GAME MODELLING - CENTER BOUNCE CLEARANCE LOSS

I first learnt about game models about 5 or 6 years ago via Fergus Connolly, a coach who has had his hands in every sports pie you can imagine, including EPL, NFL and NBA. 

I believe they are a must-have for ALL coaches but especially local coaches as they are not as resourced as elite or even-semi elite coaches as far as assistant coaches are concerned, and it can help establish roles and responsibilities within a team/large group setting.

Most teams have a game style but a game model goes far, far deeper then that.

Over the next few weeks I'll post some quick examples of how game models can be used and hopefully you'll see the benefit in developing them yourself.

Today we're going to look at center bounce clearances.

What formation you decide you use is up to you but ultimately you'll win it, lose it, or neutralise it into a secondary stoppage which then allows more players to surround the ball and it's a different play altogether.

First up is we lose the clearance...

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ELIMINATE DEFENDERS TRAINING ACTIVITY

 

This training activity is about moving the opposition which then opens up the space they just vacated, for your team to take advantage of.

In the AFL you'll rarely see a player give a handball before forcing the defender to commit to them, freeing up the receiver to take ground once they take possession but it hasn't really translated to local footy yet.

Instead players give handball at the 1st sign of pressure but without committing that opposition, the lone defender is then able to defend 2 players at once and then you're at a disadvantage as it's a 2v1 number superiority, but you don't have the positional superiority to go with it.

This game encourages players to commit the defender towards them at game speeds so the decision making process matches up with games and transfer is far more likely to occur.

There are numerous layers that can be added on to that are detailed below the video.

REMINDER - The 25% Off Sale Ends Tonight!

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

LONG WEEKEND PRE-SEASON SALE - 25% OFF

                                                

25% off the most popular products from Aussie Rules Training so take this opportunity to boost your 2024 campaign!

Only available until Monday 29th, January, 2024.

Develop Game Model was $100, now $75.

Footy Club Bundle was $250, now $187.

AFLW Film Review was $175, now $131.

Current Training Activities was $100, now $75.

Full Collingwood Training Activities Package was $120, now $90.

12 Month Membership (All Levels 1 to 4) equates to $264, now $198 (1 time payment, 12 month membership back dated to October 2023 and runs until the end of September 2024).

Do not buy from the information link for each product, purchase from the register link from the 12 month membership link or you won't get the discounted price.

These prices will go back to normal Monday night so don't miss this opportunity to greatly improve your coaching in season 2024.

Any questions please contact me at aussierulestraining@gmail.com.

PLAYER FRAMEWORKS AND HOW IT CAN HELP HARRY McKAY

                                

Yesterday I was watching some Youtube while on my daily treadmill and I clicked on yet another ex-NBA and now-NBA commentator JJ Redick talking with Portland young stud Anfernee Simons about what was the biggest change/s for him coming from high school to the NBA.

Simons was used to shooting any shot he wanted in high school which included a lot of mid-range shots which is a dead art in the NBA these days, and the adjustment he needed to make was to decide what sort of shots does he want which in accordance with the NBA game in 2024, is 3 pointers and lay-ups/dunks.

He mentioned a short framework he used to simplify the game to make this in-game adjustment way easier (watch to the 3:45 to 5:10min mark):

https://youtu.be/MmNInjVVoC4?si=Bn_UfZjVTMqhJtQx&t=227

As stated by Simons, a framework is something that can simplify the game, or a specific scenario in a game. In his case it's receiving the ball off of a screen and instead of keeping all options open which slows down decision making time, he narrows the options down to just 2 - shoot or pass.

I've seen another video featuring Steph Curry coaching a youth team and he was saying you've got .5secs to make a decision once you receive the ball so it's shoot, drive and shoot/pass or pass which matches up with Simons above.

Once the framework is embedded, then you can become more creative off of it and you can start using different options on top of the shoot and pass options, depending on what you're seeing from the defense.

OK, now let's get to footy.

Harry McKay is known more for his goal kicking woes than anything else, which is a bit of a shame as his 2023 stats showed that for a tall forward he was above average for disposals, kicks, inside 50's, shots at goal, goal assists, score involvements, marks inside 50, meters gained and elite in marks, contested marks and marks on a lead.

The bad news is he was below average in goal accuracy (37.7% against a career % of 48.1 - still below average though) and goals (1.4 v 1.9 - above average).

