Luke Donald, deliberate practice... and a rugby coach?

Excellent piece on deliberate practice in both rugby union and golf by Heads Up contributor, Ally Cooper. Some excellent insights on the practice habits of some of the best performers in their sports...

I recently read a piece on a golf website and it intrigued me a lot. The reason being that Dave Alred, a mentor of one of my sporting hero’s, England and British Lions out-half Jonny Wilkinson was featured. The piece was on his involvement with Luke Donald and how his influence has catapulted Luke from a world ranking of 32 to world number 1. Now as an Irishman, you might think it’s a bit odd that I hold Wilkinson in such high regard, but the reason is simple – he has reached the heights he has because he worked at it, and harder than most (something that I cannot say I did to the best of my ability in the past!).

He is also a perfectionist; he wanted, and still wants to be the best. In his autobiography, he talks about how he has always had the trait. In one exert in states how in primary school  he talks about the first time he did not get 20/20 in his spelling test ‘I sit there, waiting for my marked paper, expecting to see another  20/20, and I see 19/20, I don’t know what to do with myself and I feel a panicky heartbeat.  I feel embarrassed and as the other kids lean over to look at my sheet and remark on my imperfection in surprise a desperate need to wind back the clock and do it again’ (Wilkinson, 2011). Now this might seem extreme, but even then the seeds have been sown and he then states ‘The trouble with rugby is you can’t be perfect. Yet on the rugby field, more than anywhere else, I need perfection’ (Wilkinson, 2011).

So far, I am only at chapter 6 of his autobiography, but he speaks a lot about not wanting to be second best, not wanting to let anyone down, even when winning he felt unfulfilled achievement unless he has played well. This is called fear of failure. This fear can be in the form of failing to achieve the desired goals, fear of letting down ones team mates, or even fear of criticism.

Fear of failure is associated with anticipatory shame in evaluative situations and with the tendency to appraise threat in such situations (Conroy, Willow & Metzler, 2002). This avoidance motivational tendency involves cognitive, emotional and behavioural experiences and typically prompts the adoption of avoidance based goals and strategies such as self-handicapping or low achievement (Conroy & Elliot, 2004). In sport fear of failure has been associated with high levels of stress, worry and anxiety (Conroy, et. al., 2002) and can even affect interpersonal behaviour and well-being (Sagar, Lavallee & Spray, 2009).

A rise in stress levels is not good when taking part in closed skill activities. There are a number of physiological responses that are accompanied with the onset of a stressful situation. These are controlled by the sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system which regulates the smooth muscle and cardiac muscle, and controls activities that occur during excitement or exertion (Carlson, 2001). Some of the responses that occur are increased eye dilation, elevated heart rate due to the increased stimulation of the adrenal medullae which increases the release of epinephrine and norepinephrine, and blood flow to skeletal muscles (Carlson, 2001). How these responses are controlled will have an effect on the athletes control and play within their sport.

These responses can have a huge effect on the performance of an athlete and may be the difference between victory and defeat. A study by Neuman & Thomas highlighted the physiological differences between elite, experienced golfers and novice golfers (2009). The results from the study showed that the elite golfers had a pronounced phasic deceleration in heart rate prior to putting, and showed a greater tendency to show a respiratory pattern of exhaling immediately prior to putting. These physiological patterns in the elite golfer may originate from task familiarity or attentional processes (Neuman & Thomas, 2009).

Deliberate Practice

This can be very debilitating and can hamper many careers but Wilkinson chose to tackle his head on, and try his utmost to prevent failure by practicing more than anyone. Early on in his career he would practice hours on end, resulting on him not coming home until dark, just out kicking and kicking. You might ask yourself why you would put yourself through these endless hours of practice but here’s another example of his personality. During a school game, there’s a try scored out wide and when he runs up to take the kick he hits a clump of grass just in front of the ball and when he makes contact with the ball it just topples over. Now in most people’s minds we could forget about it, but this affects him for weeks; ‘The replay of that kick invades my mind, coming back to haunt me, like a horror film. What did the kick look like? What did these people standing right beside me think of it? What do they think of me now? …….. We have a nice family dinner and watch some TV. Then suddenly the switch is flicked, the tiny kick is on replay again in my head. The next thing I know I’m running around the house for good fifteen or twenty minutes in a massive state of distress’ (Wilkinson, 2011). These examples are very extreme but I know of cases in my own past where there has been something that I have done in games where I wish I had did things differently or made a different decision.

