Deliberate Practice Helps Improve Sport Skills

by: John Strong, Niagara County Community College

This November I was asked to present at the New York State AHPERD conference in Verona, NY about Plyometrics and Agility Drills.  I provided a similar presentation last March for the Western Zone conference held at Canisius College and the dozen or so participants seemed to really enjoy hearing the information and participating in the activities.  This month, I decided that sharing the principles and practice from this presentation might also interest pelinks4u readers.

More than two decades ago Anders Ericsson wrote in an article titled The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance that, "The view that merely engaging in a sufficient amount of practice, regardless of the structure of that practice, leads to maximal performance has a long and contested history." It is my view that many coaches allow this concept to dominate their practices and diminish their most earnest attempts at improving the skill set of their players. The idea that players should get better simply by "putting in the reps" has driven one hard whistling coach after another to force unrelated and disconnected drills on players since before I started playing. The purpose of my presentation, and Ericson's article, is to enlighten coaches about what drills to consider keeping and dropping in the face of Deliberate Practice principles. Ericsson persisted further in his article:

In contrast to play, deliberate practice is a highly structured activity, the explicit goal of which is to improve performance. Specific tasks are invented to overcome weaknesses, and performance is carefully monitored to provide cues for ways to improve it further. We claim that deliberate practice requires effort and is not inherently enjoyable. Individuals are motivated to practice because practice improves performance. In addition, engaging in deliberate practice generates no immediate monetary rewards and generates costs associated with access to teachers and training environments. Thus, an understanding of the long-term consequences of deliberate practice is important.¹

In a nutshell, many people have bemoaned the drudgery of tedious deliberate practice for some time.  But in truth, a little bit of creativity can overcome the tedium and produce an environment that develops good habits and performance. Additionally, enhanced performance based on Deliberate Practice principles during practice can produce greater amounts of buy-in from participants. I would like to write next quarter about turning drills into games, but this month, I would like to detail the specifics about my presentation and the principles of Deliberate Practice.

To begin with, coaches must consider the movements within their sport: 

1. What are the key positions?
2. What are the dominant directions/movements that make-up the majority of the related required skills?
3. What are the increments of time that govern these movements?
4. What are the durations of the contests themselves?
5. What are the physiological requirements to sustain prolonged proficient performance?

For example, if I'm a basketball coach and considering these questions my answers would include: 1) basic defensive stance, offensive triple-threat position, posting-up and rebound positions, as well as full sprint positions; 2) athletes are expected to move laterally a great deal and at high rates of speed, sprinting forward with proficiency is also important as well as a great deal of directional change at high rates of speed; 3) players aren't usually on offense or defense for more than 30 seconds and therefore only need to move in those positions for that duration, changes of action (and direction) occur every two seconds, and the 6% - 20% of the contest is spent in high-intensity activities (jogs, runs, sprints, and shuffles),2/3/0/0; 4) contests last anywhere from 32 to 48 minutes depending on the level being coached; and 5) based on these requirements physiological proficiency will be evident in above average speed, agility, hand-eye coordination, muscular endurance and power.

With this type of information in hand it becomes far easier for coaches to designate which of their current drills is helping their players move toward proficiency and which can be left out of practice completely.  For example, as a basketball coach ladder drills where I tap side to side with my toes facing forward can be left out of my practice completely. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzB1Guns0ss Unfortunately many coaches have become accustomed to utilizing drills that have been handed down from folks that weren't privy to the principles of Deliberate Practice. These principles in a nut shell dictate that if I want to be proficient at kick-sliding in basketball then I have to do it thousands of times the way it appears in a game situation (similar to the Principle of Specificity).  Coaches interested in improving on these less effective drills, study the behaviors of players who display the characteristics they want their athletes to model and focus on, fine-tuning pieces that are essential to proficient performance.  Consider these general questions:

1. What are their hands doing?
2. How are they maintaining balance?
3. How are they creating motion?
4. What commonly diminishes the efficiency of these movements?

Again, if I were a basketball coach looking at defensive slides I might answer these questions the following way: 1) I want ball-side hands to deliberately be spread to the open side to close the passing window and trail hands to stay low in the cross-over lane; 2) I want balance to be maintained with a low shoulders-forward posture with fast driving feet that neither cross or are too far apart; 3) motion should be generated by a drive-and-kick reciprocating motion in the feet, ball-side foot turned out to lead the body; and 4) poor defensive slide angles, standing up too tall and poor footwork usually create unsatisfactory defensive slides.