We're all well aware of his goal kicking woes but what stands out to me is a lack of framework he has in deciding what kick he does in what scenario and attending 2 Carlton finals in 2023 in person, I know Blues fans are extremely frustrated by it.

There's plenty going on in his goal kicking routine and even searching Google for  an image to use here brought up numerous shots of a bent leg finishing across his body (like the one above but then look at Plugger in his heyday):

I'm going to focus on his decision-making for this framework.

A simple framework for big H would be as simple as...

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ERADICATE TRAINING TIME-WASTING

 

Post-Xmas pre-season training is about to start back up this month so it's time to take stock of your current coaching practices and isolate areas of improvement, with this post focusing on where most coaches waste the most time during practice.

This wasted-time results in less ball rolling time which is the % of your session where a ball is being used.

The points I bring up are Talking, Have a Plan/No Laps, Warm Up, Isolated Skills, Take Data, Going Further.

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

AUSSIE RULES TRAINING GAME INTELLIGENCE CHALLENGE

 

• Test and Enhance Your Knowledge of the Game
• Get Help with Identifying Patterns of Play
• Learn at the Edges of your Current Ability to Stretch, but not Overwhelm
• Expand Your Search and Exploration Area
• No Right or Wrong Answers
• Suitable for Coaches and Players of All Levels

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the Aussie Rules Training Game Intelligence Challenge.

“You cannot teach skills without knowledge...skills are an accumulation of knowledge” - Daisy Christodoulou (Director of Education, No More Marking)

What this challenge will focus on is the building your game intelligence through improving your knowledge-of-the game which is the ability to identify patterns of play before, and while, they are occurring, as well as being aware of what you’re affordances (opportunities for action) are, in a given situation.

“Self-regulating players can think for themselves and can solve game situations through their communication with the game environment and their decision-making as well how they interact with the game” – David Garcia, Coach Educator

By developing your knowledge-of-the-game you can dramatically improve your knowledge-in-the-game, which means a decrease in your decision making time, giving you more time to physically act, resulting in you being involved in more game interactions, and then having more impact when you’re in them.

“Understand how small events can have significant consequences and amplify the chaos on and off the field” – Fergus Connolly, Elite Performance Coach

There are 3 levels to the Game Intelligence Challenge with each level fielding question/scenarios relating to the back line, wing/ruck positions, the midfield, the forward line and around the ground interactions.

I have my own answers to each question but there are no right or wrong answers – your answers will be based off what YOU see in front of you, what YOU have been exposed to in your playing/coaching experiences and the playing/coaching philosophy YOU have towards footy right now.

“Your real job as a coach is to create more leaders, not more followers”

There will be answers you have that I don’t have and vice-versa, and that’s what a growth mindset is all about – being open to new knowledge that might go against what you currently believe, but being open to differing opinions and beliefs.

As a way to scaffold the content, a proven way to effectively deliver learning material, the challenge will be delivered 1 level at a time.

There is no “marking” of anything, making this a safe zone for thoughts and exploration, especially if some of this is new to you. You’ll give me your answer and then I’ll provide feedback based on that, with the aim to guide you towards a potentially more effective solution if I have one!

Above all this is aimed at being a challenging, but fun, activity which is where we can enter a flow state, which is the optimal state for higher level learning.

Questions and answers for all 3 levels are spread across written, image based, video based and some where you will be required to draw out the answer so get yourself a whiteboard and some different colored markers, which will also help you greatly in working through most of the other questions.

There are 24 questions in level 1, 35 in level 2 and 45 in level 3 for a non-rounded total number of 104 in total.

This is a stand alone product so anyone can purchase it with or without a current membership, and you'll receive it in a PDF via email once payment notification hits my account but I have to email it manually, but it will be on the same day as your purchase so you won't have to wait long.

You can send your answers to my email and/or messenger (preferred as you can more easily send videos and images).

Feel free to go into as much detail in your answers you like as this a process-driven project far more then it's an outcome-based project.

Now just to help you out with how I would go about answering the visual questions, let's refer to the 1st game clip in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xj90hETJDmM&t=42s

Here's a quick video of me explaining how I'd go about drawing up this scenario to give my answer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0jd05B2gLQ

On an image-based question you can either draw it up like above and answer, or print the image out and draw over it, take a photo/video of your answer and send it in.

