I appreciate all the people that email me, and DM me on social media. That is why I do this – to offer help.
My hope is to give you what you want, but sometimes I need to direct you towards WHAT YOU SHOULD WANT INSTEAD.
Here is what I mean..
DRILLS, DRILLS, DRILLS
Coaches love drills. We have a funny relationship with them. We want a lot of them. But we only want one at the same time.
I get asked all the time “can you give me a drill to improve habit X?”
Unfortunately, just asking the question shows the need for a deeper understanding.
WHY DO WE DO DRILLS?
I really have two reasons for doing particular shooting drills.
- Put players into a certain position they aren’t used to being in, or force them to make a certain move they aren’t used to making.
- To learn to to apply a new position or move into a more game-like environment.
Those two things need to go hand in hand, so at the very least we need TWO drills, and likely even more than that.
START LOOKING FOR PROGRESSIONS
I try to visualize a river when I think about skill re-coordination or changing habits. The player is currently at one side of the river (they have certain habits), and need to get to the other side without falling in (better, more repeatable habits).
If I look for ONE MAGIC DRILL, all I’m doing is laying one stepping stone to help them get across the river. I’m asking them to try to jump across this river, and just laying one safe spot in the middle to help them along the way.
If the river isn’t that wide (the difference between where their habit is and where it needs to be isn’t that great) then that may be enough. But for many players, it doesn’t help at all. They can’t jump across the river, and one stepping stone half-way isn’t going to help them at all.
LAY A LOT OF STEPPING STONES
We should be searching for a progression of drills. Find the level the player is at now with the next habit, and add a layer to the drill to make it SLIGHTLY more challenging. Then lay another stepping stone just a little further out in front of them by adding another layer to the drill. LEAD the player across the river with a SERIES of PROGRESSIVE DRILLS.
That is what I do in my ONLINE WORKOUT PROGRAMS. We isolate a new skill so that the player has a chance to get better at the important new habit. Then we slowly start to layer drills to help the player apply that new habit in more game-like environments, until they are able to consistently make shots in games. If you haven’t already, join hundreds of others by purchasing one of my ONLINE WORKOUT PROGRAMS to improve ARC, BALANCE or GUIDE HAND.
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