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On this week's Play Development Project Podcast, we answer a question from our community. Hello and welcome to another Play Development Project. Q&A. I'm very pleased to be joined today by Dan Wright.
Dan, how are you doing? Good, thank you, mate. How are you? Yeah, I'm all right.
You might be able to hear my voice is a little bit rough today. Stage by NAMPLY. That's right. Just getting over the Swedish flow here.
The sun has come out, but unfortunately I'm still feeling a little bit under the weather. Still minus 20 weather. Today's question comes from Tom. Tom asks this question by Facebook.
And the question is, does repetition aid development? In a way it's a pretty straightforward question because I suppose repetition is really, really key for development. But then it's how we understand repetition. Straight away the ideas of repetition without repetition become really crucial.
What are your thoughts? Yeah, I think that you said that the simple answer is, yeah, the complex answer is repetition of what? So the idea of you striking 50 balls into the goal and then you'll be able to play in the Premier League is not going to work. So you're right, we do need to talk about repetition with that repetition and probably what we want the players to be able to do.
So probably let's talk a little bit about techniques and skills as well, which is buzzwords that coaches use a lot. I think that'd be quite interesting to dive into. So do you want to explain what repetition that repetition means for you and how it means what it looks like in a practical sense? Yeah, I think for me it means the environment is always changing.
So rather than passing between two static cones, you're passing with defenders moving, you're passing with change in spaces because you're running, you've got opposition moving, you've got teammates that are opening up for passes, you've got passes that are on and then they're not on. So in an environment like that, which is more dynamic, then you're going to get repetition of passing, but every pass is going to be different. So I think there's a scale then of how different is each pass and how similar it is each pass. And I think this becomes key for coaches to consider because you might want to replicate a certain situation in the game over and over to get kids used to say, let's say receiving back foot and then playing a pass, so having a good body shape and a good position in order to receive with their back foot and play forward.
Now you can do that in lots of different ways in a recent webinar that we did. We showed how you could do that. Traditionally, it's been done in like an Ix square, but then how you can also bring that same opportunity for action, that same movement, that same pass to life, but in a situation that is much closer to the game and therefore more realistic, which is the idea behind representative design as well, which is really that the information in the environment is relative to what you find in the game. So I think that might be a brief insight into my understanding of repetition without repetition.
Yeah, I think it's quite a difficult thing to explain, but coaches talk a lot about techniques. So what techniques the players need to strike up to a seeable in different scenarios. And I think that implies that there is a perfect technique, a massive technique, a textbook technique, whatever kind of phrase you want to use. But then the reality is that technique is different for every single player.
So I think, you know, a cross talks about technique being execution of a decision. So in gymnastics technique is, you know, there is a perfect technique of how you do a forward flip or a handstander. I don't know what it is, but there is. Whereas in football, how you send the ball between two players to assist a forward run might look different if you're in the ester, if you're David Beckham, if you're a Neymar.
So I think I've stopped using the word technique because I'm not sure what it means. Technique for me would be like closed skills, maybe a free kick, a penalty, a throw. I think there are probably really good guidelines and principles of how you do that technique, but the technique of receiving the ball back foot like you just said, well, that would look different if I was Lukaku or if I was in the ester, they don't receive in the same way because they're different people. And so they have to adapt to what they're good at and what the game affords them the opportunity to do.
So I think the idea you want to talk about affords is I think that would look in quite nicely with this repetition of what kind of idea. Yeah, definitely. I think a couple of things that you bring up there which are really spot on the difference between a closed skill and an open skill. So you could certainly have what we think of as traditional repetition for a closed skill like a free kick, even though every free kick is going to be different depending upon the placement of the ball in relation to the goal and all those kind of things.
But then also say penalty kick might be even more close again. But I think our job as coaches is normally to develop the open skills of the game, which is then all about that dynamic environment. So in that dynamic environment, you talked about space and time and then dynamic means players moving and all these different things at different times. That's a good way to explain it.
So if I'm a midfielder and people drop off, the options could be acquired. XYZ and if I'm a field of people, you know, pressing site, the options might be ABC. So it's kind of designing sessions where there's a reason why you passed the ball rather than you must pass the ball like this. So we've got to kind of correct the why is that another good way to kind of explain it on talking about session design?
Yeah, I think you want to paint the picture in the session whereby the solution is what you would like the athletes to repeat. So what we should do is paint the picture in the session. So the same affordance is available over and over and over and over. So the players get to then explore that affordance and they get to decide how best they utilise that affordance.
