HALF GROUND + MID BOX GAME

                                              

This is just a little twist on a basic half ground game with 2 even teams.

Usually it works like basketball and bring the ball out of defense to the middle of the ground then you play transittion offense to get it back into the forward 50 and score.

Nothing extra ground breaking for this one other except that we will incentivize where we try and score from and when.

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

THE INNER GAME JOURNAL - STEFAN MAUK

I've been posting a fair bit on the psychological aspect of performance lately and 1 thing I say a lot is that don't just think thoughts, but write them down to make them "real".

I can almost guarantee that by writing it down, which obviously takes way longer to do then to simply think it, you will unconsciously dive deeper into those thoughts and you're more likely to come up with more and/or better solutions to them.

In fact a lot of my posts is me simply trying to organise my own thoughts and research and then putting a framework together for that particulaur subject.

AFL players do a heap of work in this space with Scott Pendlebury and Harry Taylor being 2 of the biggest proponents of journal keeping before and after each game, using them to go back to when they play those team's again.

And this brings me to The Inner Game Journal.

This is the brain child of current Adelaide United Soccer player Stefan Mauk who you can also follow on twitter.

It starts off with ample space for you to think about what your real goals are, what they look and feel like, and who inspires them.

It forces you to dive deeper then basic superficial goals like "win my team's best and fairest this year"and to actually look at the tactical, technical, physical and psychological processes behind what will drive those kind of results.

After that, on a weekly basis you'll lay out a basic plan, log your data into the daily pages and then reflect on everything at the end of each week.

Over time as you fill in more and more and weeks you can then go back and try to find positive and negative patterns that start to emerge, allowing to fine tune your preperation for each week's game so you can be at your best more often.

I have an excel spreadhseet that has every single training session I've performed since 2015 - journalling is essential for consistent performance over long periods of time and takes zero resources to complete, except 5 - 10mins per day.

"You don't need more time, you need more focus".

I think a lot of players avoid goal setting for fear of not reaching them but journalling is different - it's the process, not the result.

Journalling is the map from where you are now to whatever your goal is and needs far more attention then simply coming up with your end goal.

It takes away the absolutism language we hear a lot of in local/amateur football (must, have to etc) that really sets everyone up to fail because if we don't acheive the must or have to, then we deem it as a fail and a negative experience.

All these relatively small isolated failures do add up over the long term and can wreck complete havoc with players and teams confidence levels and is probably a huge reason as to why team's drop games they shouldn't at various times of the season.

You can check out the Inner Game Journal here where they currently have an end of financial year 30% off sale!

SKILL DEVELOPMENT - DAN ABRAHAMS

                                            

Skill development at the top of all sport pyramids and footy is no different.

The ability to attain, stabillise, replicate and then add variability to those foundation skills is what seperates us from the elites.

A lot of local/amateur players have endurance, speed and strength but they often alck the skill required to compete consistently at the upper levels of football.

I think a lot of coaches believe thwet basic repetition is what builds skill but that could not be further from the truth and yopu'll disocver some other ways to develop and stabilie skill through some of Dan's tweets here.

SKILL – the skill in your feet/hands is mediated by confidence...skill competence is little without confidence...confidence is built daily through positive action, through memories of your best performances and through relentless optimism

SKILL DEVELOPMENT – you need to repeat actions through building the habit of repetition practice...you need to add variability so make every task differnet...you need to space the same learning opportunities to help them forget...you need to play games that include the practice of the skills required within games...you need to add feedback from an expert...you need to add consequence as emotion disrupts execution which is what you facein games

REPETITION – repetition is still important to skill development as it is retrieval and the more you help players retrieve the behaviours you’re coaching them, the stronger the memory trace of those behaviours become...retrieval drives skill...skill is variability under pressure

SKILL ACQUISITION – repetition is only the foundation of skill development but to acquire new skills you need variability, spacing and interweaving while mixing up variability with randomness, which is the secret transfer sauce

ISOLATED TRAINING – theory intrinsic load = the techniqueto be learned...extraneous load = the manner and structure in which technique is learned...isolated training reduces extraneous load thus improving learning

FLUENCY – players start to find an activity easy because they become familiar with the task conditions so to counter fluency, put in desireable difficulties such as interleaving activities, tough individual tasks and activities that test for understanding

BLOCK PRACTICE – can be an effective way to scaffold for players if done optimally and should probably include player cognition (mental engagement), accurate movement repetitions, coach feedback, player feedback and be alongside spacing/interleaving

MULTI-KICK DRILL

What we have here is a drill that includes 4 specific scenario kicks used a lot during a game so is very representative of what happens on a Saturday.

