One Practice at a Time

Successful teams are built one practice at a time. And successful practices are built on focused players. Here's how to make it happen.
 
By Brian Cain
 
Every coach has his or her own way of doing things. As athletic directors we know this better than anyone. We all have coaches who love to focus on game strategy, and others who place more importance on team cohesiveness. Some coaches are strict disciplinarians, while others like to keep their players loose.
 
But one thing all coaches agree on is the importance of quality practice as a necessity for their team's improvement. Whether they do a lot of drill work or concentrate more on situational scrimmaging, every coach wants to get the most of every minute of practice.
 
In this article, I'll share some ideas we use at North Country Union High School in Newport, Vt., as well as some techniques that have been very successful with collegiate teams, to improve the quality of practices. They are based on the latest trends in mental training and have proven effective for a variety of our teams.
 
CLEARING THE WATER
Many student-athletes arrive at practice with what I call cloudy minds. They are thinking about schoolwork, social issues, or the latest tunes they want to download. But for the next two hours of practice you don't want them thinking about the past or the future, just the present.
 
How can you help them find this focus in less than two minutes? We use a drill called "clearing the water," which provides a visual image for quieting the mind. To start, we ask our athletes to shut their eyes and imagine their minds as a glass of water fresh from the tap, cloudy with air bubbles. Next, they are instructed to inhale deeply through their nose, drawing air into their belly. They then exhale slowly through the nose, imagining that with each exhale their minds become clearer and clearer, just like the glass of water does as the air bubbles disperse.
 
This process takes just 45 seconds to two minutes and pays large dividends in improving the quality of practice. It's a short exercise that encourages players and coaches to focus on the here and now.
 
PLAYER OF THE DAY
A tool we use to help increase motivation is the Jolly Rancher Player of the Day Award. After every practice and game, the coach stands in front of the team and announces who he or she feels deserves the award (along with giving the athlete one Jolly Rancher). At the end-of-the-year banquet the coach tallies the number of daily awards and gives out a Jolly Rancher Player of The Year Award.
 
The criteria for winning the award can change daily, vary periodically, or remain consistent the entire season. Possible criteria are hustle, attitude, effort, leadership, responding to adversity, or performance. It often works well to vary the criteria based on what you want to emphasize for a particular day or week.
 
We have found that recognizing athletes' efforts on a daily basis is extremely important. An athlete's season and career are really a sum of their "todays." We emphasize that there is no factor more important in determining if we will have a successful season than the quality of practice every day.
 
DRILL PURPOSE CARDS
Do you ever watch a drill and wonder why the athletes don't seem to be giving their all, or why they are not particularly focused? It may be because they don't know the purpose of the drill. When athletes do not know the reason behind a drill, they are more apt to just go through the motions.
 
One way to address this problem is through "drill purpose cards." If a practice is not going well, we'll stop, hand out index cards, and give our athletes a short written quiz that asks them to identify the purpose of the drills we are doing. Sometimes, we are very surprised at their answers, and we realize that we need to better communicate the whys of a drill before we explain the hows.
 
ON TAPE
Many coaches show their teams videos of elite athletes to provide an example of how to do something "the right way." We use videotape in another way: to boost athletes' self confidence. We develop a personal highlight tape from practices or games that shows the player having success. This then gives them positive images that boost their self esteem.
 
Many times when a player is in a slump or struggling with a certain area of their game, and you ask them to picture themselves performing well, they can't get a clear image. But if they can look at a video of themselves performing well, they can more easily regain their earlier form.
 
For example, let's say a baseball pitcher is having a hard time locating their fastball over the inside part of the plate. Take video clips from when they were successful in making that pitch, play those video clips over and over, and at different speeds if possible. You can also add cue words to the video such as "get inside" or "dominate the inside." You can also add the favorite music of the athlete in the background so that they hear and see themselves in a way which gets them feeling good and excited to play. By watching themselves succeed in making the pitch, their confidence will improve and so will their chances of being able to make that pitch on a consistent basis.
 
THROW IN SOME MONKEYS
We do a lot of work to prepare our athletes for the intensity of game situations. For instance, during football practice, we use the down and distance chains, put time on the clock, use situational simulation, and have rewards for the winning team. It's a concept we apply to all our sport practices.
 
We also like to teach our athletes how to overcome adversity by "throwing in the monkeys." We tell our athletes that there will be adversity and unfair calls in games, and we simulate dealing with them during practice. In essence, we let them fail, so they can practice reacting to it. They can choose to respond by pointing fingers and losing focus, or by coming together and succeeding in spite of the adversity.
 
