Seven steps to learning a skill

RENOWNED New Zealand rugby superstar Sonny Bill Williams believes strength isn’t everything as he builds enough strength to suit his team position, and then he turns it into power.

Why? Believing skill is still king, Sonny Bill employs extra coaches to hone his game skills and combined with his power, he is the super player he is.

On behalf of the Ulster Council GAA, I will be delivering courses in Down and Armagh in February and March on:
(i) developing kicking skills
(ii) the importance of skill development in u-14s to u-18s

There are seven stages to developing skills but many coaches do not take their players past the first two stages.

Skill is the fundamental element of all sports yet just learning the skill is only the first step in the process.

It’s foolish to think then that ‘perfect practice makes perfect’ if your goal is to win in competition.
Players/athletes don’t fail if their skill level is poor. They fail when their ability to perform the skill in competition conditions is poor, and that’s a coaching issue.

So let’s now define skill as ‘the ability to perform a sporting skill consistently well at speed, under fatigue and pressure conditions in a competition environment.’

Why? There’s a huge difference between (a) learning the skill and (b) learning to perform the skill consistently well at speed and under fatigue and pressure of competition, in front of large numbers of people.

Thus your perfect practice must be perfect performance practice. Here are the seven steps of performance practice.
A) BASIC SKILLS (6-11 years)

1) Step one – Perform the skill/Learn the skill
This is the first and, unfortunately, often the last step for most players in their skill-learning programme (between 6-11). Coaches come up with a drill, players copy it, try it, learn it. No pressure.

2) Step two – Perform the skill very well
Skill mastery here comes from (i) regular practice, (ii) quality feedback from coach (iii) possible other performance analysis techniques, eg videos, tablet, iPhone, the coach’s eye, this step is where most coaches stop coaching the skill believing if the player is using the skill well and mirrors coaching textbook, then their job is done. Wrong, the job is less than 30% done.

3)   Step three – Perform the skill very well and at speed
In sport, performing skills really slow is not a winning strategy. It looks good but if it’s not really being used at the level of competition speed on the day, then players’ skill is not competition ready. Your opponents will destroy you.

B)   FUNDAMENTAL SKILLS

4) Step four – Perform skill very well, at speed and under fatigue (13-15 years)
Think of the game’s danger zones, eg under 10 minutes of pressure defending, five minutes before end of first half and 5-10 minutes before the end of the game. Skill in these situations need to be quality in execution at a time when players are tired, dehydrated, glycogen depleted and suffering from neuro-muscular fatigue.  The players that can produce quality skills in ‘danger zone’ periods have a winning edge.

5) Step five – Perform the skill very well, at speed, under fatigue and under pressure (15-16+ years)
Hitting bad wides, dropping the ball, over-hit or inaccurate passes, fumbling the ball, misjudging tackles or ‘solos’ – these are examples of skills not being performed well, at speed etc. At critical moments they cause defeat. Yes, emotional stress/mental pressure impact and affect skill execution. So control of emotions and the mind are a coaching issue – often ignored or accepted. Thus in training, build in ‘pressure’ and ensure activities are challenging and demanding, even more so than the competition environment you’re preparing for.

6) Step six – Perform the skill very well, at speed, under fatigue and under pressure consistently (16-18 years – juvenile into minors)
Performing skills under competitive conditions once can be luck. Doing it consistently in competition is the sign of a real champion, eg Cooper, Brogan, Murphy. Consistency in competition of skills execution come from consistency of training standards – a no compromise approach at training or in competition. giving it your all, always.

Be careful, many players have two brains.

a) Training brain – used in preparation/training. This brain accepts laziness, inaccuracy, sloppiness and poor skills, believing it ‘will be ok on the day’ and everything will somehow magically correct itself at the competition.

b) Competition brain – the brain they use in training and competition, eg Sonny Bill Williams. The secret to competition success is to use competition brain in every training session.

7) Step seven – perform the skill very well, at speed, under fatigue and under pressure consistently in competition conditions (18+ years, adult) ie, a player’s capacity to perform consistently in competitive (championship) conditions. Performing a basic skill (mastered) is not difficult. But in gaelic/rugby/soccer etc, add the fatigue of 75 minutes of championship game time, the pressure of knowing the whole season is on the line with one kick, one shot (Oisin McConville, 2002), the expectations of county board, manager, coach, team-mates and tens of thousands of supporters and suddenly the basic skill is not so basic. It becomes the life changing moment for many. Recreating this scenario in training consistently is vital.

Performing practice makes for perfect performance makes for regular success.

A 7-steps summary:

(i) Just learning/mastering the skills is not enough – no longer perfect practice makes perfect

(ii) Coaches/players mist spend as much time, energy and effort learning to perform fundamental skills in competition conditions as they do learning basic skills

(iii) Take/train the 7 steps systematically for consistent success rather than relying on luck.
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