response to novel/unpracticed task conditions
• Perturbations can lead to superior performance under novel task conditions compared to cross training/procedural training
• Flexibility in real-time interaction processes induced by pert training, rather than shared knowledge/following scripted procedures, enhances team performance by exercising the real time dynamics that team members need to experience in order to adapt in the post training environment
• 2 measures of whether a team response to a roadblock are whether the team overcomes the roadblock and the time it takes to overcome the roadblock and the 2^nd measure is related to the dynamical concept of relaxation time which is the time it takes for a system to return to its attractor after its trajectory has been perturbed
• Team communication/cognition/coordination give rise to dynamic patterns that change in real time
• Local variability ensures global stability and vice versa
• These dynamics are substrate-independent and there is no preferred level of analysis
• Cross level effects occur between levels of analysis
• Interpersonal behavior/teamwork that is somehow encoded in the individual is inaccurate and what is encoded in the individual emerges out of a vibrant network/interpersonal/social/cultural interactions that continuously shape/reshape that which is encoded and from this perspective teams and individual in any interactive environment can be understood/modeled using a systems approach

STUDY WEEK - PRESSURE TRAINING

                                     

Full study link.

• The 3 properties of effective pressure manipulations x extending the reach of consequences, simulating psychological demands of competition and approximating, but not replicating, competition pressure
• Benefits performance by providing opportunities to learn and practice coping skills, can change the relationship players have with pressure and increase the quality of training
• To create pressure in training implement pressure manipulations that increase the sense of importance to perform well via consequences that have extended reach/demands that emphasise the psychological challenges of competition
• Extending reach of consequences is not relying intently of the intensity of consequences but instead pressure can be increased if consequences impact athletes beyond a brief moment in time or affects more people than the individual
• Monitoring reminds athletes that performance in a given drill could continue to impact coaches’ judgement of them over time, not just in that moment
• Leader boards enable comparison between athletes which can increase competitiveness and the use of social media makes performance visible to an even wider audience
• Ask athletes to put a training pledge on social media to commit them to the task
• If monitoring and visibility extended importance of performance beyond 1 moment in time, then consequences for teammates extended the importance beyond 1 individual where 1 athlete might be asked to perform but their performance could result in a forfeit for teammates and while the nature of the reward/punishment itself may not create pressure for the athlete, the idea of causing others to experience that consequence could increase the pressure
• Consequences with extended reach often kept attention on the athlete's performance and when a forfeit was at stake, an athlete had the chance to show teammates that they could be counted on
• Collaborate with athletes to agree on any consequences such as posting on social media before expecting athletes to participate in pressure training
• Simulating psychological demands of competition x the physical surroundings/flow of practice should be constructed to resemble competition settings
• Competitiveness is increased by creating competition between teammates, simulate specific types of opposition (aggressive/vocal player tactic) and simulate high pressure tactical situations
• Increasing competitiveness within training can magnify both the level of challenge and athletes motivation to win or perform their best
• Competing against teammates could also increase the perceived importance of a consequence and a small reward could even more desirable if teammates are competing for it, even if it’s just $1 as it becomes the most important $1 in the world if their mate has put it on the line
• Competitiveness/consequences seemed to interact to increase pressure and neither the chance to win money nor the presence of teammates may have increased pressure as much as competing with those teammates for that money
• Manipulate demands to add to uncertainty/unfairness/uncontrollable factors that the athletes cannot avoid/stop where performance can decline rapidly when in number disadvantage conditions in small sided games as it breeds desperation, sloppy passing/decision making, frustration and then irritability
• Can also accentuate uncontrollable factors was to manipulate the score of the match during training by having both teams having a different point total to score to win but without the opposition knowing and because 1 team might be so close to winning this uncertainty resembled the end of a match with a close score in which all of a sudden this perception of how important a single point is goes massively up
• Another uncontrollable situation is when athletes had to perform on demand without advanced notice or multiple chances and instead of getting multiple reps to get it right, you have 1 rep only which is competition demands to a tee
• None of these make the actual task any harder but they target situations to ensure similar psychological challenges that athletes face in competition
• If consequences seemed to increase the importance of the outcome of a drill then demands seemed to increase the importance of executing phys skills or applying mental skills to achieve that outcome
