My previous post talked about figuring out the most important things to concentrate on as an individual. In this post I will go a little bit deeper and try to explain why each and every drill should be analyzed to get the maximum benefit from doing it. Too often have I seen a player just mindlessly execute drill after drill without ever considering what the point of it all is and then seeing little to no improvement in the skill the drill is supposed to train. This is at least partially always the coach's fault and I must admit being guilty of not explaining the purpose of a drill simply and clearly enough way too often. As usual I look at the issue from the point of view of a floorball coach and player but this one applies to any team sport and for the most part to any sport, even individual sports.
Once again, the most important agent in development is the athlete him/herself. Every drill contains multiple distinguishable parts and goals and the athlete is the only person who, in a normal team sport context, can choose the most important thing in the drill for themselves. Picking one or a few things to focus on is very important because the human cognitive system is not capable of concentrating on many things on conscious level at any time and conscious concentration is the key to development. If it sounds like I'm repeating myself it's because I am. And I will keep repeating it, over and over again until everybody everywhere understands the importance of this message.
For an example of what this means in practice take the simplest drill I can think of in floorball, passing to a team mate from a standing position. No movement involved, single recipient who is stationary and everything in the drill is very stable. In that drill there are at least the following parts: passing accuracy (does the recipient have to move to receive the pass), passing strength (faster is always better), pass quality (does the ball bounce or spin), reception quality (is the ball immediately in control) and general smoothness of execution. When doing a drill like this every athlete should think what should they most concentrate on, what is their achilles heel in that drill. Someone might have perfect passes but struggle when receiving a pass thus making the transition from reception to passing take too much time and effort. They should then focus on the reception part and let the other parts of the drill be handled with best possible subconscious effort.
From coach's point of view there are two important issues. First, there should always be a reason for every single drill. I have seen too many coaches run through too many training sessions with little to no consideration to how the drills executed fit into the bigger picture and what the expected gain from them is. No coach should ever just run a drill just because "that's what we always do" or "I saw this being done by some other team". Minor modifications to drills while keeping the development targets the same also makes a lot of sense to keep the team from getting bored.
The second issue for coaches is communication. When explaining the how, the coach must always explain the why. With younger players the drills are usually quite simple and figuring out the point of the drill is usually also quite simple but the coach must remember the players aren't automatically able to do it and that he/she is also a teacher and if the players are taught to train correctly at a young age they will be able to carry that all the way to the adult leagues with huge benefits on the way. With older juniors and adults the drills usually get more complex and the point might get lost in the intricacies of execution unless communicated clearly. It is also worth mentioning that it is quite a bit easier for the athlete to figure out their own goals and targets if they understand the bigger picture.
To put my message in a nutshell: know what you're doing and never just execute without thinking why. And for the coaches: never run a drill without a reason and remember to communicate the reason and the goals of the drill clearly enough. It sounds so simple when put in writing but it really isn't.
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