TRAIN LIKE STEPH - DIY

                                        

Earlier in the week I took some points from Stephen Curry's latest off-season programming based around training with a purpose and putting yourself in an environment that imparts game like stress on your training performance.

With most local teams having maybe 3 - 4 coaches covering 50 - 60 players it's hard to decide who to focus on, when to focus on them and how to focus on them as the sheer numbers can make it seem attainable and therefore not worth trying to do (p.s. everything is worth trying at least once isn't?).

On the other Curry has probably 5 coaches looking just after him along with top of the line technology so we can't do exactly what he does so I've developed a personal way to get the same effect.

The program below can be used by any player at any club and focuses on all the things mentioned in the Curry post earlier such as:

• finding a way to make yourself better off your own bat, not relying on coaches to do the work for you
• following a mastery-oriented method of training focusing on quality of performance over an ego-oriented method of training that focuses on the quantity of performance
• finding your performance edge and training right on it, which will result in a successful and unsuccessful results but that's where deep learning occurs
• instead of letting the "number chasing" become the workout, use it a means of greater focus for each and every training session, getting more out of those 3 hours per week then you ever have

We've got our 3 main skill based activities in kicking, marking and handballing an each of those has 3 levels of performance...

For full access to this training program register for a level 2 membership at https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/.

NEXT LEVEL COACHING - TRAIN LIKE STEPH

                                 

The 2021/22 NBA season stared last week and Stephen Curry was up to his usual tricks following a down game by his own admission in which he mucked around and still got a triple double in a win against the Lakers, with a perfect 10 for 10 and 25 points in the first quarter alone the very next night, on his way to 45 against the Clippers.

Off the back of this stunning performance came this article on his off-season training.

Here are some points I noted from it:

NOTE #1

"...Making shots in training is a given for Steph so it is no longer good enough on it's own so his training team used shot tracking technology that determined that not all of his made shots were create equal with some "rimming" in and some going straight in "nothing but net..."

This is an example of pure task mastery, finding a way to improve on essentially perfection, meaning if they can fin ways to make Steph Curry better, you shouldn't have to look to far to find a way to make yourself, or your players, better.

NOTE #2

"...They altered Steph's training to reflect this and decided that any made shot that doesn’t go straight in the hoop "nothing but net" would from now on be classed as a missed shot..."

This an example of task oriented training environment where they found a way to push the best shooter that has ever lived, an to create an environment where training won't always look pretty but learning is high, rather than an ego oriented task when it does but learning is low.

NOTE #3

"...It was at this point that he now wasn’t able to master the drill all the time like before..."

Any athlete of ability or experience who wants to improve has find, and the train, on their "edge" which is the phase in the development of a particular skill or training activity that is stretched just a tad out of the current abilities and experiences.

No stretch at all and again it's all about ego, being successful and looking great for no improvement (and is where 99% of most local football training sits) but too much stretch causes frustration an decreased motivation an that's really where the art of coaching and session design comes into play.

The latest data suggest having something around a 15% failure rate is about where you want to be but some athletes will be able to emotionally handle more failure before motivation starts to waver and some won't even to be able to handle 15% so you'll need to coach accordingly to these players specifically.

NOTE #4

"...Steph now needs to focus hard early to make his shots early so it doesn’t turn into a conditioning drill where it drags on too long and you're now just making yourself dog tired trying to beat the drill..."

You don't need more time, you need more focus - James Clear

PATIENCE WITH THE BALL TRAINING DRILL

 

I mentioned in a post last week that I analysed a bunch of games fro my local footy club from 2021 and 1 thing that was prevalent is a lack of patience with the footy in hand.

There's this thing in local footy, and it's always there for a variety of reason, that breakneck speed football is the only way to go and anytime you can go fast then do so, regardless of options around you or up the ground.

After analysing a bunch of Sydney Swans games too, their ability to get a mark that controls the play and to be extremely patient until their formation/s are in place, especially with such a young team, went a long, long way into nailing their player and ball movement style from 2021, resulting in 10 more wins than 2020.

Now it's the fact that you should never go fast but it's all in the decision making.

What I was finding in my local footy team's games was that we were playing on after marking the ball facing, the opposite goal, either by turning and burning or giving off a handball to a runner going past.

The new standing man on the mark rule actually means we can play on whenever we want and pretty much simply run past them, there is absolutely no need to veer off your line and cause a play on situation which after a season of this new rule, is now just a simple lack of game intelligence.

