With the extreme changes being enforced upon football clubs as we hopefully return to training very soon, this means that players are going to have get very flexible and very adaptable to ever changing conditions, very quickly.
More importantly coaches will have to do this as well and will actually have to lead the way with it.
New training strategies, new training drills and new communication methods are all on the menu from 2020 onwards so you've come across my writings at a very good time!
With different training methods come different expectations and that will need to be communicated to the playing group at the start of every new, or old, training drill that you use from now on.
By setting expectations you can then better manage player emotions or you might run the risk of a new training drill "looking" terrible, the players becoming impatient, getting tired and becoming deflated before the drill even gets a chance to make any progress.
You'll also find that buy-in will be very hard to get at that point.
By teaching the fact that they aren't expected to successful from the get-go, a very natural part of the learning process mind you and one we all go through when learning anything just outside of our personal bandwidth, players will hopefully be patient and even be more open to trying new drills going forward, knowing that there will be no punishments for "poor" performance.
All you really need to do is to explain to your players what benefits the training drill will provide them and that you only expect them to get better at the drill/game over time.
The drill will eventually become more fun as you get better at it and also let them know that it is not uncommon to feel uncomfortable in the early stages of learning.
Ensuring all players that this is OK and that the drill not being successfully completed does not mean the drill isn’t working, is critical when trying to instil relatively big changes like this and to attain as much player compliance as possible.
The ugly zone is the place where you're learning something new and you just can't get the correct steps in order or technically correct but you do in spurts.
Yes this is the most frustrating part as you know what you're trying to do but you just can't seem to do it but this is the tipping point from being taught something to actually learning it, so let players know that they need to persist through this zone as it's when the actual learning part is taking place.
This is another entire post on its own but I thought I would introduce the very basic concept here.
So, simply let them know why they are doing the drill, prepare them for the possibility that they might find it frustrating, difficult and possibly be unsuccessful at 1st but to also look forward to each attempt and the opportunity to improve as a player.
Coming Up - Teaching Games for Understanding
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