Practice versus games. Ohio Youth Soccer Development.
"Stated another way, attending well-planned training sessions for SIX MONTHS can produce the same number of ball possessions as SIX YEARS of playing 100 games per season."
Proper practice to game ratios.
Most youth academies around the world recognize that a team should maintain a 5 practice to 1 game ratio. The idea is that the "team game" is an expression of what they have learned and the "team practice" is a correction and development process based on what goes on in the game. In a perfect world that means a coach would let his team play with little if any instruction, so the coach can get a true picture of the players' and team needs.
Reality Bytes from Kentucky. This is about MIDDLE SCHOOL basketball...
After the game, I was thinking about the amount of games versus practice time that these teams have. HHS has now played 6 games in the last 9 days. They had 1 practice in the middle of that run. They will be off for the holiday until games on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday of next week. I guess they will get a practice in on that Wednesday. That will be 9 games in 18 days with only 2 practices.
Too Many Games. Training and development guru Alan Stein argues against too many games. I know tons of kids across the country who play more games in a calendar year than LeBron James.
That is a fundamental problem for 2 reasons:
1. Wear and tear on their growing bodies
2. Lack of emphasis on development (skill work, movement training, etc.)
2. Lack of emphasis on development (skill work, movement training, etc.)
The Arms Race. "Larry Lauer is the director of coaching education and development for the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports at Michigan State University. Its mission is the study of the benefits and detriments of youth and high school sports on its participants.
In addition to holding a doctorate in exercise and sport science, specifically in sport psychology, Lauer is a former hockey director in North Carolina and works extensively with Michigan Amateur Hockey and its coaching education programs.
“I call it an arms race in youth sports where everybody is trying to do more than the next guy to get the best opportunities and advantages. But eventually it’s got to stop somewhere.”
Too Many Games, 2. Brian McCormick shares. "From the media to college coaches to NBA coaches to Kobe Bryant, everyone believes that teenagers play too many basketball games. Of course, the blame is directed at the players. Why? Do the players make their own schedules or do they follow their team’s schedule? ...If the coach wants fewer games and more focus on skill development, shouldn’t he or she schedule fewer games or participate in fewer offseason tournaments?
A More Comprehensive Approach. The Performance Team. Notre Dame established a multidisciplinary unit including nutrition, chiropractic, athletic training, and injury prevention. There's another dimension in play. Parents here pay, often a lot, for youth sports participation. It's around $400/player (we have two sets of twins) and that doesn't include extra health care costs, travel, gym memberships, and more.
How do parents see 'value', more practice or more games? Last year our team played in two leagues and including tournaments, miscellaneous non-league games and playoffs, we played thirty-nine games. I'm sure that the ratio of practice to games was less than 1:1, especially because we had a lot of snow days. This season, I agreed to coach with one league and we have four hours of practice a week. I'm guessing that our practice to game ratio is somewhere between 3-4:1 now, better but still limited.
I see value in improvement in the consistency and quality of play, the types of individual and team actions, and the overall growth of the participants. Winning is an added bonus, but shouldn't be the primary success metric.
