Reap the benefits of repeating practices

As coaches, it is natural that we feel the pressure to come up with a seemingly infinite number of new practices every session, in a bid to keep our players interested and engaged.

 

We can often spend so much time trying to create new activities that we end up being under-prepared for the actual delivery.

 

It is natural to be reluctant to replicate practices, and there are risks for repeating them too often; however, there are also many benefits for reusing them. 

 

Below are just some of the advantages of repeating a practice with your players...

 

Less time for explanation

One of the challenges of introducing any new practice to your players is considering how much time it will take for them to understand it.

 

This is an aspect of coaching I have often found challenging; finding that balance between giving my players all of the information they need and getting them moving, especially on those cold and wet nights.

 

Fortunately, if you have done a practice with the majority of the players before, then you will require less time to refresh memories and get the ball moving. 

 

Less need for discovery

While there are definitely benefits of embracing the ’messy zone’, and allowing players time to figure out the challenge your practice poses them, this can also take time and disrupt the flow of a session.

 

If you are repeating a practice, then it is likely that your players will need less time to understand the rules and requirements, and therefore this allows you more time to effectively coach your key points.

 

 

Measure progress

Any practice you do for your players will have measures of different levels of success.

 

If you are working in the final third, for example, that may mean regular chance creation when you do a practice for the first time.

 

Once the players have figured out the practice, you can measure the progress they have made since the previous attempt. 

 

Again, if you are focusing on the final third and your players are capable of consistent chance creation, then the measure may shift to chance conversion.

 

 

Quicker progressions

We’ve all had those practices where we want to add in a progression, but have not been able to, for one reason or other.

 

It may be because we have stayed to focus on a specific aspect of the practice, or the players themselves have struggled to adapt to the challenge.

 

If you are reusing a practice that you’ve had previous success with, it should allow you to move through your progressions quicker to ensure that your players still find the balance of challenging, but achievable.

 

 

Refresh key messages and discover new ones

As we become more experienced as coaches, we discover that keeping a practice fresh can be less about the practice design and more about what our focus is.

 

You could have the same practice design and be focused on switching play one week, and on breaking lines the next.

 

The players will get the comfort from doing a session they know, and are comfortable with, but the freshness of being presented a different challenge within that practice.