In this article, PDP Technical Advisor, Dan Wright wades into the opposed vs. unopposed practice debate. Dan shares his perspective on why this may be a redundant argument if we are to ensure that every player gets the individual support they require to maximise their potential. Each day I scroll through social media and see a similar discussion taking place. Every. Single. Day. The ‘unopposed versus opposed’ debate. Now, very quickly I will attempt to share with you my opinion on this and the context…
representative learning design
How do you decide what coaching practices to deliver? And what process do you follow when designing the practice? Fulham FC Head of Coaching and regular PDP contributor, Ben Bartlett shares an article from Hive Learning which provides steps 1 and 2 of the 6 stage process he uses to design effective coaching practices. “We must help coaches understand and rationalise why they coach and behave in the way they do rather than settling for mimicking others”. With clubs and coaches dedicating significant amounts of time…
Game-based learning has enormous benefits in terms of decision-making and skill acquisition. PE Teacher, blogger and regular PDP contributor, Sporticus shares his fantastic article on the advantages of manipulating games and the environment and how coaches can adjust conditions in order to help young players improve their skills. At the heart of a games based approach to teaching is the challenge to the centrality of learning isolated and decontextualised techniques that will ‘allow’ the child to play. Instead of starting with the practice…
Do you understand the context of your coaching environment? PDP contributor and associate lecturer at Oxford Brookes University, Ben Franks discusses the issues around the ongoing unopposed vs. opposed training debate and explains why context is key in a learning environment. Going Beyond the Opposed vs. Unopposed Dualism Unopposed vs. opposed, technique vs. skill – these arguments are forever plaguing Twitter, Facebook and coaching platforms. Some arguments come from theory, others from years of coaching experience, but all seem to be missing a really obvious point: everything pertains to context….
The question this week comes from Tom: “How do I scale down and simplify the principles of play for the kids that I’m working with?“ Your Turn: Ask PDP Anything Do you have a coaching question that we might be able to help with? We would love to hear from you! Here’s what you can do: 1. Tweet your questions to us @playerdp, or contact us on our Facebook page.2. PDP Members can chat directly with the PDP team to ask questions, share ideas, and support each other…
Pedro Passos and Keith Davids The Big Idea These authors, Passos and Davids, call their paper an “opinion piece.” Not so. It is an intelligent discussion of ecological dynamics played out in the learning of team sports through the interactive nature of the sport performance. Such interactions include those within the team and between the team and the opposing players. This dynamic continuously unfolds as players from both teams interact with constraints such as rules and boundaries, attempts at coordinating attacks and defenses and counter…