• Proper technique is more important when athletes only have 1 chance to complete the task and the ability to focus is heavily relied upon especially when facing more uncontrollable factors than in a normal practice
• Approximating, but not replicating, intensity of competition pressure where a true replication is not necessary and competition will always be slightly unique but you just want to see where the athlete goes under stress, what stress/pressure looks like for them and then building a framework to build and manage that response
• Perfectly replicating competition pressure is less critical than having athletes practice the thinking/behaviors that would help them cope with that pressure
• Approximation was also usually sufficient because building up to that performance under pressure was a process and you don't need to apply the highest pressure possible all at once
• Pressure training helps improve performance x learning and then practice coping skills, change the relationship with pressure and increase the quality of training
• Learning/practicing coping skills x helps to manage anxiety, attention and self talk under pressure but it takes time to develop the routines around them while you deliberately add/remove elements to see how you respond to them
• The closer you get to competition the more potentially negative thoughts arise and pressure training gives you opportunities to deal with it, enable you to understand it and then navigate those thoughts faster = not getting as big of a psychological response and not having to deal with an issue that used to be bigger
• Coaches will notice athletes focusing better/longer, being more coachable and actionable on coaching cues
• The desire to win can have you playing against the scoreboard instead of the opposition where you can then identify that you’re becoming overwhelmed, take a step back, take a deep breath and then process what’s right in front of you
• Change the relationship with pressure x training to alter behavioral change to pressure but also how athletes interpret pressure by reaching an understanding between not necessarily good/bad pressure, but that feeling you get when you think you’re under pressure but actually just not assuming that’s going to hurt your performance
• Athletes going from treating nerves as a bad thing to feeling that pressure is normal and that they can handle it by doing x/y/z rather going into their shell
• Coaches can change the task/environment/performer but these physical/tactical demands do not increase pressure unless combined with consequences where you need to target psychological demands by fostering competitiveness, adding uncontrollable factors or requiring athletes to perform on demand
• Pressure is an increased importance to perform well and psychological demands increased this importance of a task without changing the task itself such as performing a task with just a single rep attempt
• The emphasise on psychological demands distinguishes pressure training from the constraints-led approach which relies on manipulating environments/tasks, with pressure training seeking athletes to perform the same skills under pressure
• Some forfeits, such as sprints, may increase pressure but they are unrelated to the consequences of competition but athletes may feel realistic pressure to impress coaches or avoid letting teammates down when facing certain consequences with extended reach
• Structure psychological demands based on scenarios that athletes will likely face in competition where athletes can face/deal with the same negative thoughts that will pop up in games
• Training with mild anxiety can improve performance under higher levels of anxiety
• Athletes can practice how they want to think/behave under pressure and this can contribute to pressure training’s effectiveness as much as the amount of pressure, which should be gradual anyway as the athlete becomes comfortable
• Until athletes can perform under moderate pressure then there’s no need to worry about maximising it as it can interfere with developing coping skills as athletes go straight to from calm to high stress too quickly
• Pressure training increases the athletes self awareness of the need for coping skills by highlighting sources of pressure/unproductive tendencies under pressure
• Athletes can practice those coping skills under pressure in sport specific settings and then learn to apply them quickly when in competition
• Demands that increase difficulty often do not increase pressure and athletes can perform worse but not feel pressure if they do not have more reason than usual to maintain performance
• Don’t assume that consequences will create pressure just because it s unpleasant to athletes as a mild forfeit can be unpleasant but only temporary
• Consequences with extended reach amplify an impact that might already matter to the athletes (judgment from coaches etc)
• Pressure training seems to prepare athletes even if if that pressure only approximates the levels of pressure in competition
• The level of pressure should be increased as athletes develop their coping skills
• Coaches should continue to manipulate conditions to increase pressure but also recognise that lower levels of pressure can still be beneficial and are even desirable
• For a complex task, training under a mix of high and low anxiety can improve performance better than training under just high anxiety
• Introducing anxiety too early can disrupt the learning process
• Consequences usually involve athletes losing something rather then to win something, so try both approaches

STUDY WEEK - GAME REPRESENTATIVE PRACTICE

                                         

This week I'll posting my notes from numerous studies that I've read over the last little while, of which I've done in some previous posts.