Lastly my much preferred option is to keep control of the ball by foot and mark over following this loop I notice plenty of times in the games I analysed:

Chaotic Play - Find a Mark to go into Slow Play and Gain Possession Control - Play On/Go Fast out of this temporary slow play that catches our midfielders and forwards totally out of position and a resulting turnover.

This is a pretty training activity that focuses on patience with the ball, hence it's name...

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

POSITIONAL PLAY (TOUCHLINE THEORY)

These points come from a soccer based article I read yesterday on positional play which is huge in soccer but also transfers to pretty much any team sport, football included, so I've added a fair bit of footy specific content to this to get your thinking juices flowing.

Avid readers of my content would be aware of my huge advocacy of game models, payer formations and such especially for local/amateur football where you don't always have control over the ball because of varying degrees of player skill level.

What we can control a lot more is the 99.9% of the game where we don't have the ball which entails player positioning in and out of possession and at stoppage points of the game.

AFL teams have a huge focus on controlling what they can control and I suggest us local/amateur football clubs determine what our specific controllables are and follow suit.

• The most difficult challenge of any football player is to know where to be and more importantly, how to get there.
• Without the ball, how can you add value to the side and where must you be in order to achieve that? This will include position or line specific formations such as a defensive sweeper winger or a high defensive press.  
• Usually a player finds a problem of their own positioning then moves to rectify it but that can cause problems for teammates who have based their positioning off their own position so you must have faith that everyone can perform the right thing and in sync. This initial responsibility is with the coach and their ability to develop and instill a game model of their choosing,and not expecting players to simply know what to do at any given time and in any given situation.
• Football isn't like chest which bases all movement around 1 dictating presence as every piece is moving and has a mind of it’s own
• What determines the outcome of any given scenario is rarely the positioning of 1 component but rather of those nearby components, and by extension, those of the entire team, making it more of a cascading waterfall!
• Not only must we constantly evaluate where we go but we must also recognise what we represent within the larger system, such as how does our movement impact those of our teammates, how do our individual positions affect the collective, and how does our collective position affect the game? If you want to use high forward 50 pressure as a means of keeping the ball i your forward half then you'll need 5 - 6 forwards in the forward 50 at all times to apply this high pressure. If you have forwards working up the ground to get touches in your defensive half, then this is going to be hard. Midfielders now push in to make up the numbers but this leaves a "line gap" defensively with your forwards too far back and your mids too deep forward on the rebound.
• With unlimited problems we stop seeking solutions and look for an approach/philosophy/formation solution that simply minimises damage while providing us with time to increase resources in the places we need them.
• Break the ground up into parts to isolate game actions which exactly what game models do as they break the game up into 4 game moments that each have 2 macro moments that each have 3 - 5 micro moments. This can make a usually very messy affair extremely simplified for players of all experience and abilities but more so you're middle to lower tier players who really need this preparation clarification as it can lower their in-game decision making quite dramatically if some of the thinking is already done for them.
• Your very best players should be the ones who are the options between lines as they can better, and more skillfully, exploit the holes in the opposition's defense, as well as perform the most valuable actions for the team as these tighter spaces require high level information processing, decision making and execution.
• To successfully defend a triangle you need at least 2 defenders so being able to form them against a single defender is vital and is something the Swans did a heap of this in 2021, using a soccer based player movement strategy.
• You want a template/game model that provides action items for a variety of players that can each fix the problem themselves rather then to having to rely on your few top talented players all the time because if they have a form slump or injury, you've got nothing to fall back on so leave their brilliance to when you really need it, like in the "between lines" point above.
• Every slight game action perturbation causes a reaction so if 2 players react in a way that contradicts 1 another, then the others will have to follow suit and adjust accordingly essentially making 1 positional mistake 2 or more mistakes. In the end as the group shifts and new disturbances emerge while you’re still tending to the previous one’s and it's clear you'll be out of position for a relatively long amount of time. 
• Teams that use positional play determine which spaces they want to attack base on their game model and then use a distraction in another area before striking the opposition in the desired area. For example you might use a short kicking possession on the skinny side to engage the opposition to that side while trying to create an opening to go fat side into space and/or an open player, dragging the opposition and manipulating/displacing them.

TRAIN GAMES WITHOUT THE GAME (5 TRAINING GAMES)

We train to get better at games except that we rarely use games in training, opting for cone to cone drills and maybe the odd 4v1 clearance drill which is not as game representative as you probably think it is.

