An analysis of practice activities and instructional behaviours used by youth soccer coaches during practice: Exploring the link between science and application.

摘要

In a recent paper in the Journal of Sports Sciences, Ford, Yates, and Williams (2010) attempt to link research into motor learning, skill acquisition, and expert performance. One of their stated aims was to compare both coaching behaviours and practice activities against those shown to best facilitate skill acquisition.However, coaching behaviours should not be conflated with the underpinning pedagogical micro-structural behaviours of practice. The authors conclude that most of coaches' time was spent providing explicit instruction, yet it is conceivable that the observed behaviour of instruction could encompass a continuum from explicit prescriptive hands-on instruction to instruction of a less prescriptive, more implicit nature, but instruction nonetheless. For example, it would seem perfectly possible to provide pre-instruction to a group of football players, about the desired purpose, aim, and structure of a small-sided game designed to develop their perceptual-cognitive skills through implicit learning. This could then be supplemented through concurrent instruction during the activity and post instruction.