There's barely any of these studies specific to Aussie Rules Football but one's like these related to soccer and Gaelic football carryover easily.

They'll mostly be long (today is the shortest one) and disjointed as they're my notes taken based on my current level of understanding so it won't tell the entire story but if you find a nugget or 2 that takes your liking then here's the link to read up further on them, which also has various diagrams on study conditions etc that might be of interest

Handy hint- these study documents are great public transport trips.

• Game representation is enhanced by increasing opportunities for action
• Task decomposition fails for game representation
• Traditional practice is too static since in games players need to constantly adjust their decisions/actions to the changes in the environment
• Ecological Dynamics is all about the performer and environment relationship where there are plenty of  opportunities for action which is provides game representation
• Game Representation is the manipulation of task constraints via variation and degree of uncertainty
• In Futsal you need to perceive the location of the teammate who will receive the ball but also pass it with specific speed and direction, to satisfy the emerging opportunities of actions offered by the structure of the environment as opportunities to pass arise and dissolve, according to the spatial temporal relations between competing performers
• This study looked at the effect of manipulating the number of players action possibilities on the ball speed and passing accuracy where it was hypothesised that increasing the number of passing possibilities from a single predetermined location to an emergent passing task (ball carrier decides who will receive) would enhance similarity of ball speed characteristics and passing accuracy between practice and game conditions
• Passes were needed to be controlled easily by the receiver but also at the highest possible speed
• Each group did 2 trials in random pass order, had 5mins rest and then they played a Futsal match
• The increased number of passing possibilities decreased accuracy
• Predetermined passes revealed significantly higher regularity in levels of ball speed and in accuracy % of passing actions compared to emergent passing conditions in which there were more opportunities for action
• The numbers revealed that increasing the number of emergent passing actions offered in a practice task design was more representation of a game
• Variations in ball speed observed in condition 4 and the game revealed that players constantly changed their action to perform a pass with timing and weighting, required by game conditions
• Manipulating predetermined to emergent passes constrained passing behavior
• The competition between possibilities for action in emergent passes lead to more irregular variation in passing speeds which is probably due to the need to continuously change how the passes were made

Let me know your thoughts and/or any clarification you require on any of these points.

GAME/TRAINING SCENARIOS - DEFENDING WITH NUMBERS

                                            

As I've mentioned previous times before, and what you may have noticed yourself, is that at local footy teams will defend with more players than they attack with most of the time,meaning they'll have extra's behind ball before they have extra's in front of the ball.

This is great for reducing the opposition from scoring but it can often undo your own ability to score as your outnumber advantage in 1 part of the ground results in an outnumber disadvantage in the other.

Last year the Sydney Swans mastered the ability to outnumber the opposition in multiple parts of the ground in the same play, taking it to a whole different level this year with forward pressure with how they use all 18 players on the ground in regards to specific positioning when their is a stoppage in a specific part of the ground and then how they move once ball is on the move.

This game/training scenario takes a slice of the game (as they all do) of defending with many more payers then the offensive are trying to score with and literally plays out as the game video shows.

Also within the game video I point out a few ways the Saints could have played out this scenario for a more sustainable method of transition offense and you can use these with your own players but if you do, keep them to yourself initially and try and guide them towards those solutions.

Give them some goes at this with no instruction, let them have a short discussion about how to better what they're doing, give them some goes at it and then if they're not edging towards what you think is more sustainable and closer to your normal game method, that's when you, the coach, come in as a facilitator of the environment with questions of why they are doping it this way, how else could they be doing it, what affordances are consistently arising in this scenario etc, edging towards your, or my, solutions.

GAME MOMENT...

For full access to this game/training scenario and many others that you can use with your own team, register for a level 4 membership at https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/. 

BUILDING CONFIDENCE FOR FINALS

                                          

With finals right on our doorstep (not mine unfortunately!) there's not much more as coach that you can do in regards to team tactics/strategies or individual physical conditioning between now and the Grand Final.

Hopefully since December last year you have been able to instill all the team tactics and strategies you want and need to hit the last game of the year and now it's a matter of constant checking for understanding among the playing group on an individual and team line basis.

