THE NEW RULES OF COACHING PART #1 - COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

This new series will run for the next week or so in a step-by-step format with each post building on the previous one titled "The New Rules of Coaching".

Now these rules aren't brand new in that they've just been released to the world but in local/amateur football circles, they will be.

The articles will get you thinking about more then you do right now in regards to how and what you coach and at times might confuse you as new information tends to do but as you'll hopefully pick up throughout this series, the ugly zone is usually where you break down current/past barriers and then begin to rise to a new level of performance.

Part #1 is all about Cognitive Development and are notes taken from a Slawek Morawski article I first read about 2 years ago which I'll dot point from while adding my own thoughts in every now and then.

Here we go...

• It’s what the player sees, not what they look at 

• Decision making is based on the amount of information you can take in and use, specifically how much information you can take in a split second of time and the quality of that information, to make the correct technical and/or tactical decision in a game. As coaches, too often we tell the player what they should have seen and done in a specific situation - are there questions we can ask them to help us see what they see and thus enabling us as coaches to help them make a better decision next time?

• While players are constantly on the move they must also be aware of which part of the field they must control

• Footy is extremely unique in that it is a 360 degree sport so players meed to be able to reduce blind spots via scanning the field, correcting body positioning and correcting field positioning which all depends on the ball, the opponents, their teammates and their own position on the field

• Every decision made during  a game is based on the perceived information you took in and then in a split second assimilated and analysed based on your current position on the ground, the team's game plan, the assessment of risk and which solution will bring the greatest advantage for your team

• How much you know is 1 thing but how much you use is another

• Player cognitive process is the most difficult thing to develop as it’s happening inside the players head which is why it's critical that we trey and see what they see as much as we can simply by asking "what did you see?"

• What we as coaches can do then is use that information to replicate the situations that are troublesome for the players during the game through as many scenario's as possible so when it happens again in a game, the players have solved this problem so many times in so many scenario's at training that it's then just a matter of technical skill on game day

• Rather then just tell players what they should do, create environments at training that simulate the same problems they have in games and then work through it via the construct, play, discussion, reconstruct, play, discussion template.

This gives you a brief look at some of the many aspects of coaching a lot of local/amateur coaches don't take into account but it's not your fault - this information just isn't part of any coaching courses that you usually do and is exactly why this site exists.

Coming Up: A Player / Environment Centered Approach