Wilkinson had/ has a close relationship with his Dad and would talk to him about these worries, and his Dad took him to see a specialist kicking coach, Dave Alred. While he was not afraid of spending hours and hours practising, Alred would change how he practised. In his first session with Alred, rather than just go out and kick hundreds of balls, they sit down and he goes through technical aspects of the kick – kicking through the ball, the line of the kick, body position and feedback you feel through the kick. Then they go out and kick a few balls and video the session and goes over some of the main points ‘Imagine the path you are sending the ball down, visualise the feel of the ball, the contact, the successful outcome’ (Wilkinson, 2011). This is called deliberate practice; each practice session now has a meaning. There is no point in going out and kicking over and over, all that is happening is that you are reinforcing bad habits. Each session needs a goal, or series of goals.

Now roll on a few years, January 2010 to be precise and Dave Alred begins to work with Luke Donald. Donald is number 32 in the world. Fifteen months later he is world number one. While it is not all down to Alred, the link between working with Alred and achieving number 1 status cannot be considered a coincidence. It is probably a fair assumption to think to yourself; just what could a kicking coach bring to the table to help an elite professional golfer? What he has brought to Donald’s game is how he practices. While not recognised as a sports psychologist, Alred can be best described as a performance specialist. His job is to make practice more efficient, practice under pressure. He has given Donald the confidence and assurance to believe in his game, through how he practices and the goals that are set in his practice. Rather than worrying about Donald’s ranking the focus was on the standard of performance and how to improve it. This was not achieved by Alred himself and he is the first to admit this, it was a team effort with Alred working closely with Donald’s coach and caddie. A good example of this was directly from Alred in his interview when describing continuing learning, even from elite professionals ‘It’s so sad that players have forgotten the thrill of getting better. A young child just bubbles with excitement to show you the half-volley in football they have just mastered. I think we’ve lost that; It’s part of the coach’s job to regain that vibe, and drench the player in a enthusiasm for getting better’ (Lennard, 2012).

To do this Alred adopts a process that he calls getting the player into the ‘ugly zone’ – a place where they feel uncomfortable, and then systematically nibble away at that discomfort to create competence. This competence should then transfer onto the course and when these previously ugly situations arise, they are no longer feared, but a belief is instilled through practice that the player will approach the shot with more confidence than before.

To achieve this competence the practice would take the form of making it more game specific. Examples include not having warm-up shots, halving the diameter of the hole, anything really to make the player feel uncomfortable. Alred also states how some players relate performance with self-esteem. This tie’s in a lot with Jonny Wilkinson, he thought is he played well, people would think less of him. To make sure this doesn’t happen, Alred states how a good coach will get the player to feel uncomfortable but keep the player’s self-esteem in-tact. To do this Alred states how you work within success. An example could be if the golfer is competent in 90% of 3ft putts, practice at that range and establish competency, and then make the player feel uncomfortable by asking for the same from 4ft. By making them uncomfortable you are challenging them, but have still kept self-esteem by establishing the 3ft competency.

Every practice has a goal or series of goals and stats are kept on these for reference, and to raise expectation. One practice session he does with Donald is to play 9 holes and have 5 attempts per shot. As soon as he is happy with one shot they move on. By doing this, the player can see the potential score that they can shoot based on their current ability. This type of practice is a confidence builder.

While the cross over between golf and rugby kicking may not seem obvious at first, they are both examples of closed skills, under differing levels of pressure at different times during the game. As part of my MSc thesis one of the conclusions was that the best kickers would establish the importance of deliberate practice, not only for the development of physical skills, but also for the development of mental skills. These are important to develop together as they would be used in competition (Hall, 2001). As with golf, there will be outside interferences, such as playing conditions, current score, etc., but in both skills they require conscious attention to what needs to be done (Singer, 2002). To make it competitive the kickers would introduce group competition to replicate the competitive environment. Going into the game confident - whatever the sport - is viewed by players as essential. Athletes who have a strong belief in their ability are able to peak under pressure and cope successfully with adverse situations during competition (Cresswell & Hodge, 2004).

Here’s a short youtube clip looking at Jonny Wilkinson trying to introduce stress in his kicking practice, which is quite similar to what Dave Alred has implemented with Luke Donald – a coincidence – I think not!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mg71xnOERj4

All this is nothing revolutionary though, it’s just a way of organising practice to get the best out of each session. It’s just that sometimes coaches tend to look for quantity over quality. In the words of the great American Football coach Vince Lombardi ‘Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.’

References

Carlson, N. R.  (2001)  ‘Physiology of Behaviour’  Allyn and Bacon,  Boston

Conroy, D. E., & Elliot, A. J. (2004), Fear of Failure and Achievement Goals in Sport: Addressing the Issue of the Chicken and the Egg, Anxiety, Stress, and Coping, 17, pp. 271-285.