It combines 4 different scenarios into the single activity so players need to perform different kicks within the same drill but specific kicks that are required in most teams game models/plans.

Here's what the set up will look like...

If you would like full access to this training drill and plenty of others then register for a level 3 membership at https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/.

BUILDING COMPETITiVENESS - DAN ABRAHAMS

In all grades of footy, but especially youth and junior levels of football, building competitiveness and aggressiveness can be extremley hard, not that everyone HAS to have both of these qualities at those young ages but if they can start told develop them then my personal opinion is that they will be more likely to stay in footy/sport for the long term.

Again, give Dan a follow and receive gems like these every day, he generally posts 3 times a day every day!

BUILD COMPETITIVENESS – help your players them understand what motivates them (ego, winning, experience, purpose, values, mastery)...help them work on mental skills (attention, intensity, intent)...help them mentally rehearse effectively...help them build confidence/energy

HELP PLAYERS COMPETE BETTER – set acheiveable goals that help players focus on controllable tasks rather than uncontrollable performance factors...build player confidence by helping players choose 3 things that help them feel confident...practice self talk via a positive/energetic inner voice

PLAYER COMPETETIVENESS – help your players develop several motivational drivers (internal to external)...help your players learn your game model using desirerable difficulties (learning style)...help them build developmental frameworks and test those frameworks in training

TAKING CHARGE – don’t fail to take charge of yourself on the ground and defintely don't let things like the opposition, conditions and technical mistakes take charge of you

EFFORT – is less of a choice when players lack self belief, are uncertain about responsibilities, experience anxiety, can’t shift attention and/or feel threatened by coaches...it becomes more of a choice with mental skills in a positive environment

BODY LANGUAGE/MINDSET – a small shift in body language can make a big differnece to mindset...when players are distracted they can refocus by holding themselves attentive...when losing intensity they can re-energise themselves through positive gestures...when they drop in confidence they can execute with intent

COMPETETIVENESS – help players find their optimal state and help them focus on the pleasure of experiencing playing in this mental state...make this their number 1 objective/goal to achieve

 

GAME INTELLIGENCE - DAN ABRAHAMS

All sports contain 4 co-actives being psychological, physical, technical and tactical and they are all entwined where the decision you make to solve a particular problem via 1 specific co-active, is dependant on where the other 3 are at at that point in time, and this is an ever changing landscape throughout 4 quarters of football.

These next tweets from Dan Abrahams will cover a variety of aspects of sport which I bunched together to form this game intelligence post.

GAME INTELLIGENCE – footballers with desire, passion and character will always win the ball back...footballers with intelligence, knowledge and mental skill will rarely give it away

SEEING – is helped/hindered by attention/intent, intensity/confidence, thoughts/feelings, sensations/emotions and mood/motivation meaning everything you see on the ground is influenced from within

GAMES – comprises of motor behaviour, decision making, feelings of pressure and interpersonal support so have every activity at training involve as many of these as possible by creating tough activities that stretch these demands on your players 

SMART SOLUTION v HARDER WORK – have specific goals/training session...accept that mistakes/failure will happen...striving for internal motivation...develop performance/mindset feedback loops

MASTERY – search, decide, execute and engage repeated over and over will develop mastery..practice so much that your execution becomes automated...play so much that your decisions are made in an instant...commit fully to visually searching

NOT FOLLOWING GAME MODEL – if players aren't following the game model then some useful mental markers to watch for include what are the players paying attention to, have they dropped in intensity, are they overly activated and are they executing with inhibition

TACTIAL/PSYCHOLOGICAL – players don’t react, they predict, which is quicker...tactical execution is driven mentally via your capacity to execute the cognitive cycle (search-decide-execute) with speed and accuracy and this is mediated by affect (feelings of pleaseantness to unpleasantness and feelings of idleness to activated)...football is a game of feeling

TRAINING DECISION MAKING – ask your players to take the time after training to reflect on their decision making, asking what experiences led you to make the decisions you made and what were you seeing/sensing at that time, which can help develop skilled anticipation

PREDICTIVE BRAIN – is mediated by experiences/expectations (refer to some posts above)

