50 Soccer Practice Constraints: Constraints That Develop Soccer Intelligence & Unique Technical Skill Sets Kindle Edition

Focusing too much on knowing about coaching can limit your knowledge of coaching. Learning to pay attention to what is emerging in front of you, and not overplanning your session, might seem unnatural, but it is critical in terms of creating great learning environments. Adapting and changing the environment, or keeping it the same based on direct perception, is an active process in the moment. The term, Direct Perception, refers to what is happening in front of you in real time, do not let direct perception be influenced by pre-planned coaching points or some lesson plan that you feel you must stick to. This is where "knowledge about coaching" can hold back your effectiveness. If you are trying to carry out a formal coaching method from a course, it can often lead you away from creating optimal environments and effective coaching. Direct perception in your current environment, responding to what emerges in front of you, leads to "knowledge of coaching", not "knowledge about coaching". Try your best to not let a text book or courses “knowledge-about”, influence your direct perception. I view the coach as an artist who creates game representative environments with the use of constraints that are tied to principles of play. The practice sessions do not have to be rigid, timed, loaded with pre-determined coaching points, or follow some small to large progressions that end with real goals and keepers. I prefer a practice session that is flexible, one that can flow in the direction that feels right in the moment, one that is connected to principles of play and academic theory. If my team comes to training and the energy level is low, maybe I switch up my entire warm-up, making it really competitive or super physically demanding just to wake the team up, because that is what they needed in the real moment – not at the moment I was planning the session. If the team is doing really well in one exercise, they are being challenged, and every player is getting what they uniquely need out of the exercise, I might let them continue for twice the time I had planned. Maybe the team did so well, I skip the second part of the session I had planned, and go a new direction. The important thing is that I have the option to go any direction and build challenging environments based upon the real time feedback in that session, that is what flexibility is all about. If we are doing a strict phase of play tactical session, the flexibility will be a little less, but I am still flexible. Read more