What’s your approach when it comes to practice planning? Do you favor consistency? Or do you prefer variety?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For me both are involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The area where I am most consistent is in the general structure of my practices. I have a way of going about planning each session that I go over in my practice planning course<\/a>. The result is a pretty similar design concept for each session. In other words, the practices have a consistent flow to them. This has benefits both in terms of the progressions I’m after as well as players knowing generally what to expect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another area where I absolutely want to be consistent is in the language and tone I’m using. The cues and feedback I give the players needs to carry over so we’re all on the same page. At the same time, I expect the players to demonstrate a consistent energy and effort in each session.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because I almost always start from scratch to plan my next practice based on my specific priorities<\/a> for it, they are rarely the same from one session to the next. Every once in a while I’ll repeat a session if I want to keep working on the same thing(s) in the same way. Even then, though, I usually make a tweak or two based on how things went the previous practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n From a more exercise oriented perspective, I also look to make everything I do as game-like and random<\/a> as I can. This inherently creates variety in terms of the stimuli and situations the player’s face, albeit sometimes only in small ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An important aspect to all this is the fact that I like to use a consistent set of activity structures. This is especially true when it comes to game exercises – be that small-sided<\/a> or 6 v 6 – which I use a lot. I do this because it saves explanation time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A very basic example of this is simple 6 v 6 play. By using bonus points<\/a> or process related scoring<\/a> you can adapt that basic structure to serve a lot of different purposes without having to create – and explain – a whole new activity. You can simply say something like, “We’re playing 6 v 6 with a bonus point for a first ball kill.” Or, “We’re playing 22 v 22<\/a>, but if you get a first ball kill on the serve you automatically get the big point.” Changing how you initiate<\/a> each rally is another way to mix things up.<\/p>\n\n\n\nVariety<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
Variety within consistency<\/h6>\n\n\n\n