We know that footy is just bloody darn demanding and it's hard to play actual games too often for lack of numbers and fear of contact injuries too early in the pre-season.

The implication of that is that we simply ignore games completely in most cases but games is what ramps up crucial learning processes such as:

• Perception-Action Coupling
• Game Specific Fitness
• Game Specific Skill Requirements
• High Cognitive Requirements
• Game Specific Arousal and Stress
• Reaction to Opposition
• High Level Real Time Information Processing
• High Level Problem Solving

You can't expect to develop these aspects of high performance, the most important one's in fact, without putting your players in game simulated  action of some kind.

Keep in mind that decision making needs to be as flexible as possible because like kicking technique, you'll never have to make the same exact decision twice.

You can train a 4v1 an then only have to process the information 1 defender with 3 teammates provides (i.e. not much) but then when a 2nd defender comes into play, theoretically the player is now expected to be able to process twice as much information twice as quickly.

1 extra defender might not seem like much but it is a big step up in game demands as stated above.

Along with having players learn team tactics you also want them to be exposed to as many problems as possible in each session but you can't learn a game model/style in game like situations, at least initially.

So during early pre-season while you're still nailing the tactical aside, also use modified games that are still representative of football, but include various task an environmental constraints that will expose all players in 100's of differing problems and situations that will ramp up decision making and have far more game transfer than cone to cone drills.

Here are 5 simple footy games you can use as early as week 1 of pre-season 2022...

For full access to these 5 training games, register for a level 3 membership at https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/.

VERTICAL v WIDTH GAME PLAY

                                                     

Football, and all team sports for that matter is a battle of time and space superiority with each an every game action based on where you can get to, how you can get there, how fast you can get there an once there, how effective can you be.

This is happening not just for the player with the ball or about to receive the ball, but for multiple other players from both teams, all in a split second over and over and over again.

We focus so much on the physical side of football training but looking at it from this side shows just how much cognitive ability your players need to have, along with the emotional intelligence to be able to control this at all times.

I've been silent the past week as I analysed 7 games from my local club from 2021, in the end compiling over 300 minutes of game action clips while compiling over 240 game notes from those games, then making video packages for each game.

I always struggle in the time between AFL ending and NBA starting so I made myself a project to fill in lock down time.

So watching all of this gave me this idea for a post, on vertical v width game play.

VERTICAL PLAY...

For full access to this coaching/training drill, register for a level 1 membership at https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/.

LEARNING = PERFORMANCE TRAINING DRILL (PART 3)

If you've read the previous 2 part on "Learning = Performance" you'll now be aware of more effective methods of teaching from a coaching view to enhance learning on the player side of things.

By incorporating "in the trenches" and scientifically backed learning principles/concepts such as deseriable difficulties, storage strength, retrievel strength, variable learning, interleaving instruction, spaced practice, test posotioning, forget to learn and the use of randomness in your training, along with now having an idea of how they all pertain to long term memory, recall and performance, you can now literally take your coaching to some next level areas.

YOU know there's no other coaches using these methods!

To give you an idea of how this might look during a single training drill let's use a basic kicking activity.

Usually for kicking we'd use what we now know is block training which is great for rapid immediate improvements, but terrible for long term skill development.

Even though you'll never repeat the same exact kick from a technique point of view putting a huge question mark against biomechanics trying to nail a perfect technique when there isn't one (so what are they looking for then?), the basic premise of lanework is a prime example of block training with each kick going to a predetermined target, unoppossed in a straight line kick after kick after kick.

It's severly under-challenging and boring.

Us coaches haven't helped this either with our dire need for training to look as pretty as possible when that is so far below the challenge point of where training/practice should be, that it's essentially a waste of time in most cases.

Here's a better but messier way of doing this using many of the principles/concepts listed above.

STEP #1...

For full access to this training drill register for alevel 3 membership at https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/.

NEXT LEVEL COACHING - LEARNING = PERFORMANCE (PART 2)

                                          

After reading part 2 below, try your hand at developing a training activity that incorporates some of the things talked in this 2 part article series.

Either make up a completely new training actvitiy or make alterations to an existing training activity you already use.

Once completed then you can post in comments on my socials or send it to me via email or Messenger and I can give you some feedback on how you're tracking with this information.