Conroy, D. E., Willow, J. P., & Metzler, J. N. (2002),  Multidimensional Fear of Failure Measurement: the Performance Failure Appraisal Inventory, Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 14, pp. 76-90.

Cresswell, S., & Hodge, K.  (2004)  ‘Coping Skills: Role of Trait Sport Confidence and Trait Anxiety’ Perceptual and Motor Skills, Vol. 98, pp. 433 – 438.

Hall, C. R.  (2001)  ‘Imagery in Sport and Exercise’ in Singer, R. N., Hausenblas, H. A., & Janelle, C. M. (eds.) Handbook of Sport Psychology 2^nd Edition, Wiley, New York, pp. 529 – 549.

Lennard, D.  (2012)  ‘The Man Who Made Luke No. 1’, www.golf-world.co.uk//June2012.

Neuman, D. L. & Thomas, P. R.  (2009)  ‘The relationship between skill level and patterns in cardiac and respiratory activity during golf putting’  International Journal of  Psychophysiology’  Vol 72,  No. 3,  pp. 276 – 283.

Singer, R. N.  (2002)  ‘Preperformance State, Routines and Automaticity: What Does it Take to Realise Expertise in Self-Paced Events?’ Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, Vol. 24, pp. 359 – 375.

Wilkinson, J.  (2011) ‘Jonny, My Autobiography’, Headline.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mg71xnOERj4

Euro 2012 - The games people play

Having watched Euro 2012 so far I’m sure you, like me, have wondered at some point why so many "foreign" players seem so wonderfully talented. They seem technically gifted, incredibly creative and manage to pass and retain possession of the ball with relative ease. In contrast, many of the Irish and English players seem so woefully one dimensional. Their touch is often poor, they often struggle to keep the ball for any extended period of time and when they come up against the better teams, they invariably come unstuck. The foreign players seem to find space where there shouldn’t be any, while our players mis-control the ball when nobody is close.

These views are backed up by most of the game statistics. The Group D encounter between England and France (1-1) saw the French enjoy 61% of the possession. Croatia had 55% of the possession against Ireland, while Ireland only saw a measly 24% of the ball against the Spanish! To give a slightly different view on these figures; after the group phase of the tournament, Spain have had the ball for a total of 120 minutes in their opening three games. France had it for 103 minutes. England, despite beating Sweden and Ukraine, have enjoyed only 80 minutes of the ball, while Ireland have had to make do with only 66 minutes of possession (all statistics from UEFA.com). Most alarming was Spain’s passing total (860 passes of the ball) versus Ireland’s (254 passes) in their Group C encounter.

While we might get frustrated and blame it on such factors as poor management, players lacking belief or determination, or even the occasional dodgy refereeing decision. The truth is, our players are just not as good as some of the best European nations! It is not because we have fewer players to choose from (Croatia is the least populous nation at Euro 2012, yet they beat Ireland 3-1). Nor can we blame it on the maturity or experience of our players (high flying Germany have one of the youngest squads in the tournament). I believe the difference, and the core problem we are witnessing is that our players are just not very well developed from a young age!

There are clearly many factors important to skill development in a young player. These include practice, coaching and the social and cultural environment within which the player grows. There are numerous blogs which could be written on each of these factors alone. However, for the purposes of this blog, I’m going to focus on one single factor; the games children play.

Just three short weeks ago, the English FA introduced a new format for the playing of games at underage level (see table right). The new pathway includes a mandatory 5v5 format of football for under-7s and under-8s and a 9v9 format for under-11 and under-12s. The sizes of the pitches and goals will be modified also to make them more appropriate for children at each age group. These changes are to be phased in by season 2014-15 and reflect a more long-term approach to player development.

Up until this, kids as young as 10 years of age have been playing full-sided games on full sized pitches. The image, left, emphasises the point. Kids playing in big open spaces with a little goalkeeper defending an adult sized goal! England's adoption of a new structure has to be put into perspective, however. The German Football Association have had a similar system running for the past 12 years (in response to their abysmal showing at the Euro 2000 championships); the French and Dutch even longer. The famous Ajax youth academy which has produced many of the best Dutch players have had small-sided games at the heart of player development for decades. A similar movement has revolutionised the way FC Barcelona, and Spain, play the game. In Brazil, players have been brought up for generations on a diet of Futebol de Salao, where small-sided games are played with a modified ball. Why the English FA (and maybe someday the FAI and IFA) are only changing their approach now is a mystery. But the effect of the current format is clear for all to see.

There is no doubt that the development of talented young players will directly affect how they can perform as adults. The introduction of a more appropriate player development pathway by the English FA will reap it’s rewards. However, with the changes only to be made mandatory from 2014, it may take another generation before the fruits of this development are evidenced at senior international level. To understand a little bit more about this approach, we need to briefly look at how small-sided games affect player development.

