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Welcome to United Soccer Coaches Soccer Journal!

It’s been a lot of years since Soccer Journal first published my “Quality of Training” article, so I thought it time to apply the “recommended update” as there have been some excellent studies, talks, and book excerpts about improving the quality of sport training since. What you have here are the “takeaways” from these sources applied to the original quality of practice model.

Quality of Practice 2.0: There are four main tools coaches and players can utilize to improve the quality of practice:

» Quality Attitude – view practice as a chance to improve and not forced on you.

» Quality Preparation – mentally prepare for practice so you are motivated, ready to devote substantial effort, confident, present-minded (e.g., park distractions), and mission focused.

» Quality Execution – take ownership of your execution via your readiness, attention to detail, evaluate progress made, devise competitions, and cope with mistakes and failures.

» Quality Control – post-practice review of what worked, what didn’t, what was learned, and what to improve on for the next practice.

Quality of Practice 2.0—Deliberate Practice/GritAccording to Daniel Pink in Drive, deliberate practice is a type of practice which has one objective and that’s to improve

learning and performance, and it has been found to be the key to elite and expert performance. In the book, The Talent Code, author Daniel Coyle used the term deep practice (yet both are used interchangeably by most) as targeted effort through repetition, and making mistakes then fixing them, which increases skills and learning tenfold via myelin culti-vation. Coyle pointed to soccer talent hotbeds, such as the academy systems in Europe, Brazil, and Argentina, as being most effective in finding and training young, talented soccer players where deep learning is the recommended process. The constant pervasive focus in these soccer academies is that each player experiences long hours in deep practice. Coyle, with the help of Anders Ericsson (Peak) and Michael Howe’s Genius Explained, posited a universal theory of skill development: deep practice X 10,000 hours (the universally accepted amount of practice) = world-class skill.

A key variable to consistent deep practice that is receiving recent attention is grit. Grit is the blend of purpose, passion, and persistence. Grit is the strength of one’s character. Grit is also an excellent predictor of achievement. According to Angela Duckworth in her book, Grit, West Point cadets who

|| THE MENTAL

�Dr. Voight will write a column on the mental side of soccer in each issue of Soccer Journal.

Quality of Practice 2.0

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DR. MIKE VOIGHT, Ph.D.

UNIVERSAL THEORY OF SKILL DEVELOPMENT:

DEEP PRACTICE 10,000 HOURS _________________ WORLD-CLASS SKILL

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had higher grit scores successfully completed the seven-week “beast barracks” process. As it turns out, grit is a much stron-ger predictor than any other variable, such as achievement scores or sport background. The author stated that gritty people do more deliberate practice and experience more flow, which is a mental state characterized by an energized, present focus, full involvement and control, and enjoyment, originally coined by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in his seminal work, Flow, and expanded upon in Creativity. The flow state is believed to occur when the challenges of the task meet our skill levels, resulting in quite a pleasurable state, also referred to as the zone.

In Head in the Game, Brandon Sneed wrote about the boost of the feel-good hormone, oxytocin, when we are feeling passion and purpose (grit) and are optimistic about the challenges that lie ahead. Being grateful creates the same positive emotional states via the neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin, so thinking about what you are grateful for, along with being passionate with a sense of purpose, should be part of the pre-, during, and post-practice routine. Mike Carson went inside the minds of soccer’s leaders in The Manager, and low and behold, managers like Glenn Hoddle and Sir Alex Ferguson found gratitude as a key to maintaining balance and a healthy perspective. Speaking of top managers, tying deep practice and grit together is master coaching, which is characterized by the following virtues, according to Coyle: vast knowledge, keen observers, concise feedback, and honest connections based on shared moral values and principles, referred to later as alignment and authenticity.

Quality Attitude 2.0:Have you heard of or used the axiom, “attitude is a choice, whereas character is an identity”? It’s a good one. The archi-tect of 22 national championships, Anson Dorrance believes the core of athletic character is self-discipline (self-motivated), competitive fire to push themselves consistently, and self–belief, since “this is everything in sport.” In his words, “How you chase these three areas will be the final measure of your

athletic greatness.” In order to “chase” one must first “choose” their attitude about the pursuit of athletic greatness, daily, in training. Reflective Questions: How much do you agree with these statements? What do you believe makes up athletic character? What do your players think? Do your players know what you believe makes up athletic character? If so, in what ways? How often is this talked about and is it reinforced with your players? Answering these questions can lead to some purposeful dialogue and hopefully deliberate action with your team.

