20
Change the Coach?
“Over the weekend, we were challenged to think
about how we coach, what we coach, about the
type of coach we were or aspired to be, even
about the environment in which we coach.”
importantly, fun. The “home”
constraints, exemplified by sessions
with Matt Renshaw (Australia and
Queensland) and Billy Root of
Nottinghamshire, looked disarmingly
simple, but gave the players the
opportunity to change their own
games.
The games presented the players with
realistic challenges, but largely left
them to find their own solutions.
Ian offered a (relatively) simple
framework for games design:
• Allow players to learn by exploring.
Let them play.
– This style of coaching is very
hands-on during session design,
but essentially hands-off during
practice.
• Match initial constraints to ability of
the player.
– Challenging enough to make the
game fun, but not so difficult that
the player has little chance of
success.
• Allow and promote variability.
– There might very well be more
than one way to solve a problem;
equally, no matchday challenge
will be experienced in the same
way, time and again – different
opponents, different pitch, playing
conditions, match situation. There
is no such thing as the perfect
technique, only what works in a
particular situation.
• Make sure that practice is realistic to
performance (“representative”).
– The learnt skill must transfer to
match day – otherwise, why are
we practising it?
• Above all, expect mistakes – but
remember that every mistake is a
learning opportunity!