Building the hours the right way

FREE PLAY--DELIBERATE PRACTICE CONTINUUM

Not all training or "practice" is the same, each is different, each is important.


All practices fall along a continuum.  On one end is free play, unstructured, fun, immediate, intrinsic; On the other end is Deliberate Practice which is the opposite, not inherently fun, extrinsic, performance related.  One is "play"  the other is "work"  and they are both important.  When you are young, lots of free play is important.  Serious preparation fro the difficult competitions of life are forged not through hard work but with imagination,  fun, and joy of free play.  Bear cubs wrestle and play to prepare themselves for the demands of being a top of the food chain omnivore.  And it works for kids too, especially in sports.  The streets have always produced the best, most nuanced, most inspirational players in all sports.  In soccer Ronaldo quit his youth academy team to stay and play with his Friends in the local pick up game, he is maybe the best striker the word has ever known, Zidane brought a new level of skill honed on the streets of Marseilles, Maradona, Messi, Cruyff, there is no greatness without free play. 


But still it is not enough and here is why.


Building hours take thought and balance. Players may play a lot and not understand how to work toward goals. While others may understand the work may not be able to express themselves in a situation that calls for “play.”


I sent a younger (U13), but very technical, skillful player to participate in a U16 practice. I was hoping the skillful player and the team would bond. Now this kid grew up in the Refugee camps of Kenya.  At this camp he spent hours just playing.  barefoot, to small goals, all day and into the night under the illumination of car lights rigged overhead.  He had moved to the US when he was 11. His ability to solve problems off the dribble was breathtaking.


The Team began by playing small sided in very tight space. The player scored 7 goals in 30 minutes, some of which were quite spectacular. At the end of practice the coach asked the players to run eight 200 yard repeats. The player made it through one, "Hey coach, how am I doing?' he said surprised, I think, that he had made it. On the next sprint he made it half way "Coach, I am having a heart attack," he said holding his chest.


The other players had no trouble giving effort to the sprints. The coach called me that night saying that the new  player would not make his team. He did not complete his sprints. He lamented a bad attitude, a low capacity for work. Because he could not make himself run those sprints he would not be on the team.

But what about scoring goals under the pressure of three defenders in front of the goal? Doesn't matter.


My question to the coach was would you take one of your players, place him in front to goal, put three defenders on his back, pass him the ball with the instructions to score or you are off the team?  


 No. 


Would you demand that that player finish those chances “or else?” That player has no more capacity to complete the task in front of the goal as the other player has to complete the 200m runs. While the one kid understood “PLAY”  the others understood “WORK.” One kid had been brought up playing with no rules, or objectives, the other had been brought up under strict supervision and organization-- this player understands work. But both are incomplete. 


I takes both, to move forward as we get older play morphs into work.  David Beckham does not need free play, but he needs a lot of deliberate practice to remain fit, sharp, and ready. But in the US we front load deliberate practice, asking young kids to work, fight, compete.  But soccer (and all sports) should be inclusive, imaginative, cooperative long before it becomes competitive. 


If, as Montessori says, "play is the child's work," then "Work is the adults "Play."


So next time you here a coach say "Work hard and have fun,"  you understand they mean it.