Here is 1 question from each categories from level 1:

• As a defender, how should you position yourself against your opposition forward and why?
• Explain what the skinny wing is and what are their roles?
• What is the most important role of the ruck player?
• What are some team-based offensive tactics you can use at a stoppage?
• What can forwards do individually when not in the immediate play?
• What are the main teaching points of ground ball technique?

I can't wait to get into this with coaches and players from all over so head to the register page and click on the Game Intelligence Challenge Level 1 and let the games begin!

HEAD COACH AS A COACH DEVELOPER AT LOCAL LEVEL

 

After reading the study I posted about earlier this week, it got my juices flowing about how this could be implemented in local footy and who does what from senior level down all the way down to junior level.

I'm well-aware of the this probably not being applicable for a lot of clubs by if you are a big club with a host of committed coaches and you're in a position to do this, then definitely give it a try.

On the flip side, if you are a smaller club with a high turnover of coaches then maybe this is EXACTLY WHAT YOU NEED as the assistant coaches in the study did foster a greater commitment to team success and that would include whatever extra time this might require (initially) and provide coaches a pathway for improvement.

SENIOR PROGRAM...

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HEAD COACH AS A COACH DEVELOPER (STUDY)

 

These notes come yet another study that you can read in its entirety here.

It looks at positioning the head coach as a coach developer so they can carry out literal team coaching duties, like we see in the AFL with assistant coaches doing line duties, and development coaching doing, well, development.

This leaves the head coach free to do their actual job, team coaching, and although the head coach has final say over pretty much everything, the assistants and development coach are pretty autonomous in their roles but strongly guided and facilitated by the head coach.

We also see head coaches now take longer leave from the season's end until post-Xmas sometimes, with assistant coaches being out in charge of training for extended periods of time.

Reflection was said to one of the most most important parts of this process for feedback and further education for the assistant coaches.

The first part are the notes I took from reading the study and below that are some images of how this could be set up at local level - a million years from we currently do but easily doable if you wanted to go my route.

Just note that coach developer and head coach are used interchangeably throughout the post below.

• Findings highlighted an intentional structuration of sequence/timings of the pedagogical tasks/activities assigned by the head coach to the assistant coaches
• Mistakes were looked at learning opportunities
• Fosters assistant coach commitment to team success via further education, responsibility and autonomy
• A coach developer is an educator, leader, facilitator and evaluator and they are recognised as informed experts in coaching practices
• They are also skilled facilitators of assistant coaches’ learning and education a swell as being  responsible for mentoring and challenging peers via a wide range of structured activities
• The coach developer must potentiate the learning by assistant coaches through "doing" via  diverse strategies and activities directly related to their daily responsibilities
• The head coach must intentionally connect and sequence all the activities to promote the structured development of reflection skills and supporting/enrich the professional development of their peers where “all observations at the weekend are linked with what we want to see and why and what our day to day reflection was about”
• As a coach developer, the head coach sees mistakes as learning opportunities, fosters commitment from every member to raise the team’s performance and provides space to plan/lead field tasks
• Reflection skills are paramount for the head coach
• Mistakes are considered ways to add a different and complimentary vision
• Advocate developing learning cultures in the practice context which will include plenty of mistakes but do not interfere because it’s the only way for the head coach to let the assistant coaches add what they have/what they see different, otherwise they’re just inhibiting it
• All staff members recognise mistakes as the ingredient that allow moving forward in professional development – psychological safety
• The assistant coach leads the exercise and if there’s something very specific the head coach wants to add then they can, but if the assistant coach fails/gets mixed up in the exercise, then the head coach does not stop them
• Any mistakes are discussed upon reflection, not in the moment
• The head coach intentionally invites all assistant coaches to analyse past-games/future opposition and present to the whole coaching staff to promote collaboration/critical reflection, and all analysis is done on their own or in pairs with no outside influences from the head coach or other assistant coaches
• By allowing assistant coaches to run practice activities, the coach developer acknowledges what has been learnt so far and the learning contents that need to be further addressed
• It’s unthinkable that an assistant coach does not get the opportunity to lead, empower them so they can feel committed + it gives the head coach the opportunity to understand what they have already mastered and their remaining flaws
• Training is a planned collaboration by technical staff but led/managed by the head coach which gives the responsibility of the sessions dynamics (time, player rotations, feedback etc) to the assistant coaches and the head coach can focus on how practice is unfolding (facilitator)
• Everyone helps plan the session, defining exercises according to what needs to be learnt then the head coach decides who will lead each activity and if a specific note is needed then they’ll highlight it
• There can be sessions where all head coach does is observe, they don’t lead anything
• Reflection involves written reports on training camps assessing each player, entire staff, facilities and a final reflection and then getting it sorted for the entire club + un/structured reflective talks which occur all the time
• Reflection seems to provide meaning to the dilemmas of practice, validating our beliefs
• From an assistant coach perspective, the teaching-learning approaches (learning by doing and reflecting) + the other strategies above have largely impacted their personal/professional development
• The structure of the work built by the head coach is extremely important to the assistant coaches so they can understand the connection between all tasks and their sequence/timing
• After the assistant coaches complete the initial report on the training camp, they has first dibs at identifying/interpreting the events of what occurred and then the head coach can update/transform the lived experience into knowledge by verbally explaining their thoughts
• Within written reflection, the reflexive practice is addressed through reflective conversations and then the coach developer uses the written reflection to systemise the thoughts/interpretations and then the reflective talks to verbalise/share different insights, crucial to developing new knowledge for the assistant coaches

