Finding the optimal challenge

"Every group of players, like any group of classroom learners, can be broadly split into 3 groups.  

1. Those that are striving ahead 

2. Those that are coping with the challenge (the largest group) 

3. Those that are struggling to keep up. 

We need to ensure that our practices cater for these ‘copers’, ‘strivers’, and ‘strugglers’. On the back of this, there are many misconceptions when differentiating soccer practices." (from "Making The Ball Roll: A Complete Guide to Youth Football for the Aspiring Soccer Coach" by Ray Power)

This year, we moved to our new format, which we have dubbed the 'Development Phase Model'. It is a system of training that places players with others at their technical, tactical, physical, and psychological level, rather than their chronological age, which is the 'normal way that things are done in Australia.

Former German World Cup and European Cup winner Jürgen Klinsmann, put it succinctly when he said,

"To improve, every player must continuously train on the edge (of their current level).” 

Although our new development phase model has had challenges and areas that need to be approved, we have found that by and large, the new system is starting to produce the desired level of optimal challenge for all of our students. Initially, there was some reluctance by some students to train separately from their friends, but what we have seen and from the feedback of our coaches, is a much more realistic representation of the different skill levels of the 131 students that participated in the program this year. 

Simply put, the bar is high enough that they can see over it but not too high that it is impossible to reach it. Ball speed, movement off the ball, and tactical understanding is appropriate to the current level of the player and also shows exactly which player is doing extra practice at home and whether they are taking the training feedback during and post-session on board.

Less of our cohort is stuck in a comfort zone, and if we see that they are, we now have the capacity to find them an optimal challenge level based on their current aforementioned characteristics and traits. The search for the learning and growth zone continues for our entire lives.