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<\/a><\/p>\nOne of the reasons for writing my Blogs is to share some of the research out there and bring it to life. This Blog Article is inspired by this research article by Stephen Harvey, Shane Pill and Len Almond from August 2017\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026TGfU has stimulated so much attention, research and debate since the 1980s that it is easy for its origins to become refracted and misunderstood\u2026TGfU was built around theoretical propositions from the work of Bruner on guided discovery\u2026the idea of game modification inherent in the concept (Constraints-led Approach) is far from new.\u201d (p.2\/3, Harvey, Pill & Almond, 2017)<\/i><\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Teaching Games for Understanding falls into the HOW Player-centred Coaching. Over the last few weeks I have written about WHY Player-centred Coaching. I will start to shift this now towards the HOW\u2026<\/p>\n Just letting players play the real game doesn\u2019t go far enough. That is part of the learning process and that is what you as coach are preparing the players for over the long-term on a fixture day. BUT\u2026 How much learning is going on when players just play the game\u2026?! Are the players being challenged\/stretched\u2026?! Are the players getting better Technically\/Tactically\/Physically\/Psychologically\u2026?!<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026strongly guided discovery learning as more effective than weakly guided or \u2018implicit\u2019 learning to develop understanding, a central tenet of the TGfU model (Alfieri et al. 2011; Kirschner, Sweller and Clark 2006; Mayer 2004).\u201d (p.3 Harvey, Pill & Almond, 2017)<\/i><\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n So the key question to ask yourself as a coach is\u2026 \u201cHow do you make the complex game simple and translate into meaningful purposeful\/deliberate practices that enable a player to play the game well in a match\/match situations\u2026?\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n Your role as a coach is to observe the game being played and let the players enjoy the game and intervene only to focus on something that improves the game. This is where the Whole-Part-Whole (W-P-W) Principle of Coaching comes in to play, where the \u201cPart\u201d gives you an opportunity to work on an aspect that you\u2019ve identified the players need to work on or is holding back progressing the game you want your players to understand and execute better. The best was to do this \u201cPart\u201d are through Purposeful\/Deliberate Practices.<\/p>\n This is where the RFU, the governing body for Rugby Union in England, have done a very good job bringing W-P-W to life for the wider coaching community outside of the teaching world labelling this the \u2018Game Zone\u2019 and the \u2018Skill Zone\u2019. Although W-P-W is nothing new and has been around for many years in the teaching and coaching world, hence one of the reasons for the title of this Blog Article.<\/p>\n The other aspect, which is more to do with the ART of Coaching, comes with experience and trying things, then reflecting on that practice. You will get a game up and running with some basic rules to get the players in the \u2018flow\u2019 of a game. During this period you will be using your trained eye and asking yourself various and numerous questions. Then after the 1st 5 minute period you will then tweak the rules to work on the specific outcome\/understanding you wish your players to get better at. This will help to remove any obstacles to learning the game. Exaggerating a key aspect\/principle will help this process which will facilitate the learning of your players.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026while ecological dynamics theorists suggest designing representative\/exaggerated learning episodes for their students\/players is a key feature of the CLA (Constraints-led Approach), this concept is far from new.\u201d (p.6 Harvey, Pill & Almond, 2017)<\/i><\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Inquiry\/Problem-based learning is a key part in developing game understanding. From the work of Jerome Bruner in the 1960s, this is where the term \u2018Guided Discovery\u2019 comes from and a key challenge for the coach is to represent the whole game in simplified forms that enables the player to build up their understanding of how to play the game. This is important enabling \u2018Transfer of Learning\u2019 into the real game. This is where, with Drills, you take out the context of the skill you think you are working on that will help your players but in actual fact they will then have to re-learn the skills you think you have just taught them because they have been learnt out of context. This is backed up in theory through Information Processing\u2026<\/p>\n Another way to look at this is using Bruner\u2019s term of Problem Posing<\/i><\/b>, which sees you as the coach pose a problem for your players to solve. If you are able to create\/develop a variety of games based on the \u2018Principles of Play\u2019 you want to work on\/improve, this will help to challenge your players\u2019 thinking and help them make sense of the games they are playing, to then execute the right thing at the right time in a real game.<\/p>\n \u201cDesigning modified game forms aligned to the \u2018principles of play\u2019 therefore emerged from the work highlighted above in PE (Bailey, 1982), and in sports coaching through the work of Wade (1967), Worthington (1974), Wein (1973), Bayer (1979) and others in the 1960s-1970s.\u201d (p.6 Harvey, Pill & Almond, 2017)<\/i><\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Using my experiences of coaching in Rugby Union, I\u2019ll share with you an example of the key \u2018Principle of Attack\u2019: \u2018Run Hard and Fast into Space\u2019. This Principle was inspired while watching the Fiji v. France match in the 2003 Rugby World Cup where Fiji\u2019s Rupeni Caucaunibuca ran down the left wing from his own 22m line to score and the New Zealand\u2019s match v. Wales with Joe Rokocoko weaving his way from the left touchline on the Welsh 10m line back inside to score a try.<\/p>\n So over the last 15 years I have developed these different Conditioned Games that work on developing players\u2019 understanding of running \u2018Hard and Fast into Space\u2019 where I manipulate\/condition what the defence does and can\/can\u2019t do, i.e. constrain the players when defending\u2026<\/p>\n Depending on the number of players you have at your training sessions, if you have lots of players, then you can put a couple of Sweepers in 5-10m behind the breakdowns and\/or put a Pendulum System in 30-40m behind the defensive line. This means that all the players are involved in the game and not doing nothing.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>
Change the word artist to coach\u2026<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/a><\/p>\n\n