DECISION MAKING – in 1  study they had 1 group solving puzzles for money and the other solving them for nothing but the money group finished up as soon as the time limit was reached, where the group recieving continued until they were finished...this shows that engaging in an activity for the sake of engagement (interestm enjoyment and/or challenge) is a more powerful motivator than engaging in an activity for a reward/means to an end...this is a form of self determination theory...intrinisic motivation (or extrinsic motivation that is deeply integrated into values/identity) offers higher quality motivation than extrinsic motivation alone, so help more players identify with and, enjoy games/activities, they are interested in because they'll be far more motivated to engage in them

META ACTIVITIES COGNITION – create an activity with problems that earn players rewards when solved but only if they can explain how they’ve solved the problem to help them think of themselves as thinkers/learners

PLAYER CONFIDENCE - DAN ABRAHAMS

                                              

Noone celebrates goals like one of my favourite Swannies Tom Papley and although it looks like showboating, if you were to dive a bit deeper, it's about generating enthusiasm and celebrating small wins, both which help build great confidence within a game and throughout the entire team.

And as you can see in the image above Paps doesn't just celebrate his own goals, where he fully leap-frogged Hayward after he kicked a goal of his own so now there's a leadership quality being shown in celebrating other people's success as well.

Confidence is another one of those psychological based aspects of football that can't really be measured, or seen, which means a coach simply saying "play with confidence" does sweet FA for most players as they might not even know what playing confidence means, what it looks like or what it even fels like - but they can learn these through training and preparation.

Once again have a deep think about 2 - 3 of these points and work on them between now and the end of the season and see how they can work for you + give Dan a follow if you haven't already - you won't be dissapointed.

CONFIDENCE

• is the memory of great past performances
• optimism is the prediction of the successful execution of controllable tasks
• what do my best games look/feel like?
• what do I look/feel like during them?
• can I visualise that within my preparation?
• strip game goals back to controllables but make sure to practice them positive intent
• learn how and when to use self-talk
• avoid extreme language such as must, have to etc as it can increase anxiety
• be task oriented over performance oriented
• accept mistakes and average as they will happen
• share team and individual success stories as much as possible
• reflect on team and individual strengths often but accept areas to improve
• acknowledge characteristics that help and hinder you
• positive intent is a psychological skill and means to engage in an approach behaviour (rather than avoidant behaviour-inhibition) to execute actions in a positive manner

LOW SELF BELIEF

• will have an extreme narrative (can't, awful, diatster, must etc)
• will find a model of success useful
• will need to draw on successful past performances
• will need to shift from an ego focus to a mastery one
• to build it turn the feeling of threat into the feeling of challenge ahead of a tough game
• reinforce great performances
• help them focus on what they can control
• set attainable/positive goals
• get rid of extreme language
• encourage teammate support

SHY PLAYERS

• aren’t necessarily introverted but anxious about being rejected (neuroticism)
• help them by empathising with their shy behaviours
• avoid publically labelling them (but doing so privately)
• avoid putting them in the spotlight and set small social goals
• help them develop a game face then help them express themselves in the style of their game face
• could be a lack of assertiveness (extraversion)

PRE-GAME ANXIOUSNESS

• help them set objectives that are specific/controllable and positive (focused on what they want)
• help them breath correctly
• help them rationalising thoughts (question must's/have to’s etc)
• help them develop a game face

PRE-GAME SELF TALK

• to play with a positive intent/destructive inhibition, with an attention that’s relentelessly on-task or often distracted, at an optimal intensity/subject to drops and rises in activation

REGAINING CONFIDENCE IN-GAME

• trigger adjectives (descriptors of how they want to play/who they want to be – relentless etc)
• use energising self talk
• exhibit good body language
• provide social support via task/instructional cues

PSYCHOLOGY OF THE PLAYER - DAN ABRAHAMS

If you've read anything on Dusty Martin than you'll be well aware that he has done a tonne of work on his psychology and truly thinks of this work as going a long way to jumping up from very good player to one of the best ever.

Psychology is hard to measure in a lot of cases and you won't see immediate affects either, rather it is an accumulation of work performed over a long period of time which presents it self in tiny moments of games such as Dusty having an uncanny ability to hit the scoreboard exactly when the Tigers need it best.

It goes without saying that at local footy there is exactly ZERO emphasise put on the psychology which is complete madness because you can have all the ability in the world but if you're not confident anough to display it, you're going to chronically underperform.

