Learning process in youth development — Part 1

Traditional: In the traditional approach we assume that the coach knows everything has the solutions and answers to any problem. Instructs the players to play in a certain way with the given skillsets. This is a closed approach and a perfectly linear one. The knowledge comes from the coach and the player’s task is to remember every information given to him.

Modern: The learning process interlinked not only with memory but with perception, thinking, attention etc. This means that repetition is not enough in itself, because the coach must provide problematic situations to enhance the players’ decision making, and perception. The coach should use three supporting actions in the learning process: motivating, activation and reinforcement.

The center of the whole youth development should be the learning process of the individual. The coach should plan, maintain, control and evaluate this process, but these actions should be supporting ones, and the core of the process must remain the player. The different approach creates different questions, and different problems.

According to Jean Piaget, actions are the preconditions of our thinking structures, as the small child interacts with the outside world, the learning process evolves from the pure actions into internal, conceptual thinking. Experiences from these learning actions help to absorb the information, and be more versatile in different situations that are designed to simulate the game as a whole.

Another interesting side of the learning process is the memory, and how to recall the required solutions in the game situations, how to make better decisions to solve the problems occurring in the pitch. F. C. Bartlett studied the structure of the memory. In his view, memory isn’t a mechanical registration apparatus (like a recorder etc.) but it organizes these experiences and knowledge.

• We can only learn those things that our brain can paste or suit into our current schemas. /selection/
• This information loses their actual form, and their meaning become abstract. /abstraction/
• The remaining information is interconnecting with other chunks of abstracted information. /integration/

In session planning, it is desirable to create the situations as holistic as possible, this means that the drill has to be multidimensional, containing several sides and aspects of the game. If the sessions are planned this way, the coach can improve the perceptive and cognitive skills of the players, having impact their thinking, actions or feelings.

Talking and our mental skills are deeply interrelated, that is our main tool to communicate and express thoughts, the coach should use this tool to help the players, but this tool must be bilateral, the coach should ask the players about their decisions and actions, and let them express their feelings, and thoughts.

It is quite obvious, but most of the coaches are ignorant with it, that the efficiency of the sessions mainly dependent on the players’ motivation and will of participation. If the session has positive messages, and linked with positive feelings or feedbacks, the players will be much more cooperative towards the common goal.

Three ways of learning

Verbal: The psychophysical base of the verbal learning is association and imagination. This is linked with what we talked about earlier, that we can only integrate that information that are linked to the current schema. The players have to understand the learning situations, and find solutions, thus they can recall these solutions later in match situations. In verbal learning the main task is to find connection between the words and lessons given by the coach and the actual situations on the pitch. Learning with insight is always better than learning in a strict way without any opportunity to implement.

Perceptual: The information is acquired by sensory processes such as colors, smells, objects etc. This information builds up our sense of context, and our space-time relation in our life, and on the pitch. Training these skills can enhance the performance of the players remarkably, because they will have more information about their surroundings (the ball, the opponents, the situation etc.) With more info they can make better decisions.

Motional: Here we can speak about any technical skill related to the sport. These skills are learned with repetition and experience in specific situations. This is a dynamic learning process as the skills are constantly developing and adopting to the requirements of the game. The goal of this learning process to create automatic, nearly sub-conscious reactions to the stimuli.

The coach should aim to implement each three aspects into the coaching process, these three pillars of the holistic approach can help to develop smarter players, with better mental skills.