Hi all,

Apologies for not running 'actual' holiday sessions during these holidays. This was for a number of reasons. Hopefully we can get them back up and running later in the year. 

However one of the reasons for not running actual holiday sessions is as follows :

Practice at home.

I am very keen for players to do more practice at home, as this is one of the most effective and easy ways for players to further accelerate their technical development, especially if they can transfer this to their game.

Players spending some time every day thinking about and working on their technical development, whilst also thinking about the impact this can have in games, will make a massive difference to a players progress.

Team training alone does very little to accelerate individual technique. I feel sorry for the many players I see who love the game, but only do team training. They think they are developing and doing well, but then when they play all they do is run around alot, hussle, hassle, tackle hard and can move the ball forward.....but the sad reality is that they are playing well below their potential level. [Obviously there are exceptions. There are great team coaches, and good players who do develop in a team environment].

I have seen this in JBNPL games - far too many potentially great players dont play to their potential because the team based development process involves primarily learning how to stop the opposition from playing, as opposed to actually learning to play themselves. The only exception i have seen is in the " Melbourne CIty' academy teams (and i assume the Mel Vic academy teams are similar) and i also feel that the team i coach,  is trying to put learning to play above stopping the opposition from playing.

TST obviously adds another level to a player's development framework, and can definitely have a big impact on a player's game, especially in the long term.  If on top of this, a player then adds some 'smart' practice at home, then this is when a player gives themselves every opportunity to transform their game and be a player who out plays the opposition, as opposed to being the player that brings the opposition down a level by stealing the game away from them.

When players generally start to stand out at TST, and within their team, it is because they use TST as a framework for lots of practice at home. The TST framework allows them to practice the right things in the right way. Far too many potentially good players , who love the game and practice at home, practice useless things they learn off the 'F2 freestylers' - stuff that is very difficult and looks great as a showboating skill but as absolutely zero game relevance and ultimately does more harm than good if the goal is to be the best player possible.

Players who develop at TST slowly, are normally players who want to improve (hence why they do TST), but actually dont give their development too much extra attention outside of team and TST training. TST can only offer the framework for development, players who want to reach the next level, need to grab and use this framework and practice at home regularly.

Not wanting to practice at home is fine. Not everyone wants to put in that extra effort, and everyone has a practice point limit. A point at which the effort of practice is not worth the rewards gained from that practice. If TST is under this limit but practice at home is above this limit that's ok. Doing TST alone is infinitely better than relying on team training to turn you into a technician. At least TST builds the 'correct technical base' that a player can use when they are older, when their attitude to practice might change. If a player at 16 decides they want to improve, but don't have a strong technical base to build upon then the progress will always be limited, and the type of player they can be will also be limited.

So with that said. TST is never about the right now. It is more about laying down the technical foundations, so that if a player decides they want to invest more time in their development (at 14/16/18 years old), a technical base is established and can act as a springboard towards higher levels of the game.

The 'spin' from 'experts' say that the golden years of a player's development are from about 9-12 and this period is usually sold as the period where a player can make the biggest forward strides in regards to their ability.  But this isn't right.

The golden years start from the moment a player starts playing,  up to about 12 years old. And it is in this phase that good technical habits and a strong technical base need to be laid down. Bad habits formed in this phase are really hard to remove past the age of 12 and even more so if older. More often than not, australian player's are destroyed as a good player before they even get a chance to start to attempt to become a good player.

The reality is that the biggest jump in ability occurs between the ages of 16 to 20 for most players. This is when the technical base developed up to this point is combined with a developing maturity towards effective and efficient practice,  towards a maturing vision of the game and how to play it and a maturing body that allows previously 'weaker' players to jump way past 'young physical developers'. It is a huge issue in australia.  Big physical fast young players are coveted at a young age (but aren't developed technically or intelligently), and then often get by-passed by the smaller late developers they used to dominate.

TST is about building that technical base so that when a player decides they want to be the good player, that is within their reach, then the springboard to this is there.

Having said this, for the right player TST can transform a players development even at a young age. Mel City and Mel Vic JBNPL squads are littered with ex-TST players. TST simply develops a different type of player. A player who is more than just a big ball of energy, intensity and aggression.

So with all that said, back to the holidays:

The plan over the holidays is to post a daily link, or a link every couple of days, to an online session.

These sessions are great. Firstly because they paint a picture of the building blocks of technique (establish the base) and cover aspects of technique which we don't have time to cover on saturdays.

There will be 2 types of sessions available. One is for players to do 100% on their own, whereas the other will be a partner based session (and suitable for all levels).
 

• Online session #1a : Partner based Beginner / intermediate
• Online session #1b : Solo session : Intermediate /advanced

As always, I am happy to get feedback about this concept and how it works in reality. It is great to say 'practice can make a massive difference' but if the format of the sessions doesn't get players engaged, outside and doing the work, then the idea needs rethinking.

I am looking forward to getting the feedback and seeing how this works.

Regards,
Darren.


Note :

Equipment
Not much equipment is needed other than a ball and some cones (or equivalent). A rebound surface will also be useful. [I use homemade ones. [ https://youtu.be/q3QL0hsCoEg - and have since made a simpler and cheaper one - which just uses the sleeper ($10) and some screws. [Bunnings may even cut the wood for you : 1.8m needs to become : a 1m piece : 2x 30cm : 2 x 10cm pieces to act as the joining bracket).


Missed Sessions