A poster in a an online group asked members how much they trained infrequent elements of the game. We’re not talking about something like making a pancake dig. Rather, they were referring to events that require a bit of creativity in skill and\/or execution. It’s the sort of thing that might only happen once in a tournament, or even a season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Obviously, we’re not going to explicitly spend any real training time on things that probably won’t happen. That wouldn’t be a particularly efficient use of our time. What we can – and should – do, however, is train the kind of problem-solving<\/a> mentality required in those kinds of instances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How do we do that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Put the players in game situations and introduce constraints that force them to do things differently than would otherwise be the case. A very simple example of this is playing 2-touch<\/a>. There the players have to figure out how to create scoring opportunities off the first contact. (See How We Learn to Move<\/a> for more about working with constraints.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here’s a more complex example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Play a game where the first two contacts cannot be with hands (no setting). Then set the scoring such that a team gets bonus points<\/a> for scoring off a 1st tempo ball (i.e. quick attack)<\/a>. Or perhaps the pipe\/bic if that’s something that features in your team’s offense. Then let the players figure out how to do it with bump sets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you find they aren’t really even trying, you can go one of two ways. Increase the bonus or shift the scoring so the only thing that earns a point is the faster plays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n