NAIL THESE 6 ASPECTS OF COACHING IN 2022 PART 2

                                             

Earlier in the week in part 1, we took a quick look at 3 aspects of coaching that if you can nail them in season 2022,will go a long way to on and off-field sucecess.

They were:

- Game Model

- Messaging

- Language

In part 2 we'll look at another 3 aspects of coaching for you to nail to put you the best position possible for season 2022 and beyond being:

- Expectations

- Game Stats

- Process Over Outcome

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NAIL THESE 6 ASPECTS OF COACHING IN 2022 PART 1

It's a very tough landscape in the loocal/amatuer footy ranks at the moment where in the last month or so I must have seen 50 - 75 vacancies just hedre in Melbourne.

With the uncertainty of the last 2 seasons + the uncertainty of players intentions going forward, the need great coaching at local/amatuer level has never been more critical.

With less cash to be thrown around by heavy hitter clubs, even they will now have to look at internal development of coaches and players, rather then just throwing money at any cracks they find in their footy clubs.

Here are 6 aspects of coaching I suggest you look into as deep as you possible can, to move the dial further along the greatness scale.

In part 1 today I'll discuss:

- Game Model

- Messaging

- Language

Part 2 and another 3 aspects of coaching on Friay.

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MELBOURNE GRAND FINAL ANALYSIS

I thought I'd take a quick look at some of the things Melbourne have perfected in season 2021 on their way to the most powerful (is that right word?) Grand Final victory in history.

They don't play a very complicated game the Dees but how they do it is obviously extremely effective after their dominant finals series this season.

I'll quickly highlight aspects of Melbourne's game stlye such as:

• Center Square Formation
• Full Ground Team Defensive Formation
• Utilising Their Rucks at Center Clearances

...all that force the opposition, in this case the Western Bulldogs, into a particular style of play which causes all sorts of issues offensively, and fees their own offense in process.

SYDNEY SWANS GAME STYLE INTRODUCTORY TRAINING DRILL PART 4

                                                 

This final introductory video shows how the Swans build their offensive lanes via their player, and thus ball movement, which also builds their defense at the same time.

The player lanes was probably the real magic in the Swans offense in season 2021 as it keeps all 22 players in the play for as long as possible and if you are patient enough, you'll discover outnumber situations which creates overlap and pretty much whatever inside 50 kick you want, long or short, which is also an affordance offered to the Swans via the player lanes up the ground.

It really is a thorough game style that is pretty simple in it's approach and doesn't really differ too much from offense to defense where once again, I strongly believe this can be implemented in local/amateur footy...

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SYDNEY SWANS GAME STYLE INTRODUCTORY TRAINING DRILL PART 3

                                            

Once again we move towards more game representation when introducing this Sydney Swans game style to a new team.

In this video we introduce defenders into the mix which will change how the activity looks but it shouldn't change the processes and principles of play that the players follow, and go through, during the activity.

Be sure to take note when players move back default patterns of play, especially with this style being brand new to everyone - show some leniency but also be strong in that it's probably what you don't want, or need to happen, for this style of play to work, and if possible show them why...

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SYDNEY SWANS GAME STYLE INTRODUCTORY TRAINING DRILL PART 2

                                                    

Yesterday's video outlined what I would use as.a starting point for teaching the Sydney Swans game style at local level.

Today I progress the same training activity, layering towards something more representative of the game but you can't start at the finish or you'll find major gaps in learning and implementation on game day, where much higher psychological stress can have a huge affect on detecting/processing information an thus decision making.

Isolate then integrate...

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SYDNEY SWANS GAME STYLE INTRODUCTORY TRAINING DRILL PART 1

                                                

I've been banging on about the Sydney Swans game style introduced in season 2021 for a while now and for good reason, it took us from 16th spot to 6th and 5 wins to 15 with a team full of youngsters, albeit very talented ones.

It builds a player an thus ball movement pattern unlike what any other AFL team is using and is very hard to efend in the way it develop outnumber situations to work the ball up the ground, but not at any break neck speed decreasing turnover risk.

I also strongly believe that this can be utilised extensively, if not exclusively, at local levels of football and if AFL teams find it hard to defend, imagine what it could do to local teams!

For the next 4 days I'll post 1 video looking at what would be my first step in introducing this concept at training and if I coach again in 2022, I definitely will be.

I've also got 2 more Sydney games from season 2021 that I've analysed that I might put in a Sydney Swans Game Plan Bundle and package up if anyone is interested in going all in on this for 2022...

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MESSAGE EXCHANGE RE: SYDNEY SWANS GAME STYLE AT LOCAL LEVEL

On the back of my posts on the new game style of the Sydney Swans in 2021, I was contacted about it by a local AFL coach over in WA interested in giving it a whirl in 2022.

Here's some of our messenger chat that might be useful which goes ito pretty good detail on what it looks like on it's own an also what it looks like compared to other game styles used in football at the moment.

