Theory and practice: As a general rule I like to start my athletes training sessions with a clear sense of what we are trying to accomplish – What are the skills we are trying to develop and how they are important to our approach to the game? Only then do we get into the physical practice. I generally find the athletes do a much better job of practicing a given move if they have a clear understanding of how that move relates to their overall game and the mechanical features that make it work. As we go to drill a given move I will first outline the main points I want them to emphasize as they work, common errors to avoid and the context in which to apply such a move relative to our game as a whole. In this way you can avoid aimless drilling sessions where the move is done for repetitions and the emphasis degenerates into filling quota numbers rather than mechanical understanding. The former merely fills time, only the latter improves performance. Here I work exactly this kind of practice session with young athlete Mikey Wilson. Though only ten years of age, he carries himself with adult maturity so I teach him as an adult. He works our back attack system with fifteen year old Nicky Ryan, who excels in this position. By the time the session finishes he has far more than a set of repetitions- he has a solid theoretical understanding of the position and the physical skills to implement that knowledge and teach it to others.