Confidence is built through you yourself providing evidence in your own preparation that you can, and have already performed a specific task so then when time comes to do it in a game, the pressure to perform, and the consequences of not performing up to scratch, diminishes greatly, allowing great freedom to execute what you need to regardless of real, or perceived pressure.

Here's a bunch of Dan Abrahams tweets focusing on the player and again I encourage you to explore a few of these tweets and see what psychological changes you can make between now and the end of this season.

ATHLETE to COACH QUESTIONS – when I’m playing well what do you see?...can you tell me 1 way I can contribute better to the team?...is there a player I should watch/learn from?...what’s 1 area should I focus on improving?

PLAYER SELF EVALUATION – ask yourself what tiny actions did I execute today that were successful as confidence cannot be controlled, but it can be caressed and built on by remembering the small movements/actions that worked

PLAYER ENGAGEMENT – tell me about your best...tell me about how you best deal with a setback...tell me what your biggest supporter says about you...tell me about the negative thoughts you experience

PLAYER QUESTIONS to SELF – what does my best game look like?...what do my teammates experience when I’m helping them?...what should I deliberately practice in training this week?...what can I ask my coaches today?...what can I read to help me?

PLAYER VALUES – help players work out their values (3 – 5) and discuss the behaviours associated with these values on and off the field...work with them to help them behave in accordance with these values and help make these values a lived experience

PLAYER MENTAL SKILLS – attention v distraction (I pay attention to helpful cues every second)...optimal intensity v over arousal/under activation (I play with ideal intensity every second)...positive intent v inhibited  (I play with positive intent every second)

PLAYER CONSCIENTIOUSNESS/GRIT – help them diarise/priortise...teach them to self-talk so they can experience self control...make self control important in your activities...give them tasks to accomplish for the group/team...be patient with them

PLAYER STORIES – the story players tell themselves matter...they have a story after training, about their teammates, about the upcoming game, about the game just played  so they would be well served taking charge of their own story

PLAYER PSYCHOLOGY – memory x tell me about you at your best...imagination x talk to me about your dream game...perception x how can you see this tough situation in a more helpful way?

MEDIATE PLAYER BEHAVIOUR – coaches can explore the coaching environment, set goals, create values, shift rigid/extreme attitudes using simple techniques from REBT, shift maladaptive behaviours using MI, and develop skills of empathy/listening/questioning

PLAYER PSYCHOLOGY – some players will be able to self-regulate easily but others will need techniques to help them self manage...some players will thrive in an ego-orineted environment but others will lessen their anxiety in a task oriented environment

PLAYER AFFIRMATIONS – make them personal/specific/positive...when I play I compete hard getting on the front foot, being positive/dominant...I want to maintain focus to execute my responsibilities...I’m 1^st to the ball and 1^st to space...I’m vocal and commanding...I’m relentlessly competitive

PLAYER THINKING – tends to be shaped and experienced in 3 ways...no thinking x no conscious thought...fast thought x rapid conscious decision...slow thought x deliberate conscious decision where a number of options are considered

PLAYER INTRINSIC MOTIVATION – engagning for plesure x I want tolearn...engaging for pleasure of accomplishments x I want to improve...engaging to experience sensory/aesthetic pleasure x I want to move

PSYCHOLOGY OF COACHING - DAN ABRAHAMS

Earlier this year I did a 3 part post of Dan Abrahams tweets (give him a follow!) and I'll go again with plenty more here.

Each day I scroll through my socials then copy a bunch of content that I want to read and paste it in my files and then go back and read it later.

Everyday I would copy at least 1 of Dan's tweets in there so I put them all in their own file and 17 pages long!

I especially love the way he breaks down specific aspects with in the psychology of sport and provides very actionable thoughts on developing players and coaches but leaving plenty ofroom for self interpretation as to what solution/s you yourself can come up with.

Today we have a coach-based post and I strongly encourage all coaches to have a go at seeing what you can do with 1 - 2 of these tweets in regards to how you coach, why you coach like that and can/should you make some alterations to it to be a better coach.

