Should training look and feel like a competitive match?
Preparation says:
- We know what game day looks like
- Training rehearses the solutions
- Repetition grooves the pattern
- The coach knows the answers
- Players execute the plan
- Success = doing what we practiced
Exploration says:
- We don’t know what game day will throw at us
- Training encounters problems
- Variability builds adaptability
- Players discover the answers
- The coach creates conditions
- Success = finding solutions we didn’t predict
Perhaps the struggle is not to make training look like a game, but to decide what your practice is for. It’s not that you can’t prepare and explore; you can, but it’s important to know which one your training is helping your players with.