Coach - Yep that's a great drill to introduce mate. I actually like the drills you come up with.

Me - At some point, either the very first training session or not long after, you’ll need to whiteboard this out to the playing group so they know what the plan is and to take this to the next level you'll probably need to go all in on the Sydney Swans game style so you don’t get exposed - like if your mids haven’t pushed into defense to run out as one of the horizontal lanes 2, then you could get caught out pretty easily I suspect...

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NEXT LEVEL COACHING - GAMES BASED MODEL (NICK GIES)

                                             

The points highlighted in this post comes from an article from Canadian performance coach Nick Gies, who has extensive experience with youth development that this is aimed at, as well as NHL, CFL and UFC athletes.

• The best coaches talk the least while still getting what they want out of their players, acting more as facilitators by guiding athletes through well-thought out session plans an allowing for room for exploration and mistakes
• Motor learning models include Yerkes-Dodson law, Newell’s 3 Stages of Learning and the Challenge Point Framework
• When learning a new skill there needs to be periods of stability to teach and solidify previous learning, as well as periods of chaos and uncertaintly to expand learning
• As an athletes skill set improves (towards mastery) the relative challenge of training should increase to stretch their abilities while slightly reducing the frequency of stable/predictive elements, as the stimulus they provide decreases as you improve
• Novice/developmental athletes need to constantly navigate between stabilty/chaotic environments
• If a drill is too comfortable then engagement will decrease and thus no learning will take place but if it’s too hard then athletes will  revert back to what’s comfortable and thus no exploration will take place either so you need an optimal level of stimulation to maintain engagement while exploring new movement solutions
• Athletes need enough time and exposure with a movement skill before it becomes automated
• Periodic manipulation of environmental constraints must occur to cause an athlete to adaptaively detect/generate correct movement solutions
• The appropriate difficulty for a beginner would be inappropriate for an expert and vice versa
• As an athlete gets better at perception-action (more stable), the task difficulty needs to increase (more chaotic)
• Handball tag game
• Games Based Approach x design/manipulate practice games/activities with a specific focus, use of question's, opportunities for player dialogue, building of a supportive socio-moral environment
• Games Based Approach can also improve tactical awareness/decision making while also increasing psychological profile (emotions, feelings, attitudes etc)
• Simply tweak classic games to incorporate the specific skills you want to target like tag and ball games
• Other options include having the coach tell team captains what the game/rules are and they must relay it to their teams for communication, listening and engagement
• Limit who can speak during the game
• Use a bias scoring system (opposite foot goals x 3pts instead of 1 etc.)
• For buy in have players choose the rules of different games
• For engagement, attunement an communication have every player keep track of your team’s score then stop the game and say "team 1 your score on 1,2, 3..." and everyone calls out the score at the same time and if 1 player says the wrong/different score, then they lose all their teams points
• To help new and quite players' communication and overall team strategy, give them player "superpowers"
• Add in special bonuses like 10-20sec power ups for acheiving smaller tasks relating to the bigger task (video games based approach)
• Layer games so as players exceed levels they move to a new one or having players run to a cone and back before coming back upon turnover so their team neds to play with an outnumber and players learn to play under psychological stress
• Cone Scramble Game x the ball carrier tries to get to a cone that no one is on but everyone moves to cover them so they can’t
• Use open ended questions and involve the players in the problem solving process and don’t even give them a solution, letting then decide and see how it goes which show you who the real leaders are

NEXT LEVEL COACHING - AFL SKILL DEVELOPMENT

The points in this post come from a report with a link I''ve had on my "get to at some point" list and once I got into it it's ridiculous I didn't look at it straight away.

It's titled "Challenging Traditional Practice Approaches to AFL Skill Development" prepared by Damian Farrow, a Vic Uni sports science professor.

As the title suggests, it challenges current methods in regards to building skill development at AFL level, being commissioned by the AFL Research Board so if you want to fast track your own local/amateur club's development, what better way than following AFL researched methods rather then the old "this is the way we've always done it" road.

If you like the points I've highlighted here then definitely give this report a read yourself as I only pick out what's relevant to me based on my own knowledge level and beleifs on what is important, of which you'll be totally different.