INSIST v TEACH – don’t insist on great attitude, rather teach players the mental skills to cultivate great attitude...don’t insist on effort, rather teach players the mental skills to exert effort when exhausted...don’t insist on energy, rather teach players the mental skills to build energy for the game

COACHING TEMPLATES - make a template of experimental evidence (what has worked), empitical evidence (what does research tell us) and exploratory ideas (what can we create)...these 3 e’s can interact w/ objective info (rules) and context (who/where)

COACHING for LEARNING – engage...turn up the volume on their interest...help them pay attention...then stretch them by taking them out of their comfort zone with an eye for support at all times...finally test their understanding, behaviourally and verbally

COACHING WHY P’s – participation x I want to help my players engage now and over time...progression x I want to help my players learn and improve...performance x I want to help my players build the capacity to compete

COACHING ENVIRONMENT  – is it psychologically informed?...are you considering player thoughts/emotions/experiences?...Is it psychologically safe?...can all of your players participate and be vulnerable?...what’s the motivational climate?...is it mastery or ego orientated?

COACH to PLAYER QUESTIONS – what do you want to focus on improving in the next activity?...what 1 thing can you change to make this activity more difficult?...how can you improve this skill on your own?...how can you help a teammate improve?

PLAYER BEHAVIOUR – to assist in helping your players change/manage behaviour is to help them develop a set of values/goals, an identity and a process

COACHING a NEW TEAM – what biases do I possess that influence these players?...how can I best establish positive relationships?...what will an optimal environment look like here?...what coaching practices should I engage in?

COACHING – is a psycho-social discipline 1^st...is a process of engaging people...is a process that helps players learn...a negotiation between themselves and the players...is a clever combo of instruction and questioning

COACHING – team sports require an external focus of attention for pattern recognition, yet focus of attention regularly shifts inwards...players start to forget straight after you’ve taught them...the ball may be the biggest distraction

WHAT/HOW/WHY of COACHING – what do we want?...how do we want to do it?...why are we doing it this way?

COACH SELF SKILLS – self awareness via objectives, beliefs/values, strengths/weaknesses, personality characteristics...self regulation on and off the ground...self relfection looking at what’s working, what can improve, what else?

COACHING TOOLBOX – use them when you need them...be directive/non-directive...design representative/less representative...challenge the group and the individual...allow autonomy/support or authoritive

COACH SELF REFLECTION – what happened?...what thoughts/feelings did you experience?...what was good/bad about them?...what can you make of this?...what else could you have done?...what will you do next time?

COACH KNOWLEDGE – declarative knowledge is knowing about something such as "I know ways to lose a defender"...procedural knowledge is knowing how to do something like "I lose the defender using my knowledge"...conditional knowledge is knowing when/why like "I use this knowledge in this situation because..."

COACHING LENSES – wide lense looks at the group as a whole and their interactions...narrow lense looks at individual players and their multiple actions (with relation to ineractions)...internal lense looks at what are they thinking/feeling...self lense looks at am I optimal right now?

COACH SELF SKILLS – self reflection looking at critical thinking/biases...self awareness looking at character traits, do they help/hinder, purpose, values, coachinb weaknesses...self control looking at tools to manage traits, to work towards a purpose using your values and to manage self around coaching weaknesses

I've got a bunch of other categories of his tweets do if you like these look out for the other posts as they are posted.

HOW DO MELBOURNE DO IT?

2 weekends ago after Melbourne easily dispatched of the Western Bulldogs, Christian Petraka was very honest in what they wanted to do in a post game interview with Channel 7:

The biggest points I noted were:

1 - "...we wanted to trust the tackler in 1v2's" meaning let's not have other players rush in to assist in tight, trusting the single Melbourne player there to get the ball, make the tackle or put huge pressure on whatever the disposal the opposition gets out of there.

2 - "...we wanted to cover the outlets..." meaning they will allow a pressured disposal coming out of that 1v2 because in the time the single Melbourne player has provided by applying huge pressure, they have been able to set up in front of the ball, limiting damaging post clearance possessions for the Bulldogs, who have made a mockery of teams via this so far in 2021. It's very hard to cut off the ball on the inside and the outside at the same time, and it's very demanding and not sustainable for an entire game so you gotta give up something and for the Dees, it's that initial possession if need be, and they're sitting pretty on top of the ladder because of it.

