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8 Ways to Get More from Practice Time"I don't worry about the players that don't want to be here and I don't necessarily have the greatest athletes either. I need the ones that want to be here and that have the character, integrity, work ethic, and unselfishness to work together as a team. Then I teach them the fundamentals." -- Lou HoltzGreat coaches know how to break complex skills into small tasks and provide the opportunities for their players to master those skills through focused repetition. Plan practices efficiently so players get maximum time for repetitive practice of key skills, because repetition is the mother of learning. Time and again we see inexperienced youth coaches conducting skill drills with many of the players standing in line rather than actually practicing, because only part of the practice area is being used. For most individual and group skills, the most efficient way to use practice space and time is to break into practice "stations" that take advantage of the entire practice surface. Consider this, splitting the team into as many stations/lines as it takes to involve as many players as you can at one time. Your goal would be to give 100% individual practice time to each player. Of course this isn't actually possible, but it's a valuable goal to shoot at. You'll need help, so whether you grab parent volunteers or have an assistant coaching staff, make sure to explain to everyone ahead of time what will happen at each station. Keep these tips in mind for highly productive practices:
"The four laws of learning are explanation, demonstration, imitation, and repetition. The goal is to create a correct habit that can be produced instinctively under great pressure. To make sure this goal was achieved, I created eight laws of learning, namely: explanation, demonstration, imitation, repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition, and repetition." -- John Wooden. See You At the Top!! Copyright 2005(c) by Matt Hawk and Hawk Planners.com. All rights reserved. Articles may be reproduced in whole under the following provisions: (1) a proper credit must be given to the author at the end of each story, along with a link to http://www.hawkplanners.com/ (2) content may not be arranged or mirrored as a competitive online service.
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