MASTERING MOVEMENT: A NEW APPROACH TO COACHING AND PRACTICING SPORTS SKILLS

It was about five years ago, walking around my local park on a beautiful Saturday morning when I suddenly realized something was dreadfully wrong. On the soccer fields, kids from a local club were waiting in lines to dribble a ball around a set of cones. On another field, players from a nearby high school football team were waiting in line to run through a set of tires. On the baseball diamond, batters were hitting balls off tees. On the tennis court, the instructor was tossing the ball underhand to a player attempting to repeat the same forehand stroke over and over into an empty court. Soccer, football, baseball, and tennis are incredibly exciting, dynamic activities defined by their interpersonal actions: attacker vs defender, pitcher vs hitter, server vs receiver. It seems like almost every week we see a highlight of an athlete from one of these sports doing something new and unexpected. So, why then do we practice them in such a static, isolated, and choreographed manner? If an alien from another planet came and watched, would they think the goal of sports here on earth was to defeat inanimate pieces of rubber? Why do we insist on teaching movement skills this way? From golf lessons to soccer practice to learning to do pottery, the dominant view has been that we become skillful by trying to repeat the one, "correct" technique given to us by a coach or an instructor, over and over until we get it right. In baseball, tennis, and golf we learn THE way to swing. In soccer and basketball, we learn THE correct way to dribble a ball. In pottery, we learn THE way to position our hands. We reduce these creative, interactive, dynamic activities down to dull, isolated fundamentals so that they can be drilled and mastered. For a long time, we have assumed that decomposition and repetition rule the day if you want to be an elite performer. In this book, I want to introduce you to a revolution in the way we think about learning to move and act in the world. A radical change in sports skills training that has inspired Chelsea coach Thomas Tuchel to have his players hold tennis balls in their hands during soccer practice, has led Philadelphia Phillies' instructor Jason Ochart to conduct baseball practice using hula hoops where batters try to swing like Happy Gilmore, and has introduced a new practice activity to tennis great Novak Djokovic's repertoire that involves trying to deliberately pound the ball into the court.