3 - "...hold corridor..." of which Fox Footy have highlighted a bunch of times so far this year and I saw it first hand against my Swannies when I went and watched the game live 4 - 5 weeks ago. We push as much as possible to go through the corridor but for 2 quarters we either didn't want to try or we literally couldn't, although we were able to break free a bit more in the final quarter but it was to late. By setting up in the corridor and only giving wide options to the opposition, the Dees don't work as hard defensively and conserve energy for later in the game (best 2nd half of the year so far as well I believe), there's nothing ultra attacking coming at them from the opposition so they are controlling everything that is happening even when they don't have the ball and like Richmond, they tease you to take easy options in the hope that they can then box you in a corner where you have to go down the line to not just to their outnumbered situation, but there 2 big intercept backline marking players in Lever and May.

4 - "...if we force them skinny then that's ok..." so if the opposition still manage to possess the ball while chipping into the Melbourne defensive press they were still happy as they still have the outlets covered, the opposition is working into little, if any, space for continuous possession football and at some point they will still probably have to kick long down the line to Lever and May.

5 - "...don't let then roll in..." meaning if they managed to possess the football then keep defensive numbers in the corridor so they can't roll in-board and open up the fat side of the ground.

It's important to remember that everything happening is not relying on any special individual talent, except maybe the intercept marking players which really works because of the outnumber they have when the ball is being kicked to them.

It's a system where everybody holds responsiblilty for keeping that system in check by applying pressure when they don't have the ball and holding defensive shape during opposition slow play, which occurs when great pressure is applied in the first place.

Simply cue changes from "make the tackle or else" to "hold the ball up for as long as possible" may be all it takes to be able to do this at any level of football because the player that goes for the hero tackle at 100 miles an hour but misses and then gets side stepped, breaks the defense down straight away but if he performs a mix of corraling and forward pressure at the same time, it might just enough give your team an extra 2- 3 seconds which is more than enough time for almost anyone to cover 20 - 25m.

Here's a video on what that might look like:

CONTRAST LEARNING 5/5

                                           

1. Simpler activities/games can serve to necessarily decrease the complexity/difficulty to enlighten situations/problems and guide decisions. Grouping players ensures you can meet most them where they are within training activities.
2. The decision of how you teach the game lies in putting your team in place to win the next game v developing smart players over the long term. Are you balancing both of these correctly?
3. Cognitivism and construictivism can satisfy the needs of learning in competition or academy-type training where cognitivsm features more directiveness from the coach. Constructivism is meant to be more beneficial for the individual but should also be relatively efficient as long as it’s harmonised in terms of the conditions/contents of the game.
4. In that sense coaches need to make clear what they want to achieve with their players and the interaction they want to add over the experience of the play itself. And as importantly, be clear with yourself so you're not aimlessly jumping from 1 to the other.
5. Coaches need to refrain from adapting prescriptive behaviour for the development of tactical behaviour even if it can look more efficient to correct actions or to prepare the team to perform. In fact, behaviour would not contribute to the development of full potential/adaptive play. Provide numerous scenarios/situations for your players to train in and at most, simply provide them an end result and let them self organise their own movements and behaviours around those constraints.
6. Players also need to develop key competencies, like creativity, in order to be resourceful in responding to specific situations of play. This is also reflected in being able to find solutions to problems subscribing to your game model/plan as much as performing disruptive solutions for the same principle. Allowing room for creativity in and around your preferred game model gives he most creative players an "out" when confronted with tough situations where instead of using excess psychological resources to find a solution around your  game model's contraints, players can use their own creativity instead at a far lesser cost as creativity is instinctive and is essentuially "thoughtless".
7. Approaches associated with interactionism (constructivism/ecological/socio-cultural), thus fit the needs to instill such autonomy in players as opposed to teaching with the aim to assimilate all solutions, drilling a player with a rich environmental process.

So there it is - 46 points and over 2000 words on contrast learning but if you're new to this type of coaching then give this as many re-reads as you need if you're feeling extrelmy motivated, give the actual review article a read.

As always let me know your questions on the socials. 