When players are well aware of their individual and team roles and responsibilities then your job as coach is pretty much done - it's in the players hands now, and that's where you want to be at this time of the year.

Once that has been achieved then it's all a psychological game on which team of individuals can carry out their collective tasks over 4 quarters and this is where confidence comes in.

When 2 teams are playing are playing against each other with equal tactical, strategic and physical abilities, the team who can execute those qualities with more confidence will win.

A quick example of this is both teams adapt at switching the ball from the back line where q team goes all the way around the boundary line to their forward line in 5 - 10 possessions in 20 - 30secs compared to the team that switches the ball but then bites off an in-board kick that straightens them back up and enables them to hit their forward line in 3 - 6 possessions in 10 - 20secs.

The coach really needs to know his players at this point to ensure every single player is beaming with confidence of what they can do individually and collectively against the best opposition. 

Here are some things to look for thanks to Dan Abrahams, a coach I've referenced more times than I can remember in my content.

What To Look For

Players looking lethargic, hiding, looking lost, reacting with stronger than normal emotion, are being quieter than normal and making uncommon errors for them.

What Are They Going Through

They are mentally rehearsing failure in their heads so ask them to recall their best game and remind them of moments of success in the not so distant past and ask them what their biggest supporter would say about their game when they are at their best.

What Can You Do

They are in dire need of certainty of instruction so ask questions to clarify what they know, explain your points in a simple and concise way, come back to them later in the week and test their understanding then retest again close to game time.

Another method you can use is to help them pick the 2 -3 most important tasks that they can focus on and help them make them specific and controllable.

Helping them with positive, helpful and energising self talk to squash automatic negative thoughts and insisting on great body language are also psychological boosting factors you can turn to.

3 ZONES OF FOOTBALL - TRAINING FORWARD PRESSURE

                                             

About a month ago I posted about the 3 zones of football and how you could use it to guide your training more specifically than you currently do and today we're going to have a look at how to that in regards to training to apply huge forward pressure which gives you increased game time in your own forward half time, keeps the ball closer to your goal then the opposition's and allows your backs to defend up to high to lock that sucker in.

What the 3 zones of football does is allows you to create similar scenario's to what happens in a game where players get to the ball location at all different times rather then at training where everyone gets there at the same time as they're already in perfect positions to contest the ball but a huge part of positioning is knowing when and being able to get there at the absolute right time and this will help greatly with that.

Traditional training also focuses a lot on one 1 and 2 and not much on zone 3 which is your team structure zone which is your foundation so it will also give your players plenty of opportunities to see this in a low pressure situation allowing them to make better decisions instead of seeing it for the first time in a game when cognitive function is highly compromised and sub-par decision making is the result.

As the title suggests we're going to look at applying forward pressure under different conditions, conditions that forwards will see multiple times during a game. 

There are 5 levels to this full activity that don't need to be implemented all on 1 night is not meant to be but going 2 - 3 levels at a time is probably the right choice, depending on your forward's success level.

LEVEL 1...

For full access to this training activity and many others register for a level 3 membership at https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/.

GAME/TRAINING SCENARIOS - TEASING DISTANCE

                                                     

This scenario is taken from an actual game but is really a multi-part play consisting of:

1 - Defensive Transition Positioning to Create Enticing Teasing Distance

2 - Offensive Transition Positioning to Create Enticing Pass Option + Engage Multiple Defenders Around You

This will present itself in a game at various times but it's also a product of your team's game plan and if defensively you want to provide teasing distance to try and pick off missed corridor kicks or offensively, to pick apart defenses by filling in gaps between their lines.

I'm going to go against the grain of these scenario's a bit and make this more "drill-y" then usual and which I'll lose sleep over but that's my problem!

I'm going to reproduce a slice of this scenario in a pre-determined fashion so it won't involve players recognising these formations in a game nor their ability to run to these positions at the right time.

Regardless this type of kick, usually a 1 step, low and hard kick , is definitely one worth training as it can speed up your ball movement quite dramatically without needing any major game style overhauls.

Here's how it all looks:

GAME MOMENT...

