It is okay to make mistakes in training

While coaching a women's team in the ACT, I found that the players were always apologising for making mistakes in training and in games. I had a gut feel that this was the most obvious manifestation of their desire to always be perfect. But nobody can be perfect all the time. Watching them I came to realise that this was an issue for the group because it meant that they focussed too much on the outcome of a skill and were not free to play and experiment with the skill. This really stiffled their development.

At the time we decided as a team to have a nonsense word that we could say when people made an error, to say that it was alright and that it did not matter. We used the word 'pobblebonk'. This was not a success as all it did was reinforce errors and point out that every body was watching.

Since coaching that team in 2004 I have refined my thinking on this issue, helped by some the coach education I have had in the intervening years.

FACT #1: Beginners make errors when they are learning new skills. Their performance of a skill will initially be highly variable.

FACT #2: Intermediate players need to be challenged in training (practice if you are a seppo) so that they achieve roughly a 70% success rate.

This means that making mistakes is essential to learning. :-)

I have been striving to make training sessions a safe learning environment, where it is okay to experiment and have a go. Tonight I found a way to communicate this key concept. I said two things that really worked;

"It is better to have a go and mess it up, than to not have a go."

"It does not matter if your first 100 attempts are no good. We are waiting for the 101st which will be just right."

Freeing players from the need to succeed with every throw and allowing them to play with throwing is showing huge dividends with the group I am currently coaching. In 5 weeks the average skill level has seriously improved.

I must however qualify this idea. There needs to be a balance between experimenting and focussing. Players need to be able to focus on a skill (e.g. throwing), know their own ability and then throw within that ability. This means that they can switch into a 100% mode where they complete a skill almost every time they do it. In training this means throwing 30m forehands as an experiment (and completing 50%) and then being able to rein in the forehands to 20m (and completing 95%).

The aim of training is to extend the 95% range and for each player to know their strengths and play within their current 95% range (when required). This ability to focus is also a very useful game preparation tool for a player.