LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKES

Over at my Instagram page I posted some game footage from the weekend of 2 blunders I made during my game, both resulted in goals for the opposition.

I'm actually enjoying going back and looking at the game footage from my games because in the heat of the moment you see 1 thing from that angle, but the footage can show many other things from a completely different angle.

Putting both of these together means there is more data going into your brain which can assist in decision making down the track when a similar situation arises.

Here is the post with the videos:

View this post on Instagram

Take the good with the bad! Vid 1 - turn over square up kick that resulted in a goal to them in the same of play Vid 2 - big dude sucked me in #afltraining #afl #aflw #aflwomens #learnfromit #learnfrommistakes

A post shared by Troy Lange (@aussierulestraining) on Apr 30, 2019 at 8:16pm PDT

The first video a blatant skill error where you can clearly see my square up kick lands about a meter and a half behind the intended player (Fingers in the orange boots.)

Tactically it was 1 of the 2 things we want to do so I passed there.

Technically I kicked the ball in the right fashion (low and hard).

Psychologically I trust my kicking (maybe too much?) and it is a kick I can make, I just didn't on this occasion.

It won't stop me doing it again that's for sure.

The second vid is of their center half back who was pushing up at all times who puts a little fake-a-roo on me and bombs one from 60, just in from where he popped a goal minutes earlier.

I reckon I played this right though.

I manned the mark hard, moved with him laterally to at least make him kick over all 168cms of me but I obviously can't see what he's thinking.

5mins later he tried to do it again to another player of ours who did know what he was thinking and he caught him holding the ball! 

Celebrate your wins and learn from your losses.

HOLISTIC TRAINING + MOTOR LEARNING SPECIFIC EXAMPLE FOR AUSSIE RULES TRAINING

In the last week or 2 I've dropped a couple of posts with 1 being the Holistic Training Approach and the other Motor Learning.

For this blog to make total sense you'll probably need to go back and give them a good read or this will look like a whiteboard with rubbish all over it.

All coaches, but specifically footy coaches need to understand that just going out into drills and expecting learning to happen is a complete fallacy.

You've got to build an environment (culture, drill selection etc) to drive learning.

You've also got to get away from pre-determined drills for the most part because football is a game of complete chaos and you never know what' can happen from 1 play to the next so you need to tactically and psychologically train your players exactly for that.

The 1 specific example I'm gonna use for this today is the 45 degree square up kick - maybe the most attacking kick in football but also probably the most risky as inadequate attempt will more often than not lead to a score at the other.

I personally f$%ked one of these up this past weekend and a goal was the direct result (I'll try and get the vid up on Insta this week)

From our 45 degree square up kick we're gonna have 4 kick types to master.

#1 - You start with the ball in hand and simply turn and kick to the 45 degree option

#2 - You receive a handball from a teammate and you turn and kick to the 45 degree option

#3 - You mark the ball (at half back for example) turn and kick to the 45 degree option

#4 - You mark the ball (again like a half back), push back behind your mark, turn and kick to the 45 degree option

*** Player 1 is the kicker and 45 is the square up option

You could go option crazy here but I'll cap it at 4 for the sake of the blog and how you train these specific kicks is talked about in the motor learning blog.

On top of that you'll have 3 - 5 defender/stress options to add into the drill.

A) - Add a man on the mark (labelled MON) to options 1, 2, 3, and 4.

B) Add 1 zone defender (labelled ZD) to either side of the 45 square up option who will basically just squeeze up the target size, he won't necessarily rush in and try to spoil everything in site. The man on the mark stays in play.

C) Add a second zone defender to the other side of the 45 square up option (again labelled ZD) to shrink that target size even more requiring a more accurate kick to hit the target. The defenders just hold their position and the man on the mark stays in play.

OK so we have 4 different types of kicks to be performed in 3 different scenarios at the moment.

Following the progressions of practice from the motor learning blog is probably a good way to go here and we've increased various forms of stress by modifying the target we're kicking to.

All up we have repetition without repetition - exactly what we're after for learning variability.

To see how this might play out at an actual training session you could set up 3 stations around the ground with the 3 slightly different variations.

In the image below there are 3 groups with 1 being a literal 45 degree kick from half back to somewhere between the middle and inside edge of the center square, another group being a more deep kick from the boundary to square the ball into the middle of your center half back position to shift their defence and open up ground space for you and the third option is a mid wing position and direct sideways kick to allow you to push forward on the fat side.

I've just "squared off" the separate groups with those dotted lines.

We can put this on steroids depending on your level of football by having one of those zone defenders squeezing in closer, and then both zone defenders squeezing in closer so that target might shrink from an initial 20m, to 10m to 5m.

As you progress the failure rate will be high and that's EXACTLY WHAT WE WANT!

Players must be assured that you as coaches are pushing their skill bandwidths and we want them to find the solution to making these kicks.

