The Speed of Learning
Man, does Old Coach Chic have something to offer in THIS department!
I canât put my finger on the time I realized the importance of what Shaun Goodsell is about to share with you, but my guess is that it was about 20-years ago. (You could make that 35- to 40-years ago, if you count my reading about when the old Soviet coach, Anatoli Tarasov, would have his team practice amid recordings of loud fan noise, just to prepare his guys for playing in noisy North American rinks.)
Anyway, the following is awesome advice, and Iâll have a little more to add right afterâŚ
Shaun Goodsell, MA
Founder and CEO of Mental Edge
Athletes invest enormous amounts of time in practice. Go to a football field, a hockey rink, a baseball diamond and you will most likely see coaches and athletes preparing for an upcoming contest. Many report that practice seems insignificant and boring leading some to quit and many to disengage, believing that the cost is simply not worth the perceived benefit. The question is, what are the vital principles of meaningful and effective practice that enhance the development of the athlete? It just so happens that researchers have uncovered some targeted principles that have been proven to enhance preparation as well as game-time performance. This article is intended to highlight one of them.
More and more, researchers are learning that optimal brain functioning enhances the speed of learning and development. Researchers have discovered that those athletes, as well as others, that practice consistently with intensity â defined by practicing their skills at the edge of their ability level, making more mistakes, and leading to greater frustration â develop 300% faster than those that go through meaningless and countless comfortable repetitions. Daniel Coyle in his excellent book âTalent Codeâ refers to this as âDeep Practiceâ. The brain releases an important chemical called Myelin within this style of practice. This chemical speeds up the brainâs capacity to build connections and therefore learning is enhanced and sped up. What this means is that our development is often dictated more by our ability to learn from our mistakes in a pressure-oriented environment than by simply executing a skill or task without any pressure.
With time constraints becoming a significant challenge, and more and more required in the classroom from our student athletes, this groundbreaking information gives hope that, with creativity and purpose, athletes do not need to invest hours and hours of comfortable practice to improve. In fact, this type of practice may do more to un-prepare the athlete than actually help them prepare for the pressure-laden contest they are likely to encounter.
I want to end this article by saying that those athletes that can learn to handle frustration and see the learning inherent within mistakes often learn at a more rapid rate then those that are derailed by disappointment and frustration. Often some âmind skillsâ training might be needed to engage in this highly intense type of practice. Next time you go to practice, remember, making mistakes is crucial to your growth. So fail huge!
The Mental Edge is committed to training kids through these types of experiences. To begin your life training process give us a call today 763-439-5246.
Shaun Goodsell
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As for my two cents worth…
Without doubt, that is unbelievable elite level coaching advice! Now, however, let me suggest a few hockey-specific tipsâŚ
There are still some areas of a playerâs game where I want them to go slowly and to concentrate on technique. For example, working on something like oneâs skating stride — maybe with T-cords, a slideboard or my Skaterâs Rhythm-bar — falls in this category. And I also tend to have my players initially go slowly as theyâre learning a new skill. However, beyond those examples, itâs probably time for Shaunâs advice to kick-in.
I remember reading years ago about the late, great Flyers coach, Fred Shero, having his team practice their breakouts against 6-forecheckers, or he’d otherwise make his players work against situations that were far beyond what theyâd face in a real game.
And so are there numerous examples within this website about ways Iâve upped the challenges on my players during their practicesâŚ
A number of years ago, one of my Team NEHI assistant coaches returned from earning his Level 5 coaching certification, and one of the ideas he shared with me from that seminar was about â⌠really screwing-up the kidsâ motor neurons.â One of his ideas was to have multiple (small) games going on at the same time — maybe with three different teams out on the ice, with three or four differently colored pucks being used (each puck with its own rules for scoring). Ha, talk about challenging your players mentally. Oh, and I might also add that, challenging players mentally is one of the main benefits of small games use.
Of course, long-time CoachChic.com members should be familiar with all the crazy stunts I have individual players do — from dribbling more than one puck or ball at a time to performing some crazy physical tricks — like tumbling or skipping rope — while dribbling.
Ya, part of the challenge is to really screw-up the kidsâ motor neurons. But, so is it to force them to solve problems. And I think the latter is a big part of what Shaun has been saying.
In fact, if youâve seen my 6-part video series on âYou Donât Need Ice!â, you might recall me pointing to the mental skills that a hockey player can acquire by learning unique rules, strategies and tactics while engaged in another sport. The idea is to keep the mind growing, and learning to solve problems during the heat of battle.
Oh, by the way⌠Over time, I’m going to present a series here under the Conditioning category, showing you some of the things my high school players used to do in various off-ice settings. And I’ll make it a point to describe a few things I talked to the kids about⌠One of these was a warning about their fine motor skills abandoning them as they tired, this so each player would understand himself while in either a practice or late-game setting. The other was to advise my guys against stopping if they hit a snag in any drill, and to resist the temptation to sulk for even a second if they found themselves stumbling during game action.
Yes, the point to all this is that an athleteâs mind (and body) need to be constantly challenged, beyond the typical in-and-out-of-pylons kind of drills, or sleepwalking through the same-old, same-old edge drills.
