Randomized activities vs Blocked practice design 🏆👑

Published: Fri, 12/01/17

 
"Education is the kindling of a flame,
not the filling of a vessel​​​​​"
- Socrates
Fascinating interview with Dr. Clayton Kuklick on this week's podcast. Among many fascinating topics, the one that really jumped out was the discussion on practice design.

It's the age-old struggle for coaches when designing practices - do we spend more time on repping fundamentals or on simulating game-like scenarios in the form of some type of scrimmage?

Dr. Kuklick brought in the perspective of - why not combine the two?

Introduce randomization into doing your reps and designing your practices:
  • Instead of throwing 10 pitches to the outside corner, then 10 down the middle, then 10 inside - mix them together so the player has to adjust.
  • Instead of shooting 10 jumpshots from one spot, then moving to the next spot- keep moving between each shot.
  • Instead of always scrimmaging the last 20 minutes of each practice - in the middle of a drill early in practice blow your whistle and tell your starting offense their is 2 minutes left in the game and you are down by four points.
It's a study in how people learn. If we just mundanely have kids repeat activities - are they learning anything? A little bit of muscle memory, maybe. But truly learning game situations and developing problem-solving is our ultimate goal.

Great discussion - go check it out!
Link to podcast episode
 
 
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WYC 135 – Coaching Education – Dr. Clayton Kuklick talks Random practice design & the power of analogies

Dr. Clayton Kuklick is a University of Denver Clinical Assistant Professor of Master of Arts in Sports Coaching and a PhD in Athletic Coaching Education. Clayton played college and pro baseball and has coached at all levels from youth through college.
Go to podcast episode
 
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Craig Haworth is the founder of Winning Youth Coaching, a site dedicated to helping coaches and parents make youth sports an awesome experience for the youth and the parents.  He interviews coaches from around the world and posts them on his podcast, which currently has over 135 interviews and has been downloaded over 225,000 times. He writes a weekly note to coaches and parents. He is married to his high-school sweetheart and they share the blessing of 3 children and live in Franklin, TN. You can sign-up for his weekly note here, find him on twitter at @craighaworth1, or visit his website winningyouthcoaching.com.
"It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men"
- Frederick Douglass
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