Obviously not everyone will be able to make all of these kicks at local/amateur level either so also let them know they're not expected to be able to do it but you're looking at how they differ their kicks to combat the problem/s they run into (kicking too high, too slow, not pushing back for enough etc).

Let players mistakes are fine and will happen, but that repeat mistakes are not acceptable.

To make closer to a game simulation you could still have the 3 groups but the 45 degree square up option can position themselves in any of the 3 options above, or anywhere really.

This will actually teach the 45 degree player to improve their own locationing, positioning, timing and lead patterns to make this kick pay off on game day.

The final progression to this is determine who are your better players at doing what types of kicks from what types of positions.

A good kick at training with zero pressure may not be as good a kick in games so you can't assume they can do it on game day and obviously we can't test training strategies on a Saturday either.

What you can do and this is my anal side coming out, is to video each player and time how fast they can get possession of the ball and get it in the hands of the 45 degree player.

Say you have Zac who can hit on average 8/10 targets for option A (man on the mark) and he can do it in an average time of say 3secs, then you've got a little bit of data behind you and something that other players can aspire to reach.

If you have Anthony who can also hit 8/10 targets but it takes him 4.5secs, then he needs to get his time down either through cleaner possession or with a more lower and harder kick that the zone defenders in the next option won't be able to get to in time to spoil.

You could literally do this for any type of specific skill you want for footy if you take the time to put it all together - in other words create a training environment conducive to actual learning.

Hit me up with any questions you have on this.

MOTOR LEARNING 

* I cannot find this article for the life of me so I cannot provide the source of this info but it is golden!

When you go to footy training you're essentially to learn, pushing your personal boundaries to increase your own bandwidth of skills, if you're doing it properly.

Unfortunately most local/amateur players there to rehash the current skill set and level that they already have and as learning has it, you can actually start to decrease your skill level as your brain shifts to autopilot and during a game you've got the ball and you're left without a physical, technical or tactical solution to get rid of it effectively.

Dump kick down the line or out of a pack.

Missed target.

Incorrect decision making.

Game lost.

Proper motor learning involves repeating the same essential skill but many different ways which increases your skill variability meaning you can perform the same basic skill from a variety of positions, speeds and situations.

I'm positive we all know a teammate who tears it up on the track with no pressure and pre-determined targets but fails miserably  when all those things are cranked up on game day.

Here's a look at how to create the ideal environment for motor learning can ramp up your skill set.

METHOD #1 - BLOCK PRACTICE

- Involves performing 1 exercise variation for a certain volume with all reps being completed before moving to the next variation

Example - 40 stationary kicks into 40 handball receive kicks into 40 running kicks

- During this method of motor learning learning usually occurs fore the first rep/s only with minimal learning from all subsequent sets

METHOD #2 - RANDOM PRACTICE

- Involves tasks following an unpredictable order of multiple exercise variations for 1 rep each

Example - 1 stationary kick into 1 handball receive kick into 1 running kick x pre-determined number of sets per kick variation (10 x 1 per variation)

- Each rep has a different movement solution where the player may take time with each variation with the focus on feel feedback rather than form feedback

- This method involves high level of contextual interference which are interventions included in drills to push the boundaries of your bandwidth (defenders in drills, outnumbers small sided games etc). The most important thing to be aware of is that practice performance will drop, sometimes dramatically, but the learning, retention and transfer of performance is much, much greater over time with consistent exposures. If you want footy training to look pretty, ten you're not learning anything.

METHOD #3 - SERIAL SCHEDULE OF PRACTICE

- Involves moderate amounts of contextual interference which would again be a pattern such as stationary, handball receive and running kicks for a series of rounds but not pre-determined 

Example  - 1 stationary kick into 1 handball receive kick into 1 running kick x pre-determined number of sets per kick variation (10  - 40 x 1 per variation)

METHOD #4 - CHAOS RANDOM PRACTICE

- Involves random practice of all kicking variations not determined beforehand

Example - 1 stationary kick into 1 running kick into 1 stationary kick into 1 handball receive kick into 1 running kick into 1 handball receive kick and so on or game simulation

SESSION PLANNING

- You'll achieve systematic increases in contextual interference in your training using an order of block, serial schedule of practice then random practice

- Block practice is not as good as random practice when it comes to skill retention and transfer of skill

- Neither are as good as serial schedule of practice

- Within a single session start with block practice then introduce blocks of random practice and finish with chaos random practice to have the highest retention of transfer

HOLISTIC TRAINING APPROACH

Each year I'll read somewhere between 5 - 10 training/coaching articles/blogs that resonate far more with me than the 1000 other one's I read throughout the year.

Besides my good self and a few other private sector coaches, there's not a lot of Aussie Rules specific information being made available to the public so these major A-Ha moments for me come from reading about coaches in other sports.

When this happens it's because of the quality of the content is so high that as you're reading it, idea's start to flood your brain well before you even finish it.

