Planning Successful Practices: Creating Mindsets for Engagement

“The whole idea is not to train failure, but to continue improvement.”---James Radcliffe

In my last post I started the “process” of discussing the importance of mindset to the overall development of young students/athletes.  Consider the profound quote from Jimmy Radcliffe above.  Whether you are a parent, teacher or coach, the goal should be continued improvement of our children ‘s skills in academics, basic value -systems, fitness, health or athletic participation.

In order to do this requires the skill of “teaching” proper mindsets from the very beginning of the developmental stage.  This requires knowing the different priming tools (words, phrases, types of feed-back, correctives, etc.) that create a learning environment geared towards the development of a growth mindset and the prevention of a fixed mindset.

These mindsets and their characteristics were defined in my last blog and can also be accessed in a more detailed source by using any online search engine and typing in MINDSET, Dr. Carol Dweck.

As mentioned in the previous post, this post will attempt to provide some thoughts on mindset and it’s importance to the creation of successful practice environments for any sport.

I believe it was Dan Pfaff who verbalized the following:  “Athlete success is not based on what we know as a coach—it’s based on what the athletes learn.”  Thus, the creation of a true learning environment should be the primary focus of any coach.

Daniel Coyle, author of The Talent Code, describes a successful practice as one in which everything clicks, everyone is engaged and working productively. In contrast, a bad practice session is one where on one is engaged, where no learning happens, and where you begin to suspect that it was a waste of time for the majority of athletes.

The bottom line is this: Successful practices do not happen when the MINDSETS of the athletes and their emotions are not primed for LEARNING.

This can be done through mindful planning of practices by coaching in regards to creating environments that engage the athletes in the process of learning AND improving. In essence, it is a DESIGN FEATURE based on the principle that learners need to be challenged by a degree of difficulty that is within their grasp; not too hard but not too easy. The key is to keep learners constantly on the edge of their ability.

It is apparent that this is best done with athletes that employ a growth mindset. Creation of an environment whereby the growth mindset is taught, through proper verbal cues, reinforcement methods, etc., IS critical to the success of each athlete and each practice session.

Former Olympic Team and Beach Volleyball Gold Medalist, Karch Kiraly, provides some ideas on creating a successful practice environment in his Volleyblog titled “Competition vs. Practice.  “Playing your best involves becoming solid enough at the fundamentals (my under-score!) that you can perform each skill without thinking about how to do what your doing. How do you get there? You guessed it—practice. Focused, mindful practice. And lots of it.” ….”In the USA gym, both when I was playing and now in my role as a coach for the U.S. Women’s National Volleyball Team, we strive every day to match the intensity level of tournament matches. If you’re treating each training session like a match, matches become little more than an extension of practice, and the familiarity of that environment helps you perform at a higher level.”

Kiraly also mentions New England Quarterback Tom Brady’s desire to improve as a key element in developing his emphasis on continuing to learn through analysis and correction mistakes. He points to the fact that after each season, regardless of the how successful it might have been Brady reviews his own performances and is extremely critical. He identifies a couple of things that he wants to do better, then he works on them in the off-season.

Kiraly says he sees this as important for two reasons:

1) it highlights that elite players never stop working in improving their fundamentals (there is that word again…fundamentals) AND

2) it underscores the importance of targeting one or two specific thing, not trying to improve everything at once.

To that I will add a third;

3 it shows the value of learning from mistakes.

Kiraly closes his blog with these comments on choosing a couple of things to work on during each practice, thereby creating a successful practice environment that stems from “priming” the proper mindset to get the most from each practice.  “That’s what I mean by focused, mindful practice. For example, your practice theme for today should be, ‘I’m going to get better at hitting.’ Instead, it shuld be, “I will go to the ball with my third step, OR I will get  my elbow up and back fast before I swing.’ If you focus on particular details within your whole game, your more likely to make lasting improvements.”

“It’s a journey that is ongoing, season after season, week after week, practice after practice.”—Karch Kiraly

STAY TUNED FOR MY NEXT POST THAT CONTINUES THE THEME OF DEVELOPING METHODS FOR CREATING SUCCESSFUL PRACTICE / LEARNING ENVIRONMENT VIA MINDSET.

Below is a great article from US Lacrosse’s continuing education director for coaching that plans practices kids WANT TO GO TO instead of Have to go to.... IF YOU ARE A YOUTH COACH OR PARENT YOU NEED TO READ IT.

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USOC Report: The Formula for Developing Elite Athletes

by TJ Buchanan
When developing your players for maximum performance, what really pushes them to an elite level?

The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) recently published a report based on a survey distributed to nearly 2,000 U.S. Olympic athletes. The survey intended to gauge what the USOC could do to improve the quality and effectiveness of programs focused on talent identification and development.

What do the Olympics have to do with your team of players you don’t choose and whose motivation varies? This information can help coaches of any sport and any age group guide their teams to success.

According to the USOC report, the top two reasons Olympic athletes gave for pursuing elite levels of performance were “intrinsic love of activity” (they liked being active) and love of the sport. What does that tell me as a coach? It’s my job to get my players to love being active and to love lacrosse.

It’s my job to make it fun.

Format your practices so that the mindset of the athletes becomes, “I want to go to practice,” as opposed to the all-too-often-heard, “I have to go to practice.” Get your players addicted to lacrosse. Implement drills with a fast pace, high touch counts and opportunities for frequent participation.

Another factor contributing to the desire to achieve at the highest level, according to the USOC report, was multi-sport athleticism. College lacrosse coaches almost universally prefer athletes who play multiple sports in high school. The data collected by the USOC reinforces that preference. Most Olympians did not specialize in their sport until very late in their development. Even then, some continued to participate in other sports.

It is downright painful to hear a 9-year-old say he or she solely plays lacrosse year-round, switching between teams based on the season. Research shows the best athletes in the world participated in at least two sports through high school. Ninety-seven percent of USOC respondents who followed that path credited multi-sport participation directly for their success.
If you ask your players to commit to lacrosse full time, you are holding them back and limiting their upside.

In his book, “Outliers,” Canadian journalist Malcolm Gladwell popularized the 10,000-hour rule that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to achieve mastery in a field. We might be tempted to interpret this to mean we must constantly practice one thing to become excellent at it. But would you want an athlete who 10,000 hours playing wall ball or one who divided 10,000 hours between basketball, hockey and lacrosse?

We can teach kids to catch and throw. Some say we can’t teach them to be athletes. I refute that. If we encourage and expect multi-sport participation, we indirectly teach them to be athletes.

The Path to Excellence

The USOC surveyed more than 300 athletes who competed in one or more Olympics between 2000 and 2012 to identify the factors and circumstances surrounding their success.

Factors Influencing Sport Decision (1-5 Scale)

Intrinsic love of activity – 4.32
Love of sport – 4.309
Early success – 3.583
Parental influence – 3.489
Coaches recruitment – 3.400
Peer recruitment – 2.805
Sibling recruitment – 2.557
PE teacher influence – 2.299

Implication

Coaches that can infuse competition with athlete-centric success and fun will set up athletes for a great experience.

Average Number of Sports Played

Age U10 – 3.11
Age 10-14 – 2.99
Age 15-18 – 2.2
Age 19-22 – 1.27
Age 22-older – 1.31

Implication

The findings indicate that Olympians were involved in an average of three sports per year until age 14, which belies the notion that early specialization is critical to long-term success. Multi-sport play appeared to be beneficial to these Olympians.
Over to you. How would you identify the factors that influence your lacrosse player’s sport decision? Is it one or more of the eight above, or something else? Let us know in the comments section.

TJ Buchanan is the coaching education content manager at US Lacrosse.