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GAME/TRAINING SCENARIOS - PLAYING TOO FAST WHEN NOT DEEP ENOUGH

                                                       

This game/training scenario piggy backs off off from yesterdays lengthening the ground scenario bit in the maybe the most important spot on the ground to get right.

The kick inside forward 50 is the most critical kick in football but that can be set up by what you do with the ball and your players between the arcs.

This scenario takes the starting point of the players in the video but then presents multiple options for the ball carrier, some of which will gain an advantage for their team and others that won't.

There is no 1 way to solve this problem but your aim is to definitely play at the pace that you need to as your teammates work themselves into better attacking positions...

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GAME/TRAINING SCENARIOS - LENGTHENING THE GROUND

                                                               

In 2022 footy is played completely different how it used to be played in 80's and 90's when I was a kid.

The disappointing this is that it's still often coached that way and nuances of the game that were evident back then have faded out of the game as new ball/player movement tactics have evolved to suit the modern game.

Lengthening the ground is one of those nuances.

Back in the golden days you were taught to constantly hit up at the footy, which is still required today in some cases, bit nowhere near as much as it used to be.

Leads are more lateral these days as footy uses far more ground space then it used to with switch of plays and kicking off the line rather then long down for territory.

This also comes back to the kicker too as there is a greater focus on maintaining possession of the ball for as long as you can over territory kicks to 50/50's.

On top of that there is far more room for error kicking to lateral leads then there is to front on leads coming straight at you.

Perhaps the biggest issue with straight on leads is that you can get yourself out of position very quickly leaving less players ahead of the ball and more work required to get up and then back again, often against an outnumber, especially when multiple players all lead up at the footy.

Let's move into the 2020's with this lengthening scenario...

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MY JUNIOR FOOTBALL GAME STATS!

Today marks 2 years since the old man passed away suddenly and posted at the time how he was me my 3 brother's greatest supporter in all our sporting endeavors.

While cleaning out his flat at the time we came across the game stats he used to take for all us for every game of football we played at Dennington Football Club down in Warrnambool, Jordan Lewis' junior club.

Sometimes he'd even take some senior player stats after our junior games where in 1 elimination final 1 bloke (Stephen "Worm" Williams) totaled 52 possessions and a goal in an elimination final win, the club's first final (and win) since the late 80's.

Anyway here are 8 of games from 1993 aged 14 for that season through to 1997, aged 18 for that season.

I used to be a pretty sore loser so with 26 touches and a goal all resulting in 2pt loss when wins were extremely rare, must have made me extra grumpy post-game.

This year I was 15 (my birthday is Sep 29th so I was always the youngest, just 2 days fro the cut off date) and would have weighed 40kgs but had to play under 18's anyway with 2 of my brothers that year. This was a preliminary final in the wet for memory and you can see all the extra add-on's from the old man who loved his game notes every now and then. My brother Jarrod, who had been invited to the Geelong Falcons this year I reckon, played pretty much his last game of footy ever in this one after dislocating his shoulder and we got flogged the next week in the Granny with an all in brawl to boot - good time! 

2 out of 4 goals but a good old fashioned flogging as was the go back then.

Not sure how we won this as we wouldn't have been very good again that year and Districts were only a year or 2 away from moving to the much stronger Hampden league but we'll take it.

In 1997 I was 18 for the entire year, again with my 19th birthday not until after the season was completely finished and was a pretty successful year as we made finals that year, a rarity for the Dogs and 5 goals is my 2nd best return for entire game, after the 8 I managed about 20 years later!

Fortunately for us we were only the 2nd worst team most of the time in juniors so at least we had East Warrnambool twice a year to get some wins against with Chopper also having a day out.

We hated Russell's Creek more than anyone and we rarely beat them so do so in an elimination final was absolute gold although I always remembered kicking 5 in this game but the old man's stats don't lie!

This was the week after the highly fancied Old Collegians, who I eventually ended up playing for from 2000 - 2004 before moving to Melbourne. This was a simply terrible day in constant rain, wind and mud and I reckon they kicked a goal with about 10secs to go, it was a nail biter down to the end and we were shattered to lose to be honest as we'd battled all year to just get a team together let alone win a final and come this close to a 2nd one.

So there's a little trip down memory lane, love ya Dad.