Above all it's is the information that I needed, or could fully utilise RIGHT NOW, like all my reading up until now was all leading to this.

If I had read this same article I would not have had the tools/background reading/knowledge to have this flood of thoughts I had the other day.

The article is from a website I've frequented for years now called HMMR Media which doesn't sound like a training website at all but it is run by a World Class Throws Coach Martin Bingisser.

The article was titled Holistic Training Approach and it's actually Martin talking about another throws coach and a video of one his athletes from years ago.

Here are my notes from it and later in the week I'll post something specific to footy that I've built off this information.

- If you go back to all my Game Changer notes from late last year and early this year, you'll often come across how all coaching, teaching and training needs to address the 4 co-actives being physical, technical, tactical and psychological

 - In the video of the specific shot put exercise, technique is being trained by destabilising the athletes technique forcing him to build up the most important attractors of his sport specific action (shot put) by altering the training environment - having him stand on a balance beam

- This requires the athlete to self organise and find the correct movement solution, balance and rhythm to execute the throw without losing his balance

- Physically the destabilisation of the training environment requires even more specific strength to be recruited to maintain balance on the beam, strength that would otherwise go untapped on flat ground and repetition without repetition has been achieved

- Mentally the new challenge introduced to the exercise (balance) means that the athlete must fully visualise and concentrate on every aspect of the movement to execute it successfully where he'll need to recruit more focus than normal

- This mental focus can than be overloaded for further improvements by adding a target on the wall for him to throw to

- Emotionally the purpose is more about developing competition skills and seeing how you respond to pressure so design exercise games that you can only win or lose with zero grey area

- The coach and athlete can gamble on the results as in how many times can he throw the ball to the wall on the full without losing balance and progressing to how many times can he hit the target

- The athlete is allowed to make some errors and you'll never resolve all their problems but with this type of skill acquisition training, you'll have far less problems

What have you picked up from this blog and how do you think you can work it into footy training?

2019 TEAM / PLAYER PREP IDEA'S & THOUGHTS PART 9

HARD SKILLS - JEFF MOYER

– Hard skills are the optimal mechanics in an ideal situation/foundation

- It is where the key movements are mastered within the motor skill

- Your first reps are like sled tracks in the snow and with subsequent tries, your sled will follow those grooves

- Hard skill key movements are the force producing actions for example the paw back, ankle extension and knee drive actions in sprinting

- Hard skill secondary movements help to transmit and stabilise the motor skill and shore up energy leaks of the key movements such as arm action, coordination etc

- Don’t allow errors in training as hard skills are hard to break leading to harder to break bad habits

- You need a top down approach where the athlete has to actually think about it to correct it then the error has to move from unconscious-incompetent to conscious-incompetent and then all the way to unconscious-competent

- You need to determine why the error is happening (poor technical learning, technical application, physical limitations etc)

- Soft skills are how skills are incorporated into a task and environmental situations

- It's also where you create a breadth of movement to learn how to adapt to the various changing conditions of training/competition

- Is built by playing and exploring inside challenging, ever-changing movements where you encounter different obstacles and respond to them over and over building a network of sensitive wiring you need to read, recognise and react

- Perception and action

- Repetition without repetition

- How you sprint, jump and change direction will vary based on arousal/speed of movement/fatigue/goals/task

- However variability within a motor skill’s key movements should not vary much here and is pretty much a positional difference of where you start/finish executing the skill from

2019 TEAM / PLAYER PREP IDEA'S & THOUGHTS PART 8

Internet is connected...for now!

Let's pick up where we left off shall we?

VARIABILITY / ADAPTABILITY - JOHN KIELY

- As we train a skill the size of the brain responsible for that skill increases but if we train too heavily then it can shrink to the point where we actually hurt ourselves from a performance point of view like musicians cramp

-  The idea is to not let that area get too small by inserting slight variations of your core movements (repetition without repetition)

- Max effort work in the gym can decrease the amount of variability you can use to complete the lift as you need to hold, master and perfect technique to stay in the safe zone which can in turn decrease adaptive ability

DESIREABLE DIFFICULTIES (ANNIE BROOKMAN-BYRNE)

- Makes learning more challenging but also more effective

- There are ways of learning that may feel less effective and even lead to more errors during the learning process but that also leads to better performance in the long term

- Spacing aims to increase the amount of information that is learnt so rather then revisiting the same information in succession, you’d spread it out over time

- Rather than studying information on a topic 3 times in a row you would study for the same amount of time overall but with 10 minutes to 24 hours in between

- Interleaving refers to switching between topics rather then staying on topic exclusively so switch from maths to geography to french then back to maths again

- The testing effect refers to the act of trying to remember information which can improve the learning of that material later on

- Multiple choice encourages you to think about each answer which seems to help recall untested but related information

- When things feel at their toughest then that might just be when the real learning is happening