In my accompanying post later this week, I'll lay down my thoughts on this and how to implement it at local level.

PLAY YOUR POSITION TRAINING ACTIVITY

 

First training activity for 2024 and it's a genuine banger called Play Your Position.

Even at local level footy is position-less for the most part with teams from all levels using zone defenses against kick outs and high defensive presses when the ball is in their own forward 50.

This game is a great way to assigning players multi-positions, roles and responsibilities which will open up a boatload of new affordances from occupying more ground area and being involved with more and very different game actions which WILL enhance any players game intelligence if followed by reflection from coach and player.

Check out the video for all the details...

For full access to this training activity and many others that have a huge focus on game representation, challenge point and perception-action coupling (i.e. the best training activities!), register for a level 3 membership from https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/.

ALL FREE CONTENT FROM 2023 - BOOK NOTES

 

Even though this is a paid membership site, I'm always reading and taking notes and sometimes something I read is so useful that I can't keep it to myself.

In these cases, where I've simply rehashed someone else's work, I'll pop it up for free because all I did was read it, and take notes from it.

Over the last couple of weeks we've take a look back at 2023 and today finishes with a book I took a heap of notes from titled "How We Learn to Move" by Rob Gray.

There's a follow up to this book that I intend to read in 2024 so expect another 5-part post series from that as well!

PART 1

HIGHLIGHT - "We don’t repeat our movements, but they are not completely random and variable either – they are shaped by the constraints of our environment, including our culture."

PART 2

HIGHLIGHT - "This embodied perception approach to perception argues that what we perceive is not a true representation of “what is out there” but rather what reflects our ability to act on objects in our environment."

PART 3

HIGHLIGHT - "Athletes change their movement solutions to a less effective one under pressure because of how they were taught in the first place, and by following those explicit instructions you did when you were young, it only adds more pressure to nail every single cue in an already high-pressure situation."

PART 4

HIGHLIGHT - "The Fosbury flop in the high jump came about when they changed the landing surface from sand at floor level to a crash mat at mid thigh level (task constraint), enabling jumpers to explore jumping over the bar in different ways but inspired far more by the task constraint then creativity."

PART 5

HIGHLIGHT - "As far as learning fundamentals are concerned, a study had 10 and 11 year old soccer players complete 22 weeks of practice involving small sided games but they were not given any traditional, technical instruction but instead, the goal was for them to learn skills like dribbling and passing in the game, which were tested pre-study. While there were no improvements at 11 weeks, there were significant improvements in decision making and skill execution by week 22 so while it might take longer for basic skills to emerge, in the long run athletes develop the same fundamentals we see in traditional training but with the decision making improvements on top of it."

ALL FREE CONTEST FROM 2023 - YOUTH FOOTBALL

 

Even though this is a paid membership site, I'm always reading and taking notes and sometimes something I read is so useful that I can't keep it to myself.

In these cases, where I've simply rehashed someone else's work, I'll pop it up for free because all I did was read it, and take notes from it.

Over the next couple of weeks we'll take a look back at 2023 and today starts with all of the free content posted on ART this year, including these 7 articles, mostly of my own work, looking at various aspects of junior footy but mostly improvements that I believe could easily be made for sustainability purposes.

