5 REASONS WHY YOU NEED A GAME MODEL

#1 - PRINCIPLES OVER SITUATIONAL PLAY

A game model at its most basic level contains 3 "moments" being game, macro and micro moments.

These 3 types of moments involve the time of the moment, the location of the moment and what your team can control in those moments.

A lot of current game plans involve situational play like stoppages, kick outs and zone defenses, that require individual skill and ability to execute adequately where the game model looks more closely at principles of team play that every player of any ability can perform repeatedly.

It favours system over ability but ability can make the game model that much more potent.

#2 - FULL TEAM COHESIVENESS

A champion team will always beat a team of champions...

When the game model is laid out for every player to learn then it is clear of what the roles are in each of the game moments and their macro and micro-moments.

When everyone knows their role as well as everyone else's this team builds a level of team cohesiveness rarely seen at the local/amateur level because everyone is capable of fulfilling their role in the game model, as mentioned above.

This builds a high amount of trust between each and every player on the team which negate the wide varying abilities and fitness levels of each team member.

You've got to build that trust somewhere and with local/amateur players all playing for various reasons, this is probably the easiest way to unite all those different motivations for a common cause.

#3 - COMMON TEAM LANGUAGE

Going back to local/amateur teams all having players of various abilities and backgrounds, the use of language is constantly overlooked.

At any 1 time at a footy club, you could have 4 - 5 "groups" of players in the 1 team with some coming from the same clubs before you're, some having played division 1/2 football and others relatively new to the game or your more social footballers.

This means that what each player knows and how they express that can be done 22 different ways in a single team, and then the coach on top of that.

Simply instructing your players to "go harder" will mean 22 different things to 22 different players leaving at best only a fraction of your team actually knowing what you mean.

The game model introduces and reinforces a common language that all players and coaches will use at training and during games that will improve communication, especially in the heat of games, dramatically.

#4 - IMPROVED DECISION MAKING

The game model lays out what everyone should be doing at any 1 time which reduces player uncertainty during games, essentially making their decision with the ball for them before they even have to make it.

All that's left to do from there is to actually collect the ball which you can do better now because you've been given time and space from already knowing what your decision is once you get the ball.

Once the game model has been mastered then players will be able to get creative around it, finding multiple ways of solving the same problem which no team can then defend against.

#5 - ENHANCES COACHING EFFECTIVNESS AND EFFICIENCY

I was sent a game plan the other day that was about 20 pages long with about 10 different diagrams of all different situational play scenario's that all players were expected to know inside and out.

Too much information equals too much thinking during games equals "BAAALLLLL!!!"

On top of that it makes it very hard for the coach to give feedback, which needs to brief, when there are so many intricate details to go over.

I've been developing a game model with a local junior coach here in Melbourne this week and we've managed to get everything in a single diagram on 1 single page.

Anything you put together as a coach has to be implementable by every single player in your team, not just the top 10, for sustained success.

If a game model sounds like something that would take your coaching to whole new level in 2021, and it will, then check out this link.