The Battle Zone: Constraint-Led Coaching in Action

on

The Battle Zone: Constraint-Led Coaching in Action.



                               (Picture taken from original article Renshaw et.al., 2010)

🚀 Article in 3 Sentences

  1. Backyard games were where players typically developed a lot of their skills that underpinned their later expertise. The more structured training they went through wasn’t as big an issue due to the hours they spent playing the ‘backyard games’.
  2. There are problems associated with structured practice and the authors propose the CLA as an alternative fix some issues with ‘structured practice’
  3. The Battle Zone game is introduced and they discuss some of the implications of designing game from a CLA point of view

🤝Impressions

It was really nice to see an article based around the design of a constraint-led game in a high performance setting. Examples of well designed constraint-led games are really useful for coaches starting out on their journey.

👨‍🏫Who should read this?

Every coach that is implementing or that wants to start using the CLA should read this piece. Even though it’s a cricket game the principles of game design they follow transfer to any other sport.

🎾How Article will influence my coaching

  • Come up with some more ‘backyard game’ examples for tennis to include in sessions and encourage kids to play these away from the session
  • Make sure that the you set the intention of the game to make sure the intensity is raised
  • Skill development programmes are crucial and something you need to start doing more of

📃Takeaways for coaches

  • Backyard games were where players typically developed a lot of their skills that underpinned their later expertise. The more structured training they went through wasn’t as big an issue due to the hours they spent playing the ‘backyard games’.
  • Isolated tasks don’t help to develop decision making skills.
  • Playing games is crucial for developing players because it “includes the critical mix of physical and mental development under simulated match conditions in real-time environments”
  • Technique and decision making cannot be separated as the correct movement will be based on the perceptual information that emerges.
  • The coach can manipulate the constraints in different ways depending on what the goal of the exercise is.
  • The assessment of performance in the game can support the planning of a skill development programme which has input from all members of staff
  • Constraint led games allow the coach cater for individual needs and create exciting challenges that players will love
  • Constraint-Led games capture the players love of competition and is much more fun for both players and coaches

🥇Top Quotes

💡 Backyard games have been viewed as the true academy of Australian cricket as they allow players to devote hours of holistic practice where they developed unique skills, mental skills and the physical conditioning that underpinned their later expertise 

💡 In the past, this sole focus of structured training was not an issue as many expert and non-expert cricketers developed all other aspects of their games by playing backyard cricket 

💡 We believe that playing in games is crucial to the holistic development of players because like the backyard cricket environment it “includes the critical mix of physical and mental development under simulated match conditions in real-time environments” 

💡 Coaches can then design games by manipulating constraints to facilitate the opportunity for the player to explore new ways of overcoming the weaknesses 

💡 Coaches can be creative by manipulating both task and environmental constraint. For example, more runs can be awarded for hitting or bowling balls into specific zones, different makes of balls can be used, or balls with specific characteristics such as different colours or seams. Game scenarios can be developed, or different equipment used (e.g., bat width manipulations).

💡 It captures cricketer’s love of competition and is much more fun for both players and coaches. 

 

🔍Resources 

Detailed Notes
Here's the link to my detailed breakdown of the paper. I go through each section of the piece and pick out the parts that stick out to me 

Link to full paper
Check out the full paper below

Additional Resources

Reference

Renshaw, I., Chappell, G., Fitzgerald, D., Davison, J., & McFadyen, B. (2010, June). The battle zone: Constraint-led coaching in action. In 1 of 1-Conference of Science, Medicine & Coaching in Cricket 2010 (p. 181).


Comments

Post a Comment