Over at the Arizona Sidelines Coaching Blog there was a post which addressed the subject of doing non-game-like drills. It included a lot of references to videos of activities which would appear to have very little to do with actual volleyball. The leading example was one where a coach was rolling balls and requiring a player to moved to them and roll them back. I’ve actually seen a variation of this drill run. The author said the following:
“Motor learning science is adamant about Game-Like Reps in practice; better skill acquisition, better transfer and better retention. Chasing rolling balls across the floor while 10 girls stand and watch doesn’t come up a whole lot in the game. So why?”
Now, I am very much in line with the philosophy of making things as game-like as we possibly can in training. Just the other day I had a go at men’s volleyball players at a recent match for some of what they were doing. Here’s a question, though.
What if we’re not actually training the game at the moment, though?
Let me clarify. In volleyball, as in anything, there are technical skills and there are game skills. Motor learning, as noted above, strongly suggests that skills are best developed in a game-like environment. And I doubt anyone will argue that learning things like reading and decision-making are also best accomplished in a similar fashion.
What about things that are not specific to the sport, though?
I’m not talking about physical stuff here. First off, you can make the case that any strength and conditioning work you do should be directly related to the sport you’re playing. Further, you can also make the case that much of that type of development is best accomplished on the court.
Instead, I’m talking about mental development. I have in mind what might broadly be classified as mental toughness. More specifically, it could include things like dealing with adversity, focusing on the next play and letting mistakes go, and those sorts of things. I know personally these are things I specifically work on with my teams. I’ve talked about ways of doing so in my Training beyond techniques and tactics post.
If mental training is the primary focus of a specific exercise, can we accept deviations from “the game teaches the game”?
Would love to hear your thoughts on the subject.
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4 Responses
Maybe you can, but I would ask back ‘why would you?’.
You can design gamelike drills that train mental toughness, and train volleyball.
No disagreement from me. I’m asking to stimulate thought. It’s a question of how far away from 6 v 6 game type action are you willing to go.
Isn’t the only question that matters: is there a transfer?
That’s a very good question. Has anyone done any research on mental toughness transfer? 🙂