Quality Preparation 2.0:Simon Sinek, in Start with Why, extols the virtue of knowing why you do what you do (why coach, why play the beautiful game?); then the how will you accomplish what you set out to (do honest, sportsperson-like values drive your actions or do you take short cuts?); followed by what you actually accomplish or contribute daily. When all three align, authenticity results, meaning that everything you say you believe in is reflected in your actions which is transparent for all to see. Authenticity leads to connection and trust with others. Coaches and players alike should remind themselves daily, especially before training, of their “whys” and “hows” and not simply “what” they want to accomplish daily. As for the “what” to accomplish in training, Duckworth talks about setting stretch goals by focusing in on smaller aspects of their game that need improving, thus seeking out challenges that currently are not being met.

Quality Execution 2.0:NBA champion and final MVP Kevin Durant affirmed, “I probably spend 70% of my time by myself, working on my game, just trying to fine tune every single piece of my game.” Sounds like the NBA’s best player engages in deep practice. If it works for him, why not the rest of us? According to Duck-worth’s Grit, there are four particular features of deliberate practice coaches and players should execute:

» Practice must have a specific intention or goal (not just on better team defending but on your role as the second defender in the defensive third)—players should know “why” this drill occurs.

» Challenge must exceed skill—players need to be pushed; this makes us most uncomfortable but is needed to truly improve and tax one’s skill levels.

» Immediate feedback is critical as is being able to self-as-sess (self-regulation, where the players know enough about what they are doing to self-correct)—players should seek this feedback, even the critical stuff.

» Repetition, repetition, … Repetition matters! From Duckworth: “You cannot become truly fluent in any new skill until you have repeated it to a level of automaticity that you can practically do it without conscious effort.” Although repetition may get tedious for players, they must remind themselves to make the best of it. Olympic gold medalist Mads Rasmussen said, “It’s about hard work. When it’s not fun, you do what you need to do anyway.”

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Quality Control 2.0:Daniel Pink in Drive declared that to keep yourself motivated day in day out is to ask, “Was I better today than yesterday?” Reflecting on questions such as this one, and those presented earlier, is a sign of a gritty competitor. Duckworth wrote that grit equals repetition with reflection and refinement. Evaluating one’s performance after the fact should also be about giving yourself credit for what was accomplished (living up to your whys, hows, and whats), what was learned, as well as what one will do tomorrow to improve even more. This goes for players and coaches alike. Additional areas for coaches to reflect on are whether the training climate endorsed players “going for it” and were you an effective teacher today? Coaches must model “emotion-free mistake making” (Duckworth), so players feel free to simply play while taking technical and tactical risks when training. How else will they stretch their games if they do not try to play at their outermost performance “edge”? Another coaching cue is to know your players’ learning styles. Tom Brady’s QB coach/mentor, Tom Martinez, has said, “If I teach you, I’m concerned about what you think and how you think. I want to teach you how to learn in a way that’s right for you.”

Please add these “recommended updates” to the original quality of training model to better equip yourself, staff, and players with tools for improved quality training attitudes, preparation, execution, and control practices.

Coach and lead on! n

If you have particular questions or comments regarding the content in this column or you have ideas for future columns for “The Mental,” feel free to contact me via email or my website.

The Professor – Dr. V voightmir@ccsu.edu drvleads.com

ResourcesBrave New Worlds. The Changing Climate of Training and Developing the 21st Century Athlete. ncgsc.com/images/Psychology_Lec-ture_NSCAA_Convention_2007_with_attachments.pdf 2007 NSCAA National Convention

Daniel Coyle, Talent Code (New York, NY: Bantam Books, 2009).

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (New York: Harper and Row, 1990).

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Creativity (NY: Harper, 2013). Angela Duckworth, Grit (New York, NY: Scribner Publishing, 2016).

2017 Aspect Challenge youtube.com/watch?v=nz6YdifeDY

2013 AP Annual Conference.youtube.com/watch?v=BrkwrHSfsMY

Anders Ericsson, Peak (NY: Eamon Dolan/Mariner Books, 2017).

W.F. Helsen, N.J. Hodges, J. Van Winckel, and J.L. Starkes, “The Roles of Talent, Physical Precocity and Practice in the Development of Soccer Expertise.” Journal of Sports Sciences (2000): 727. From Expanding Academic asap.

Michael Howe, Genius Explained (UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001).

Jonathan Newman, “The Development of American Youth Soccer." CoachUp Nation, January, 2007.

Daniel Pink, Drive (NY: Riverhead Books, 2009).

Simon Sinek, Start with Why (NY: Portfolio, 2009).

Brandon Sneed, Head in the Game (NY: Dey Street Books, 2017).

Mike Voight, (2009). "Enhancing the Quality of Practice." Soccer Journal.

J. Wang & W.F. Straub, (2012). "An Investigation into the Coaching Approach of a Successful World Class Soccer Coach: Anson Dorrance." International Journal of Sport Science & Coaching, 7, 431-447.

to keep yourself motivated day in day out is to ask, ‘Was I better today than yesterday?’“

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