• Kick from a mark occurs 38% of the time in a game v 47% at training
• Kick from a handball receive occurs 29% of the time in a game v 13% at training
• 30 – 45m kicks occur 44% of the time in games v 28% at training
• Straight kicks occur 88% of the time in games v 31% at training **
• Kicks across the body occur 19% of the time in games v 67% at training

** both of these sound weird as you have far less straight lines during games compared to training + you need manoeuvre around more players to kick in games compared to training** 

• 0 – 1sec processing time before needing to kick occurs 14% of the time in games v 3% at training
• 7- 8secs processing time before needing to kick occurs 38% of the time in games v 67% at training
• 1 step prior to kick occurs 13% of the time in games v 0% (!!!) at training
• 2 – 4 steps prior to kicking occurs 31% of the time in games compared to 56% in games
• Not needing to use evasive skills before kicking occurs 32% of the time in games v 86% at training
• Moderate perceptual load, or the number of players ahead of the ball, occurs 74% of the time in games v 19% at training
• Kicks hitting the target in games occurs 57% of the time v 86% at training
• Kicks missing the target in games occur 35% of the time v 14% at training
• Practice goal kicking like it occurs in a game so instead of using a block training approach such as 10 shots all in a row, space them out into sets of 1 at diifferent times in your training sessions, coming off the back off different physical an pschological conditions, just like a game
• Well organised practice with sufficient variability/challenge can reduce the number of repetitions required (practice with purpose)
• Contextual interference is the amount of mental effort a learner is required to use when practicing a skill
• Skill practice should follow a progression of block, serial schedule and random training phases 
• The secret to making every rep count is to forget the previous one (psychological hangover), so do something different between reps
• Implicit learners are less prone to choking as they’ve developed more solutions to the same problem, not relying on 1 specific solution that may or may not be available at that time (give someone a hammer an everything is a nail)
• An example of implicit practice for goal kicking might be to first explain the skill via a metaphor/analogy, have the learner perform a secondary task while kicking like counting backwards or singing a song, the coach must design and utilise errorless learning conditions of activities that they’ll be successful in 90% of the time which builds confidence and decreases over analysing
• Provide zero feedback to the learner by removing visual feedback such as kicking into a towel right in front of you, which prioritises the process over the outcome
• With more skilled performers who learned explicitly, create implicit activities that are instinctual so there’s no time for thinking/analysing
• External focus is better option than an internal focus
• Don’t isolate aspects of an entire skill as when practicing a tennis serve ball throw, studies found you actually  throw the ball 20cms higher then you do in the full serving action, and with greater spin too
• Instead use equipment modifications etc, as skills need to be practiced as they are used in their usual dynamic circumstance (repetition without repetition/specific skill variability)
• In Clarko's early days, the Hawks had players kick 80 – 300/week, based on injury history
• Goal kicking can be improved far more relative to field kicking simply because it’s not practice as much so there is more scope for improvement
• You can acquire a new skill in as little as 5 sessions over 6 days and will be gradual as you modify your existing technique, rather than adopting a completely new one
• Fast bowlers need 123 – 188 bowls/week to maintain fitness and anything over/under that poses a higher injury risk

SYDNEY SWANS GAME ANALYSIS R1 v BRISBANE P2

                                                  

Here's the 2nd half analysis of the Brisbane game from round 1 this season in another 15min video

There's more of what we've seen in my previous game analysis posts but in different situations so it's important to see how the same thing can be achieved in many different scenarios.

I had a chat with a local coach from WA who is interested in using some of the methods used here and if you're also interested and would like to discuss more, then just contact me as lockdown has given me the gift of time!

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SYDNEY SWANS GAME ANALYSIS R1 v BRISBANE P1 of 2

During the year I analysed Sydney Swans games against West Coast in round 16 and again last week against GWS in the elimination final.

What I'm doing at the moment is going back through some games earlier in the year to see how things looked initially and to see if the Swans altered anything as teams caught on to what they wanted to do.

In the next 2 posts I'll look at our round 1 game against Brisbane at the Gabba without Buddy, a game we won by 5 goals.

Video 1 today and video 2 later in the week, both 15mins each, touching on some things we seen already as well as new aspects we haven't.

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SYDNEY SWANS Q4 VIDEO ANALYSIS v GWS

                                           

Today is the analysis video of the 4th quarter of the Swans elimination final loss to GWS last weekend.

The more I analyse the Swans ball movement, the more I am convinced that this is extremely doable at local/amateur level, and I'll definitely look to use this if I end up coaching in season 2022.

No other team in the AFL are doing quite what the Swans are doing offensively, and most teams have found it hard to stop it defensively, so you can be assured that this could work dramatically at local/amateur level if you can get it going.

The rate limiter of this style is probably the ability to run to create space, and to un to receive, but that might be a more tactical/psychological limiter then actual physical, and either way the space will be created, just a bit slower then you can see in these videos.

Of course everything starts in the contest where you need to get the ball inside your forward 50 to put in the defensive press or once you win the ball around the ball, and especially the back half, being able to get a mark to be able to control the game in regards to player movement and space creation.

It's a fast decision game style but not neccesarily fast motion.

I hope you take some idea's out of these 30+ videos and if you want any clarification on anything in them just let me know.

Here's the video...

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SYDNEY SWANS Q3 VIDEO ANALYSIS v GWS

Tuesday I posted a 20min video detailing the 1st quarter.

Wednesday I posted an 11min video detailing the 2nd quarter.

Today we have a 10min video detailing the 3rd quarter.

4th quarter coming tomorrow.

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