CONTRAST LEARNING 4/5

1. Players will respond differently to the conditions of play based on the complexity/difficulty and player competency. This higher degree of required cognitive activity can delay execution/impulses to play so a balanced proposition of new content will help players perform without suffering delays for extended period of time whilst learning. The reinvestment theory suggests that relatively automated motor processes can be disrupted if they are ran using consciously accessed, task-relevant declarative knowledge to control the mechanics of the movements online, and it also argues that the propensity for consciousness to control movements online is a function of individual personality differences, specific contexts and a broad range of contingent events that can be psychological, physical, environmental or even mechanical. Player decision making is based on the player competency so different players will make better/faster decisions in the same environment than others - so is breaking up large groups more than we currently do be a good move or not? You don't wanrt to make a situation so hard for players that they overthink everyhting, including basic/automatic functions, as performance on even those most basic skills can decrease dramatically (the yips!)
2. Approaches to teaching must be consistent with the capabilities of the individual to receive new content of the game, learn it, integrate it into their own play and than perform it under pressure. Pressure can be introduced by far more than physical means via modifying parameters of the activity/games to decrease/increase the number of possibilities in the play as well as the pressure of time and/or space in the play which would influence the complexity/difficulty of the game. This also puts players in the position to judge the best oppurtunities in the moment of the game and increase the speed of execution of their actions obce they identify them. How can you intorduce pressure to your activities tactically, technically and/or psychologically?
3. The number of players/targets reflect the quantity of possible opportuinities of actions that can be explored, even though they will depend on the perceived and than processed information that is used to make decisions in situations of play and the more information there is, the more complex the situations of play (problems to solve) can become and on top of this, different types of targets and other rules can be applied to also influence decision making and the response to situations. Your bottom end reserves players don't see what you're top end senior players see and studies have shown that decision making can be influenced by means other than physical game play so how can you help bridge that gap?  
4. As learning players are facing new content in both technical and tactical aspects at the same time, they will 1^st need exercises that balance both contents (technical/tactical) since they will likely not be able to perform all demands when required so there is an advantage to planning back and forth between less complex and difficult situations along the learning phase, especially for exercises dedicated to content of the game. Try levelling up your activities so have a level 1 for your lower tier players which is the activity at it's most basic and maybe 1 - 2 layers on top of that then a level 2 activity of the same game content for your upper tier players which might be more situational/scensario based activities and allow the mid tier players to swing from 1 to the other as they build/lose confidence, have/don't have success. 

CONTRAST LEARNING 3/5

                                                 

1. Those who have played a lot of "street ball" in tight spaces won’t have the tactical knowledge to receive passes outside of those tight area’s although they will excel at keeping the ball for themselves in those tight spaces. So they’ll succeed for themselves but not the team and they need to break the habit of calling for the ball so close to the ball carrier. The opposite of this, being able to position yourself to get the ball on outside, but not the inside, also holds true.
2. The initial player above would benefit from proposing an option of passing from a longer distance to create space, specifically staying wide/deep to open the ground to spread the opposition defense and decrease density around the ball, of which the player will need to develop new competencies to carry these out. Design your activities to provide a variety of problems for your players to solve while maintaining a focus of attention.
3. Changes in habits like this must occur in the action by implicit learning or by repeating the situation without repeating the same action and if this fails then make the situation smaller and more specific via a small sided game with constraints that persuade the player not to perform the usual actions they do. 
4. Start with a few rules and use more as they see success, with the success part being crucial to boost the player  psychologically as they shift to harder scenarios.
5. A typical behaviourist approach in this situation would have the player aim to perform the prescribed actions or they will suffer a negative consequence, so they’d perform the successful actions "under duress" and possibly be successful but then fall back into old habits later as it isn't yet an autonomous action. Provide time over multiple sessions to reach this point, 1 exposure to a situation doesn't incur learning for when it happens in  a game.
6. The objective should rather be to make them judge when they should perform such a movement as opposed to simply rehearsing an instructed movement off the ball. Game Intelligence!
7. Behaviourism might seem simplier and thereby more approachable but it still leads to more limits than benefits in the long term. Are you training for development or training for success?
8. The needs of learning particular contents, like getting out the back of the defense in footy, the characteristics of that action and the context in which it is inserted, altogether create a more constructivist approach and questioning players is key to gathering them in a common, shared understanding of the play and resulting roles in the organisation of the team. Game Model!
9. Make players experience the problem so that lessons/training become significant/representative to them and it can help build their own knowledge around the specific aimed content. This also allows them to learn where such knowledge would embed itself within the the game and the representation of the play that will help them recognise and solve situational problems when they arise later in games.
10. Constructivism is capable of guiding these contextualised lessons and enlighten important options when they occur in the play, and such guiding should consist of emphasising the pre-objectives and objectives to reach (get numbers to the contest and press up forward defensively, make them turn the ball over and have numbers to transiton forward).
11. Reminding players of the objectives can redirect intention of their actions without prescribing/teaching pre-objectives which help players create the conditions needed to execute the aimed actions without actually instructing them.