This is a practice I lifted straight to Gaelic Football. I think would be very useful in hurling also.
Why? Universal principles applicable to field sport.
I knew this would be useful but you don’t always know why. And of course you’ll adapt as you go.
@StBrigidsGAA showed us this year what can be done in club football when you aren’t a team of 5’11-6’3 running/transitional athletes like a lot of the dominant club teams are, with exceptional running power. Most Club teams need more than this and need to use everyone they have.
They were outstanding tactically and spaced the pitch expertly. One of the things they really excelled at was medium range kick passes. I don’t know if they ever spoke about it or had any form of deliberate practice but they moved the ball on the move and forward as much as possible and were the epitome of “the pass makes the run and the run makes the pass”. Their spacing was exceptional.
This is deliberate practice in field sport for me. We can’t get exact deliberate practice like Ericsson did with the Violin.
This game infuses that. Without any instruction other than the rules you get spacing, long & medium kick passing and a lot of communication & scanning. In the 2nd training session you could see the changes. Now is the hard part, making it sticky and game transfer.
People talk about scanning a lot and try to instruct it, count it or constrain the person to do it.
Constrain the game to allow it happen.
I would pair or tri set this with repetitive/wave practices of 3v3 up to 5v3 and full game practice that asks for speed going forward (time constraints). The theme can be united by the message, but the mix asks for forward play, fast play and an ability to mind the ball also.
Nick is well worth a follow and his you tube is great. He does task simplification, repetition without repetition and representative practice design really well.