Becoming skillful is not about muscle memory using block practices or isolated rote methods. Performing a skill that was learned in non-representative game environments is something anyone can do, the real question is can that skill be transferred to the real game effectively? Performing a skill with muscle memory outside of the game context can be called a “dumb” skill. Dumb skills require no adaption of intentions or technique, there is no real information surrounding the application of the skill itself. Examples of dumb skills outside of soccer could be clicking a computer mouse or punching in a password on your computer or phone. There is no real searching for information or adapting of techniques or intentions in these types of skills. However, skills that are applied in the dynamic and chaotic game of soccer must be combined with the what, how, where, and when, these are things that only game-representative experiences can teach. No verbal instructions or isolated rote training can teach the what, how, where, when, or the adaption of the technique. When you think of skill acquisition, think about the player attending and attuning to the environment at all times, searching for opportunities for actions as they appear and decay in real-time. There are no “dumb skills” that a player waits to fit into the environment as the solution. The idea is not to design environments with automated solutions, because there are no automated solutions in this chaotic dynamic game. Instead, can we design live game-representative environments that are unpredictable, requiring live problem-solving with real information for players to couple physical actions with visual perception? Can we design practice sessions that offer at the very least a few different options for actions (affordances), these types of environments will be more beneficial than block practice routines. Environments that keep multiple affordances open at the same time are so important because they add real decision-making to the context of skill acquisition. Repetition without repetition is accomplished in these real environments.
Ecological Approach Creates More Adaptable Players?
Are players more adaptable who train in ecological environments? The initial data indicates that players who train in ecological environments have more movement solutions in real games. Initial tennis and baseball studies indicate this to be true. Top Baseball players don’t just have one swing for all pitches, they adapt their swing (movement solution) to meet the opportunities for action that emerge from different pitches. Volleyball players who trained with multiple options for actions compared to just one option performed more successfully. The U10 study from German soccer also lends itself to the benefits of the ecological approach.
Theory of Decision-Making & Technique
The Ecological Approach differs from the Information Processing Cognitive Model in terms of decision-making. The Cognitive Model can be summarized in the following way: A+B (calculated in the brain) = Physical Action C. It relies on drawing on past memory and pattern recognition to make decisions. Ecological dynamics looks at the environment and the individual as being in a real-time current feedback loop operating together. Player affordances (action capabilities) emerge and decay in real time, players can shift intentions and perform actions without the brain doing separate calculations. Perception and attuning vision is a part of cognition that is interlinked and not separated, as players pick up specifying information with skillful intentionality, they can change intentions. In the real-time feedback loop players are re-organizing degrees of freedom to adapt their technique to the environment (self-organizing). In conclusion, ecological dynamics views action, perception, and cognition as being combined together, not separated into stages like in the Cognitive viewpoint. The real environment in front of the player’s eyes is always the best model, it has intelligence, structure, and meaning, and it has all the information players need to make decisions and perform actions. Top players are masters at attuning and searching the environment, which contains everything needed to make great decisions.
Give Athletes Real Problems Using Representative Game-Design and Not Solutions
I will keep this one short. Does your training look close to the real game and are the players making meaningful decisions on and off the ball? Soccer is about two things A) exploiting time and space when you have the ball to score B) shutting down time and space when you don’t have the ball to stop the opponent from scoring and win it back.
Let’s keep it this simple: Interpersonal distance between opponents changes player affordances. Players must experience environments where they learn to exploit space and time in possession, and shut down space and time when defending. Player behaviors afford behaviors. You do not have to give automated solutions, let the players experience the environment and find solutions. Of course, you can stimulate ideas but soccer is not like solving a math problem with one solution and one method for getting the answer.
Ending Note
Isolated technical training has value but the value has severe limitations in my opinion. Example: Once I learned a direction change or 1v1 move as a player, I never needed to practice it again in an isolated setting. I found it easier to learn one technique for maybe two hours in isolation, and then I got the movement down forever. For example, the scissors move. I trained it for 2 hours and I got the physical movement. The next step was to use the scissors in real environments, the benefits of rote training were gone for me after a couple of hours. I see so many clubs doing things like the scissors move from U8 to U19, if I was a player I would be so bored. For me, practice time is decision-making time, the days of isolated rote block training should be a thing of the past. I seriously question the neuroscience approach of myelin sheaths, engrams, and synapses to produce high-level techniques. This is a conclusion I have come to with over a decade of academic research, coaching, and personal training.