So the example that we attempted to give in the webinar was again of the, I suppose, being able to be in time and space to take a back foot touch that moves you forward. Like maybe beyond the defender, maybe into the next line, for example, let's use that as an example. So to shine a light on that affordance, you need some key things. You need a pass first and foremost.
And then you need a defender because the defender is the reference point for where you stand in order to take a first touch to go beyond the defender. And we might need some more guidelines. If we just work with two attackers and one defender, then we might need to put some constraints in to make sure that it appears like a realistic picture. But in that scenario, we should get lots of repetition of a pass going to the back foot or going in that area, affording the opportunity for that.
Then if we scale that up, we can do that again in a 3v2 scenario. If you design it again so that you have like a pivot player or base player and then you have your two ones. You have your two wide players and your two defenders. You're going to get this ball going out wide again.
So this is the opportunity. You're shining a light on that opportunity. So you're getting a repetition of that opportunity. And then you might then add in a joker on the other side and it becomes a target game where the ball goes back and forth like we showed on the webinar.
So then you've got kind of 2v2 in the middle with jokers on either end, which is a very simple, in a way, a simple positional game or a target game, a pendulum game, whatever you want to call it. But all the while it's shining a light on the ability or the opportunity to get the ball and play in a certain way. But even those really simple pictures, there's going to be a lot of variability isn't there. So if the defender drops off half a meter more, that might give you the opportunity to do different things.
Or if he's really tight, you set it back and you've got the other side. Exactly. And I think that it's a balance between you designing the practice that is representative and letting the players explore and experiment and whatever other language you want to use versus there are these 3 set passes that I'm going to show you what they are. Because there's a danger then you're affecting the decision making of the players rather than giving them chance to explore and find solutions.
And you know what, that works for me. I put my hand up and I can protect it. I'm fine. And somebody else might say I've got to play one touch and get the other side.
And in my opinion, not really the country's place to say this is exactly how you do it. Because if the players are getting the ball from A to B, which is the football problem, why do we need to correct it? If they're doing it in a... If there's a problem solution to the football problem, then we don't need to tell them this is the perfect end each other.
That's right. And again, I think when you dive into the realities and the complexities around that, then I defend this defending in a realistic manner. Because they are really essential to paint in the picture, which then leaves the opportunity for action. So if the defenders are all over the place, leaving gaps here, leaving spaces, pressing in the wrong moments, then you're not shining a light on a realistic affordance or realistic opportunity.
So then we have to be able to manage that as well. And then depending on where the players are at, we might have to really, really shine a light on the opportunity to play in a certain way. So for example, a lot of young players I've worked with struggle to take a back foot touch or touch with their attacking foot, whatever you want to call it, or the foot furthest away on their weak side to be open up on their weaker foot and play forward. So they will self-organise around that so they can perform well.
They'll do everything else, but not experiment with that. So then we might have to be a little bit more prescriptive within the session and maybe use a constraint, which is, hey, it's only a point if you receive with the foot furthest away or the back foot and play forward. And by the way, like, Johnny, you're going to play on this side just for the next five minutes, because then I know that he's going to get repetition of trying that. That's a really nice example of team constraints or task constraints for the whole team and individual constraints, because it might only be that Jimmy Gorn's got a problem sleeping on his left foot.
So that constraint, that constraint, and so do I. So that constraint is just for you. So Jimmy, you just thought today you've got to receive this and then it's up to you how you score. But everybody else, you carry on to that.
Again, is that the skill of the coaches and giving every individual play what they need within the session. I think it's worth mentioning that the webinar that you've discussed a few times is the members webinar number two, which is the fundamentals of session design, which is a discussion between you and I and Dave Wright, where we each took a session that was a drill. It was quite a traditional practice, whether it was around mannequins or a random diamond or a square. And just an example of how we made that more representative and more real and perhaps even sessions that we would use with kids that we coach.
Any sort of final thoughts with this? One of the major takeaways. Is it worth talking about times where you would do pure repetition or play where you're just a ball in the wall and we'd encourage kids to practice on their own because we've got a lot of content from on a hurricane. We'll talk about practicing the park and trying to hit trees.
And so I think it's important to sort of present that balanced message. Definitely. I think if kids want to go away and work on that stuff, if they want to go and do it, they should go and do it. So I think we talk about intrinsic motivation.
