Message 6

Athletes in most if not all sports could categorize the time the spend on their sport in three ways.  There is the time they spend learning new skills, practicing their skills, and performing those skills in competition.  

Each of these areas has a different focus and in many cases different approaches to maximizing their benefits.  Players and coaches who want to get the most out of all sessions need to be aware of the purpose and to plan enough of each type of session to maximize the development of a player.

It could easily be described this way

Player                     Coach

Learn        -------       Teach

Practice    -------        Train

Perform    -------        Coach

Unfortunately players and coaches often have areas they are strong but also weaker ones because they may not be aware of the attributes and or importance of each. 

Have you ever heard of the player that is great in practice but does not perform well in competition? How about the player that competes well but does not learn new skills very well?  

Over the next series of posts we will go into detail of each area to look at how to maximize its effect. In the meantime i ask you to reflect on where your strengths and weaknesses may lie as a player or as a coach.

The following clips are not meant as examples of best practice just to get you thinking about how effective you are in each domain.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRwSrIYb-Jo learn/teach

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqQDMHM91YE&feature=related      practice/train

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rFx6OFooCs perform/coach