First we need to explain a rather simple, but revolutionary idea that was first but forward in the mid 1980’s. It is called the Dynamical Systems Approach to skill learning and performance. What this approach to skill learning basically suggests is that the behaviour or actions we learn and produce are the result of constraints imposed upon us. To give an example I’ve attached a clip from the film “Kill Bill" - an odd choice you might think! In this scene, the tutor, Pai Mei, instructs Uma Thurman's character, Black Mamba, to punch a hole in a wooden board with her fist. Critically, she must do this from only 3 inches away. On being asked if she can do it, her first reaction is “I can but not that close”, to which Pai Mei retorts “Then you can’t do it!” The point of this example is that it is not the outcome that is all important. It is being able to do it within set constraints – hitting from only 3 inches away. As Black Mamba practices under this difficult constraint she eventually adapts and learns to perform the skill successfully. Later in the movie she performs the task in a confined space to escape burial in a coffin (sorry for ruining it if you haven’t seen the movie!!).

In football, there are many possible constraints to performance. In training, a coach may impose 1 or 2 touch play, shooting zones, uneven sided games, etc. Each of these is a constraint, and each constraint imposes different demands on the players. So, for example, in 1 or 2 touch games, players must pass better, move better and be more aware of those around them. Players cannot dribble the ball in these games, so nobody hogs the ball and players must get their head up to look for team-mates. These are the behaviours that emerge as a result of the constraints the coach imposed and this is the essence of the Dynamical Systems Approach to learning. We adapt our actions to the constraints of the environment around us and as a result, new behaviours are learned and more efficient ways of performing tasks are developed. It is very different to the old fashioned drills practice and learning by rote – but this is a discussion for another day.

Back to the use of small-sided games with underage footballers. Keep in mind the comparison between 11, 10-year-olds playing in a full sized adult pitch, versus 7 playing on a pitch almost half that size.(with a much smaller goal also). These are the constraints; fewer players, a smaller playing area and smaller goals. Much research has looked at the effects of full- versus small-sided games on smaller pitches. The smaller pitch means that players are closer together (think of Pai Mei's 3 inches!). To retain possession, a player’s technical ability will be challenged. They must learn to control the ball better, and pass it more accurately. Interestingly, players also tend to use both feet to manipulate the ball more in these games! If players have less time, then they are constrained into using their less dominant foot – or else lose possession! Fewer players on the pitch means more touches for each individual player and more touches mean more opportunities to learn and to improve technical skills. Small-sided games also result in more scoring opportunities and the smaller goals require players to be more accurate, while giving the goalkeeper more opportunities to practice and develop their skills in turn. Look back at some of the statistics quoted earlier in this blog... because they might make a little more sense now.

In terms of their perceptual and cognitive skills, players will be challenged to speed up their thought processes, as they will have less time on the ball. They will have to make decisions more quickly, and will have to be more aware of what is going on around them. Physiological analysis of these games also indicate that the intensity of game play is higher, meaning that the fitness demands are greater and so players get fitter by playing them. Oh, and probably the most important point of all... research has also shown that by playing these types of game – kids have more fun! Comparisons between full- and small-sided games show that children enjoy the games more, most likely because they have more touches of the ball and also because they improve their skills more by playing these games! The knock on effect of this in improving a child’s self-esteem, motivation, and future participation should not be underestimated.

Keep in mind, each of these benefits are brought about by a simple change in the size of the pitch, and the number of players on it. The coach is doing nothing different. He is not using some magical formula (well, perhaps he is), and he is not a mystical guru. The associations who have been using this format for years; the Dutch, the French, the Brazilians, the Spanish, etc are not spending a fortune to develop skillful players. Children are simply learning by playing! Imposing smaller sided games on smaller pitches does, however, mean that coaches have to adapt their practices with these children – and so the benefits will filter down to every training and practice experience the children will have. In a way, they are probably just doing the most sensible thing that kids used to always do for themselves.

Remember when we played games of football as children? With no adults around to bother us, we picked two even teams. We set jumpers down at either end of the pitch – far enough apart to play a fair game, and small enough to make it challenging to score. We usually had imaginary sidelines – but if someone passed or dribbled the ball too far away to be challenged, we decided they had crossed that line – so play stayed tight and our skills were challenged. Oh, and if one team was too strong, we swapped a player or two to even it up. We had fun, challenging games and we improved no end – that was until the adults began to tell us how to play!

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Pope, D. (2011). A new direction for youth football in England. http://www.clubnewsletter.co.uk/

Williams, M.A. & Hodges, N. (2005). Practice, instruction and skill acquisition in soccer: challenging tradition. Journal of Sports Sciences.