• Massing practice = short term performance but poor retention
• Spacing practice = long term performance an greater retention
• New learning depends on prior learning so spacing learning optimally can enhance transfer of knowledge and provide a foundation for subsequent learning
• If you were to use block practice and take results pre and post session then you’ll retest great on that day but 10 days later you’ll won't be and you might even be lucky to reach that days baseline again
• This works the oppsoite but far nore successful way when using interleaving and random practice which will still retest as good as block practice post session anyway, but with far greater retntion 10 days later
• Block training that provides immediate improvement also rssults in the learner over predicting their long term retention and thus gives them a false sense of security of what they've actually learned
• Interleaving learners can predict their learning closer to what they end up retesting at
• Interleaving works for both motor skills and academic knowledge
• Interleaving also enhances inductive learning where in another study learners were asked to learn the styles of 12 artists based on a sample of 6 paintings by each artist shown interleaving style (72 total  paintings randomly) vs blocked style (6 painting by 1 artist at a time) and interleaving came out better again, with the thought being that they had to learn the differences and similarities among the styles of differnet artists
• Interleaving works better for long term learning from having to resolve the interference among different things that forces you to notice similarities and differences among them, resulting in the encoding of higher order representations which then foster both retention and transfer
• It also forces learners to reload memories so if you study point A/B/C/D/A in that order then once you make it back to A again, you must reload the original A memory and the more you reload, the more content you reload over time following the learn/forget/learn more/forget/learn more again process
• Anytime you look up, get told or get shown the answer to a problem which on prior knowledge you could mostly generate on your own, you rob yourself of a valuable learning oppurtunity
• Tests using retrieval is more effective long term than re-reading even when no feedback is given from the teacher
• Learning doesn’t happen by osmosis, by just reading and hearing things repeatedly
• Position tests as a vehicle for learning, not assessments as such, only formally every 3^rd test or so and then have the learners mark their "in-between" tests what then give simply give them feedback of on track, close and not close but no marking "stats"
• Tests have metacognitive benefits in terms of Identifying whether information has or has not been understood and/or learned

A training activity based off all of this coming Friday.

NEXT LEVEL COACHING - LEARNING = PERFORMANCE (PART 1)

                                     

We train.

We train to learn.

We learn to become better players/teams.

We become better players/teams from learning.

Learning = Performance!

Last week I did a 2 part series on coaching aspects to nail in season 2022 and here's another that you can add to your list - create a learning-rich training environment.

Below you'll find points I took from an article I can't relocate on pioneering teachers Elisabeth and Robert Bjork whose research since the early 1970's has taught us how we best learn and than apply skills an knowledge.

This article will be a 2-parter with a 3rd part later in the week showing how this might look in a training activity.

- Re-reading materal can provide a sense of familiaraity and perceptual fluency that we interpret as understanding ad comprehension but is actually low level perceptual priming

- Information coming readily to mind can be interpreted as evidence of learning but it can simply be a product of cues that are present in a familiar study situation but then they aren’t available at a later time in a different context

- Rapid improvement does not support long term retention and transfer where as conditions that create challenges that provide a slow rate of apparent learning often optimise long term retention an transfer (think habit forming)

- Substantial improvement in performance in training can occur without significant learning, as revealed when perfoming that skill/task again after a time delay or in another context (good last week, not so good this week)

- Storage strength reflects how entrenched a memory and how it can be retrieved and then used in many situations

- Retrieval strength reflects the current accessibility of that repetition and is heavily influenced by situational cues and the recency of study and exposure

- Conditions that most rapidly increase retrieval strength differ from the conditions that maximise gains in storage strength

- If you interpret current retrieval strength as storage strength then you become susceptible to preferring poorer conditions of learning to better conditions of learning

- Vary the conditions of learning over being constant and predictable, interleave instruction on separate topics over grouping instruction by topic and block learning, use spacing over massing and use study sessions on a given topic using tests over presentations as study events

- Make these difficulties desirerable by matching them with the learners current ability, or they will ultimately become undesireable and a poor learning environment will follow

- Studying the same material in 2 different rooms, rather then twice in the same room, leads to an increase in the ability to recall that material so vary the environment where possible

- 1 study had children throwing beanbags at a target on the floor but with occluded vision for each throw but with 1 group throwing from the same distance each throw (from the actual study testing distance) and the other group throwing from different distances each throw but never from the study testing distance where the 2nd group performed better even though theye never even practices from the study testing distance at all

- This study suggests that the 2nd group needed to adjust the parameters of the motor program corresponding to the throwing motion, which is a transferrable process and skill for any type of throw

Part 2 on Wednesday.