I think if they want to go and kick the ball against the wall, if they want to go and work on a certain skill or a certain technique, whatever you want to call it, then certainly that's that's massively valuable. The difference being when you're in a coaching session, as you know, with like 12 players, 10 players, 16 players, then there is much more to be gained by being in realistic situations and more representative of the game, rather than being in those really, really isolated situations. I think I think a sweet spot is when you design a practice that kind of tests the players or challenges the players, not so that they can't do it, but just so it's not that sort of edge. And then they go, I really need to work on this.
And you go, cool, you can do that like in your own time or you can do that when we have individual practice. But when you've got an especially that in a grassroots environment, when you've got one training session with 14 kids, I would try and do as much of that as realistic as possible. So it doesn't mean 100% opposed, but is it dynamic? Is it chaos interference?
So the kids are getting loads of practice of receiving pressure or being players. And then hopefully, like I said, the sweet spot is you design a practice where Jimmy gets to the end of practice and goes, I'm glad I really need to work on my left foot and I'm really struggling. And then that would be, okay, go away, ball on the wall, go away to the park or go and grab your mate in the playground and practice that practice that. And then can you transfer that to the game?
So I think it's important to say, like, you know, we're not advocating that it's always 100% opposed. And it's always games based and it's always, you know, a fall before because it's not. And I don't think when we're talking about elite players, I think any elite player has made it just from training sessions. I don't think that would be enough.
I think you can just, you know, train four hours a week and then, you know, the next pet, the other repetition is important. And I think also from, I've talked about this before, I've seen psychological benefits to more additional isolated repetition, especially with these apples I've got in my head are forwards feeling the ball and hitting the back of the net. So there'd be times where it'd be quite unrealistic or quite slow, but to get that real feel or striking the ball goal goal goal, that can just have them go into it. And if I was back, just, it's also something I've done with heading is when I think heading in the game is quite daunting and quite like the timing and you only get kind of five of those a game, you get it wrong, get it first one wrong, it can affect you.
So heading is something you can build up. I think where you do practice with a softball, you practice with you and your mate, head tennis, and then, you know, maybe a fun game where it's you have to score the header or head tennis or something like that. That's quite a nice explanation of moving up the spectrum and then can you do it in a fall before? Can you do it in a phase of play or unit and go and straight in?
So to say, you know, you're going to head of the ball like a world-class set of back and just get on with it age 12, I think is also probably not true. So I think it's important that we've got to share that sort of balanced approach. I think it's a really good point. I think the question for people to consider when they're doing that is around learning versus performance, because I think the idea or the example you give with St.
Strike is that they're repeating something so they can perform better on the weekend. Maybe they're repeating it just before they go into the game. So they get that feel, they get that confidence moving forward so that they can perform at their best, whereas the other type of repetition which is more dynamic, we're recommending that for learning, which is very different from performing because it will not messy. So I think it's going to go wrong.
Exactly. Exactly. So there's a clear, I mean, and this is a spectrum. So they're not, it's not one or the other.
Like our session is going to sit somewhere on this spectrum. It might be slightly more towards performance. It might be slightly more hopefully more towards learning the majority of the time. But it also depends what you're trying to learn.
In a session I did recently, I needed the players to understand what a good pass was and to have a shared understanding among the group. Well, what is a good pass? What does that mean? So I think that's something that's going to be closer to performance of a good pass.
So everyone understood and were comfortable and repeated that they were confident they could do a good pass. So when we went into the part of session, which was really learning and it was really more in a dynamic environment and shining a light on a specific opportunity or affordance, then I was confident and they were confident that the passing wasn't going to hold them back. Does that make sense? Sure.
Yeah. It goes to show how we open this question. The simple answer is yeah, the complex answers we can talk about this for an hour. So I think it's the skill of the coaches and it's a move up on that spectrum depending on what the team needs or the individual needs.
So we've talked about a whole part whole before. So this is the whole football problem or I think we're trying to achieve together. We're going to break it down and it might be breaking it down into smaller, simpler pictures. It might be breaking it down with different players.
So you've thought it's going to work on this and you're going to work on this, put that back together and see how it works. So it's a really, really complex one. Any sort of final takeaways that you'd give the time before we wrap up? No, I think we've covered it pretty well.
You can get back to your lemon chips now and get back to bed. Thank you very much for your time today. It's a pleasure. Cheers mate.
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