Miss Loock SHMD 119 Sport Didactics & Coaching Unit 11 1

T EACHING TACTICAL SKILLS 1. Tactics & Tactical Skills 2. Reading the Situation 3. Tactical Knowledge 4. Decision-Making Skills 5. Teaching Tactical Skills 2

Three essential elements of tactical skills are TACTICS, STATEGIES & GAME PLANS 3

Tactics is a plan to gain advantage in a contest Strategy is the plan of action for your team for the season Game Plan is the application of the strategy to a particular contest 4

Reading the Situation Decision- Making Skills Tactical Knowledge 5

Definition of Game Sense: It is the ability to use an understanding of the rules; of strategy; of tactics and, most importantly, of oneself to solve the problems 6

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Athletes first need to recognize what the problems are Reading the play involves cognitive skills of perception, attention and concentration Players gather information from their senses to make a decision Perception is a person’s ability to recognize and interpret sensory stimuli Concentration is the ability to sustain one’s attention on the relevant cues and not be distracted by other stimuli 8

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T ACTICAL K NOWLEDGE 1. The Rules 2. Strategic and Game Plans 3. Playing Conditions 4. Opponents’ Strengths and Weaknesses 5. Own Strengths and Weaknesses 6. Tactical Options 10

Make sure your players know the current rules by… Practicing games in which you explain the rules Review the rules that are frequently applied 11

Players must know what the strategy is Game Plans are formulated by analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of your team and those of the opponents to identify what tactics you may employ to give your team an advantage 12

Gather all relevant information about playing conditions and share with your team. Playing Conditions like… The playing surface Weather conditions Altitude Type of ball and other equipment 13

Players want to know as much as they can about the opponents Observe opponent’s game closely and share with team This prepares team better for these specific opponents 14

To solve problems in sport, players must not only know the rules, strategies, game conditions and strength and weaknesses, they must also know themselves 15

Every sport has tactics – athletes must know the tactics of the sport 16

Sometimes athletes need to decide very quickly. To play practice games designed for this purpose will help with decision making. Here are methods to do this: 17

Athletes tend to learn better decision making skills when learning complex tactics instead of simple tactics Athletes tend to learn complex tactics easier when it is first shown as in whole and then broken down in to parts 18

Players will understand and learn decision making when they observe it and their attention is directed to the decisions being made 19

Just as players can learn by observing others, they can learn tactical decisions by observing themselves on a video feedback 20

Instead of practicing a part of the game where the player knows exactly how to react and what to expect, give the player a situation that varies 21

What is better? Giving lots of feedback to your players, or only giving feedback occasionally? 22

Occasional Feedback is better. Why? 23

A coach that gives feedback constantly, is doing all the problem solving and play reading for the athlete and the player is not given the opportunity to learn these skills. Tell your athletes that you are reducing feedback in order for them to develop their own decision- making skills 24

Sometimes athletes’ knowledge of technical and tactical skills exceeds that of their coaches Coaches realizes this and shift their role to managing athletes’ training and behaviour This is called a cooperative style of coaching – coach need to shift constantly Asking questions is important in developing decision making skills – it prepares the coach for what the athlete needs help with and help athletes think about the problems they face 25

Good coaching can shorten time players need to learn a tactical skill The knowledge of what cues to attend to and what decisions to make are not available in books or videos, but is learned through experience 26

Step 1: Identify the important decisions your players need to make as they play the sport Step 2: Determine what knowledge your athletes need to make a good decision Step 3: Identify the cues in the situation that your players should and should not attend to and help them interpret these cues to decide on a likely course of action Step 4: Identify the appropriate tactical options, guidelines or rules your athletes should follow to make this tactical decision Step 5: Find a practice game that gives your athletes the opportunity to work on reading the situation and selecting the appropriate tactic 27

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