Another way we "throw in the monkeys" is to play soft or classical music during practices, which can make a person feel mellow, relaxed, or sleepy. Our athletes say, "How can you expect us to focus during practice when you play Beethoven?" We tell them, "The same way I expect you to focus when we are in double overtime and you are dog tired, when you come off the bench for the first time in the game, or when all the fans are cheering for our opponent."
 
MEASUREMENT MATTERS
If you want your athletes to continually practice with high intensity, they must constantly set goals and work to reach those goals. Thus, a good way to encourage and monitor improvement is to measure and record their efforts during drills and exercises. An athlete's best effort while running sprints is very subjective and instructing them to run "all-out" provides zero context and minimal motivation. On the other hand, trying to beat a personal-best record of 7.1 seconds for a 60-yard sprint is very objective and motivating. You can measure times of agility runs, velocity of a medicine ball thrown with a radar gun, or number of plays made successfully in a row.
 
I know what you are thinking: "How do I have the time to keep track of all that?" One solution is to have student managers and injured athletes measure and keep track of the data. Sometimes, these players and managers don't feel like a part of the team, especially if they don't have that much to do. But if you place emphasis on data collection and measurement, it gives them important and tangible reasons to show up everyday and be a part of the team.
 
GIVE ME TWENTY
Having a group of athletes who give their undivided attention at all times is a coach's dream. But it doesn't have to be just a dream. When we feel our athletes are not giving us their full attention we use the "20-second drill."
 
If we sense a lapse in focus, we ask the athletes to give 20 seconds of totally undivided attention. At the word "go," the athletes "lock in" and become consciously focused on what the coach is saying.
 
Afterward, we ask each player what he or she did to turn it around. We also ask them to notice how the energy level in the group changed from what it was 20 seconds ago. We explain that this is what quality practice is all about: Catching yourself when you drift, and returning your focus to the present moment.
 
BLUE ANGEL DEBRIEF
After the U.S. Navy Blue Angel Pilots fly an exhibition and entertainment show, they hold a debriefing. Spending two or three times the amount of time it took them to fly, they critique everything from the way they marched to the planes to the nuance of each aerial maneuver. And when they debrief, it is not only pilots who share their input, but also Blue Angel staff members who sit in the crowd watching the show. The Blues are wide open to criticism and constructive feedback because they know that it is the only way to improve.
 
Our coaches try to do the same thing after every practice here at North Country Union. They ask the players, "What is one thing you learned today that can help you get better?" From that evaluation, they decide what to focus on in the next practice session.
 
A lot of coaches review their practices, but most don't ask for input from their athletes. Including athletes in practice planning gives them more ownership of the program and lets them know their opinions matter. Athletes understand that the quality of their practices determines the quality of their game performances, and they often have good ideas on what can be improved. They also may have suggestions on how to make things more fun.
 
Mental skills training is often a large piece of the puzzle missing from a quality practice. But you don't have to be an expert in the field to use its techniques. Try some of the above ideas, and you'll realize that just a little attention to the mental aspect of training can go a long way.
 
Sidebar: FOCUS ON PROCESS
If you want to give your athletes the best chance to succeed, then you should place more emphasis on the process than the end result. If your athletes play well on a consistent basis, winning takes care of itself. You can't control winning, you can only control how well you play the game. Winning is a byproduct of playing well.
 
A great way to emphasize the importance of the process is to give your athletes "Process Performance Cards" after a practice or competition. These cards get the athletes to think about how they played and what elements are within their control.
 
They also open the door for productive communication about performance between the coach and the athlete. If the athlete is being too hard or too easy on him or herself, it will show on the cards.
 
Below is an example of a Process Performance Card for a baseball pitcher. If a pitcher can grade himself highly on these questions, he is giving himself the best chance to pitch successfully.
 
Name:_______________Date: __________Game:____________

Please grade yourself on a scale of 1 - 10. (1 = Worst, 10 = Best.)

• How in control of your pitching were you today?
• How would you grade your commitment to each pitch that you threw today?
• How would you grade the clarity of your plan for each pitch?
• How would you grade your awareness and recognition of when you were getting a little out of control (based on your ability to step off of the mound and go to your focal point)?
• How would you rate the quality of your pitches today?
• How would you rate the overall quality of your preparation today?
• How would you rate your overall performance today?
• Did you have a successful pitching performance today?
  

 
Brian Cain, CAA, is the Athletic Director at North Country Union High School in Newport, Vt. He is also an Instructor of Sports Psychology at the University of Vermont and a Peak Performance consultant. He can be reached at: bcain@ncuhs.org; or by visiting his Web site at: majorleaguementaltraining.com.

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