Category: Training/Coaching Articles

Earlier in the week I posted a video clip fro the Sydney Swans showing them executing what I call front press defense, and the 2 most important components to making that work. Today I present a training activity designed for exactly this, which gives a the baseline version and then the advanced version that I...

This short video clip shows Sydney putting the clamps on a GWS handball chain down the SCG wing. It perfectly shows the 2 components of this tactic being: 1 – Leaving your direct opposition or space to impact the ball receiver/carrier as fast as you can, trusting your teammate/s to also leave their man/space to...

Continuing on from yesterday, these notes come from a 30-page long study titled “A Theory on the Skill-Performance Relationship” and looks at how skill and performance are entwined in various parts of life, but I’ll keep it sports-related. There’s plenty of notes here that should be able to influence some changes in your coaching approach...

These notes come from a 30-page long study titled “A Theory on the Skill-Performance Relationship” and looks at how skill and performance are entwined in various parts of life, but I’ll keep it sports-related. Part 1 today and part 2 tomorrow or Friday – strap in! It can be examined at the technical, behavioral, psychological...

3 clips of vision from this week’s round. 1 – Essendon showing their defensive chops – who would have thought? 2 – West Coast getting ultra-speed on the ball and the ensuing length as well 3 – Sydney 2-man forward 50 play for mark 15m from goal...

The first 5 parts of this series has covered youth development, learning, coaching, club culture and gameday, and today we look at 52 1 liners relating to teaching. Correct/Incorrect/Correct Model (John Wooden) – show the correct technique then show what the athlete did and how it was wrong and then show the correct technique again...

Here we have another couple of clips from the weekend, focusing on my beloved Sydney Swans. Clip 1 looks at Sydney defending an opposition kick in (we looked at Collingwood doing the same yesterday) where they read the Gold Coast kick in and get numbers to that side. Clip 2 looks at Sydney not only...

Here are 2 short clips from last week’s round of AFL. In clip 1 I look at Collingwood defending kick outs of which I’ve looked at numerous times in the last couple of seasons. In clip 2 I look at a set up Sydney used in the early stages of their game to take away...

These notes come from a piece posted over at Inner Drive, a student learning research-based company from the UK, explaining the ins and outs of cognitive load theory.\ At its core, CTL emphasises the fact that our working memory has a very small capacity so if new information isn’t transferred to long term memory (which...

This study came out a couple of weeks ago and is a must-read for today’s coaches, most of who has come through the coaching ranks with a direct instruction-based approach that doesn’t assist players in the chaos of a game on its own. Instead it suggests how to also incorporate ecological dynamics approach for the...