The next step in providing your athletes with a Deliberate Practice setting is to work these features into a drill where the motions mirror a game-like setting so they can be practiced at game speeds and under conditions that simulate game situations.  A youth basketball coach might try the following: 1) place a defensive player in the optimal defensive position in the deep back court of the full basketball court; 2) instruct the player to perform the best defensive slide possible to the midline of the back court where it meets the foul line at which point the player is then instructed to heel pivot, open to a proficient defensive slide position going in the opposing direction and perform a proficient defensive slide in a 45° angle back to the sideline; 3) repeat.Once players have demonstrated proficient body angles and movement at moderate speeds the same drill can be executed using a stopwatch to force players to move at their top speeds.  A distinguishing characteristic of Deliberate Practice is that instantaneous quantifiable results are used to help athletes understand what they need to do to improve.  Once players can proficiently repeat the skill at game speed you can add a live dribbler who is asked to dribble to designated cones at the foul line, half court, and so on.  Defenders should remain a half step ahead of the ball and continue sliding as much as possible. If a defender gets behind or even with the ball they should be instructed to break into a run to recover.  Hip transition into and out of a run should be explained and modeled just as the first defensive slide was, so that players can see best practice and common errors to avoid.  Finally, players can square off in full court ball pressure in a drill that forces high speed transitions into and out of the defensive slide mimicking those that would occur in a game.  As players measurably improve their performance they should demonstrate greater efficiency at staying in an effective defensive orientation with ball-handlers both during practice and games. 

This is just one example of how to design practice drills based on Deliberate Practice.  If it sounds like something you're already doing in your practices then good news, you're on the right track according to Anders Ericsson!  To be consistent, inspect the rest of the drills that you use in your practices and ask the questions I mentioned earlier.  If the motions you see in your drills consist ONLY of game-like or game-related skills then you've already been providing Deliberate Practice for your athletes and I'll bet they are getting better every week. 

I suggest you also consider tracking your athlete's progress with regard to movement times and opponent performances to assess their improvement.  Do this both for your athletes and yourself.  Remember to praise your athletes for their improvement with specific feedback, and "great balance!" "You're driving that lead foot well to stay ahead of the dribbler there!" "Great transitions!" and so on.  If you find that some of your drills are hand-me-downs that might be omitted, take a closer look at them and see if maybe you could just tweak them to follow Deliberate Practice principles.  Apply the questions asked above and redesign the drill to put players in the best positions possible.  Finally, I'm certainly not saying that you should throw the agility ladders out of your practice. I'm simply suggesting that if you're asking your athletes to do something in practice it should always be based on game-time improvement. 

I hope this article has provided some food for thought and if you're interested in any follow up information please feel free to drop me a line at jstrong@niagaracc.suny.edu. 

References

1. Ericsson, K. Anders, Krampe, Ralf Th., Tesch-Romer, Clemens. The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance. Psychological Review 1993. Vol. 100. No. 3.363-406

2. Ben Abdelkrim N, El Fazaa S, El Ati J. Time motion analysis and physiological data of elite under-19-year-old basketball players during competition. Br J Sports Med. 2007;41(2):69-75. PubMed doi:10.1136/bjsm.2006.032318

3. Ben Abdelkrim N, Castagna C, El Fazaa S, El Ati J. The effect of player's standard and tactical strategy on game demand in men's basketball. J Strength Cond Res. 2010a;24:2652-2662. PubMed doi:10.1519/JSC.0b013e3181e2e0a3

4. Ben Abdelkrim N, Castagna C, Jabri I, Battikh T, El Fazaa S, El Ati J. Activity profile and physiological requirements of junior basketball players in relation to aerobic-anaerobic fitness. J Strength Cond Res. 2010b;24:2330-2342. PubMed doi:10.1519/JSC.0b013e3181e381c1

6. McInnes SE, Carlson JS, Jones CJ, Mckenna MJ. The physiological load imposed on basketball players during competition. J Sports Sci. 1995;13(5):387-397. PubMed doi:10.1080/02640419508732254

Biography:  John Strong is an Assistant Professor at Niagara County Community College in Sanborn, NY (8 years). His responsibilities include Physical Education Teacher Education, coordinating the Personal Training Certificate Program, and various posts in collegiate clubs and committees. John is a member of AAHPERD at the national, state, and zone levels and has presented at conferences for all three. He has coached at the middle and high school levels and is currently involved in youth sport both as a coach and trainer for Youth Sports New York. John's related areas of interest include: Youth Sport, Sport Philosophy, and Sport Psychology.

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