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What Learning through the Game Really Means

Wed, 25 Feb 2026 21:00:08 GMT

What Learning through the Game Really Means

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Traditional Coaching Methods Need to be Challenged

Wed, 25 Feb 2026 20:56:55 GMT

Traditional Coaching Methods Need to be Challenged

Coaching has experienced very little change over the last few decades. While there are more resources and more responsibilities for coaches than ever before, coaching looks very similar to how they did 30-50 years ago. As a matter of fact, it often looks like the picture below.

A coach is supposed to have all of the knowledge, while the player has everything to learn. With that in mind, it is the coach's responsibility to share everything that he/she knows and provide instructional feedback to every repetition. This approach completely disregards how people, let alone children, learn. It also neglects the most important reason that children play the game - because it's fun.

Imagine spending your day at work in the office with someone correcting you every time you mistype or don't get the sale. Everyone would agree yet we subject players to it in every sport. Players line up, perform an action such as shooting, and coaches are there to tell players precisely what went wrong. Otherwise, they're not coaching, right? Wrong . Research tells us that all of us perform the same action differently. As a matter of fact, research tells us that none of us will ever repeat the same exact action twice. We'll never shoot the ball the same way twice.

With that in mind, why should so much time be spent breaking down shooting technique to a mechanical level? If it's the outcome of each action that truly dictates performance, why shift the focus away from that to simply ensure that all of the players in our care strike the ball in the same way?

Instead of discussing what research evidence shows us is the best way for players to acquire skill, today's focus is on why coaching hasn't changed in the ways that nearly every other industry has. Here are just a few reasons why coaching often looks like the picture that we described.

Coaches end up coaching similarly to how we were coached growing up because that's how they know it to look.
Coaches find it easier to coach in environments that are black and white. Miss a cone in a dribbling exercise? Something must have been wrong, meaning it's now time to teach.
Coaches are afraid to adapt because there is pressure or fear tied to doing things in a different way than parents expect.
Coaches mimic top coaches that have had competitive success.

While it's understandable and expected to take certain things away from past experience, nothing will ever change for the better if coaches are solely reliant on how they experienced coaching in the past. Similarly, the pressure to be teaching constantly, whether from the coach themselves, parents, or leadership lends itself to coaches designing sessions that have very little relevance to the game as a whole.

All of this brings me to my final point. Whether it be due to imposter syndrome or the very well intended desire to learn from the best professionals, this can also be detrimental to players. At any given training complex, you'll see a whole host of coaches with session plans copied from the likes of Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp. The fact that coaches have access to this level of information now a days is amazing, but it is not always applied appropriately. Running nine year olds through the paces of a Guardiola session in the exact same size space with the same constraints as his best Barcelona or Manchester City teams will lead to a frustrated coach and players. The coach will be upset that his players can't perform to the likes of Rodri and Sergio Busquets while the players miss out on any joy because of the frustrated and negative interventions by the coach.

The argument for learning from the best is an easy one. Success leaves clues after all, right? While there are definitely things that can be taken away and applied from winning and successful environments, if all coaches are coaching in a similar fashion, how much can we truly learn. Are the coaches that win successful because of their methods or because the overwhelming majority of coaches are doing similar things?

It's time that we question traditional coaching methods, even though many of us had great experiences and playing careers. Was that due to our coach's methods or was that because ultimately, regardless of how great or poor coaching standards were at the time, someone will always rise to the top?

What a Skillful Player is...and isn't

Wed, 25 Feb 2026 20:43:47 GMT

What a Skillful Player is...and ISN'T

What is a skillful player? Firstly, we have to define what skill is, which is often easier said than done. If you were to ask five different people to define skill, how many different responses do you think you would get?

Traditional coaching methods, social media, and the fear of missing out have warped our perception of skill. Videos flood our feeds of young players doing some incredible things with a ball at their feet. We watch coaches demand perfect technique and drills that look professional, clean, and without mistakes.

All of these things lead us to believe that is what skill looks like - tricks, flicks, moves, scanning, etc. A broad definition of skill would be "the ability to do something well" but in this case, shouldn't the something be the game itself?

Dr. Rob Gray is a professor and author, with over 25 years of experience with truly elite sports teams in leagues such as the MLB and NBA. Rob's research, outlined in his book, How We Learn to Move, makes the point that what we see, feel, or sense from our environment dictates every movement that we make. In addition, he points out that adaptability is the key to skill development.

Isolated drills without any real context from the game present not only aren't as impactful, but they can negatively impact a player's ability to adjust to constantly changing demands of the game.

Ecological Dynamics is a concept that pushes back against isolated or mechanical movements with limited variability to creating environments where players are tasked with solving game-like problems in real time. The idea is that skill is the ability to effectively find solutions, regardless of the constraints.

Constraints can be broken into three different categories:

Task - What does the player need to accomplish? This may be related to the result, team principles, or another factor.

Environment - What from the environment impacts the player's ability to accomplish the task? It could be a wet or bumpy field, loud parents or coaches, or the way that the opponent is playing.

Individual - What are the players strength's and weaknesses? How confident are they? How are they feeling physically? Are they coming off an injury?

It's important to keep in mind that all of these constraints are not black-and-white, but instead, based on each individual's perception. One player may not feel confident taking players on 1v1 despite having all of the qualities necessary to do so. Another player may be really confident in their aerial abilities despite being one of the smaller players on the team. When it comes to constraints, perception is what matters - not facts.

When we factor all of this in, skillful play requires the ability to perceive possible solutions and produce a movement that achieves the intended outcome. It isn't the ability to repeat the same actions over and over again in the same way because movement is not stored in the muscles, it emerges based on the environment that we find ourselves in.

Skillful players come in all different shapes, sizes, and positions. A skillful midfielder will appear different than a skillful central defender, but just because they play the game differently, and one can do things that the other can't, doesn't make one more skillful than the other.

Our different anatomies provide us all with unique capabilities.

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What Learning through the Game Really Means

What Learning through the Game Really Means ﻿

Traditional Coaching Methods Need to be Challenged

Traditional Coaching Methods Need to be Challenged

What a Skillful Player is...and isn't

What a Skillful Player is...and ISN'T

What Learning through the Game Really Means