#1 - THE CAVE OF ADULLAM DOCUMENTARY

While focusing on martial arts and not at all footy, it still shows a method teaching not used at all in junior sport in Australia, but one that could be extremely effective when used in the correct context.

HIGHLIGHT - "Fight before the fight meaning fight your emotions to control yourself."

#2 - JUNIOR SPORT PROGRAMS FROM AROUND THE WORLD PART 1

This is something I put together from all the different articles I've read from different sports around the world, and the changes they've made to their junior sport structure for continued sustainability - something desperately needed for junior sport herein Australia, Aussie Rules in particular.

HIGHLIGHT - Salisbury Rovers Football Club (soccer)

#3 - JUNIOR SPORT PROGRAMS FROM AROUND THE WORLD PART 2

HIGHLIGHT - 4 Corner Development Continuum

#4 - TRAINING TEAMS OF MULTI-ABILITY PLAYERS

Maybe the toughest part of junior coaching but there is a way you can optimally challenge all players, and not just a small sector of them where the others get bored or left behind.

HIGHLIGHT - "1 Game, 3 Levels"

#5 - ECOLOGICAL DYNAMICS FOR JUNIOR FOOTBALL

This post is a bunch of idea's I've gathered/developed around the use of ecological dynamics in junior football coaching and yes, it would be a MAJOR change to how you normally coach, but the long term results are FAR superior. If you are a genuine coach then the long term development is easily first and forefront of what you're doing, not winning as many premierships as you can.

HIGHLIGHT - "...Players are more likely to discover movement/game solutions if they are scaled right...It’s the number of interactions, not necessarily touches, that is important...Condition games to create clear intentions and an atmosphere to encourage players to explore..."

#6 - AS MANY AS POSSIBLE FOR AS LONG AS POSSIBLE

These are notes taken from  a study looking at a soccer superstar Erling Haaland and how his junior team operates where the focus of long term development and thus long term player retention/participation (over immediate success) is clearly evident in their coaching practices - we can do this in Australia if we want to!

HIGHLIGHT - "Sporting clubs should be careful as to not build systems that reduce individual’s opportunities for long term engagement and/or personal development."

#7 - THE JUNIOR FOOTY FINALS FURORE

This was quite a blow up here in Melbourne with plenty of keyboard warriors having their say and this is my response to this multi-layered situation.

HIGHLIGHT - "Kids rate 81 different reasons for enjoying sport, with girls mostly opting for social aspects and friendships and boys going with competition, copying their hero's, improving their skills and progressing to higher levels. Both sexes ticked boxes for trying your best, working hard, staying active and playing well together as a team. Where did winning finish? 40th out of 81."

ALL FREE CONTENT FROM 2023 - WOMEN'S FOOTBALL

 

Even though this is a paid membership site, I'm always reading and taking notes and sometimes something I read is so useful that I can't keep it to myself.

In these cases, where I've simply rehashed someone else's work, I'll pop it up for free because all I did was read it, and take notes from it.

Over the next couple of weeks we'll take a look back at 2023 and today starts with all of the free content posted on ART this year, including these 3 articles looking at all various aspects of women's football, including women in football and why we need more of them, specifically in coaching roles at all levels.

#1 - WHY WE NEED MORE FEMALE HEAD COACHES IN FOOTBALL

This post presents ideas from yet another study looking at the current roles of women in coaching roles and also the advantages of doing so.

Highlight - "Female coaches may help steer the youth sports culture away from the usual masculine ethos of sport leadership and organisational structures, especially if they can be valued for their different skill set at club level."

#2 - IT'S TIME FOR 18-A-SIDE IN AFLW

This is an opinion piece of my own where I discuss why AFLW needs to go to 18-a-side and how it would help promote more scoring opportunities for both teams, as well as taking some of the huge advantage the defense has in AFLW at the moment.

HIGHLIGHT - The video clip which is a perfect example of why we need 18-a-side that inspired this post.

#3 - IMPLICATIONS OF YOUTH GIRLS PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT ON PARTICIPATION

These notes come from article I found late last year that takes an exceptional deep dive into various reasons why they drop out of sport of which most of them are out of their control but in the control of those running female sports, and how you can keep them in for longer.

HIGHLIGHT - "Whereas boys get a the testosterone kick and the accompanying dramatic physical improvements, for girls it brings gains in mass and body levers become longer but without the gains in strength to match, and these strength deficits/compensatory changes in movement strategies bring injuries."