In order to get better at doing something, you need to practice it. And not just once. To master anything you need to perform many, many, many repetitions. I’m pretty sure that is not a revelation. But what kind of repetitions? As I’ve written before, not all repetitions are equal. There are massed repetitions, distributed repetitions, deliberate repetitions, competitive repetitions. The answer is, unfortunately, some combination of all them. But the one absolute necessity for a useful repetition is the participant must be fully engaged. I just came across a great blog post by coach educator / consultant Wayne Goldsmith on this topic. And the post contained this example which I thought hit the nail right on the head.
The aim of all training in competitive sport is to prepare athletes to perform to their full potential in competition or, if you like,to train the way you want to play!
Let’s say there are 100 balls in the bucket. And I hit 100 balls over the net. And of that 100 balls I hit over the net, my mind is only fully engaged with 10 of them. So, in terms of how my training relates to my competition that’s a success rate of………10%.
Wayne Goldsmith – WG Coaching
Too many times I see mindless repetitions or practice to fill time. For repetition to be useful, you must be engaged in the process. Otherwise, you are just filling time.
About Mark Lebedew:
Mark Lebedew authors the At Home on the Court Blog. He coaches professionally in Poland, from january 2021 with eWinner Gwardia Wrocław, in season 2019/20 with Aluron Virtu CMC Warta Zawiercie and in the period 2015-2018 with KS Jastrzębski Węgiel. That follows five seasons Germany where his Berlin Recycling Volleys won three straight league titles and a CEV Champions League bronze medal. He has prior professional experience in Belgium and Italy. Mark was also Head Coach for the Australian Men’s National Team. From 2021/2022 leads VfB Friedrichshafen, while in 2022 he led the Slovenian national team during the Volleyball Nations League.
Mark partnered with his brother and father to translate and publish “My Profession: The Game“, the last book by legendary Russian coach, Vyacheslav Platonov.
With John Forman, he is behind the Volleyball Coaching Wizards project (link http://volleyballcoachingwizards.com/) which identifies great coaches from all levels, making their experience, insights, and expertise available to people all over the world. The project has produced multiple books, a in e-book format available here ( link to http://bit.ly/34yakou ) or at Amazon here (link https://amzn.to/2JRqTE6).
In 2021, he launched project Webinars and Presentations on Demand. If you are interested for coaching presentations and webinars available on demand, click here.
