Not a game (sorry), but a few activities to encourage skill acquisition in a non-linear manner.
The Theory
I don’t want to go into the theory as to why I believe this is a good approach to skill acquisition, there are plenty of books and podcasts out there by far more eloquent people than me!
Very briefly, mixing up the techniques being coached and practised as much as possible will lead to a better long-term retentive skill acquisition than practising one technique over and over before moving on to another. Although in a single session you will find that learners are not showing the progression that they would if focusing on one technique, long-term the retention is better if they mix it up.
This leads to what is known as “Repetition Without Repetition”, or the idea that learners should practise techniques over and over, but with subtle (or not so subtle) changes to the task as much as possible. I listened to an interview with Adam Burgess in which he referred to a discussion with his coach about how because slalom is such a dynamic environment then the changes to the task are already achieved ie. there are no drills in whitewater slalom. I agree with this to an extent (certainly in the environments in which Adam does most of his training!), but I also feel that as a coach we are in a position to mix things up a little more.
The activities below are designed to help mix things up, keep things interesting for the paddlers and encourage transfer of techniques to different situations whilst still learning them rather than waiting until they are embedded in one situation before trying them elsewhere.
Please let me know of any other sessions you use that employ the same principles.
Mixing Up The Ups
(Similar to Andy Neave’s Crazy Eights)
I set a course with 2 breakouts, one on each side. Then I have 9 cards with the following on them:
Sweep Up, Sweep Up Sweep Up, Bow Rudder Up Sweep Up, Back of Blade Up Bow Rudder Up, Bow Rudder Up Bow Rudder Up, Sweep Up Bow Rudder Up, Back of Blade Up Back of Blade Up, Back of Blade Up Back of Blade Up, Sweep Up Back of Blade Up, Bow Rudder Up
I shuffle the cards then draw one just before a paddler does the course. They then attempt each breakout with the technique on the card. You can either work through the pack so all 9 variations are covered or reshuffle each time they go for another rep.
Paddler’s Choice
I set a 4 gates in eddies, alternating sides of the flow, then start off with “2 gates up, 2 down – you choose”. Once the paddlers have done a run, I start changing things for each successive run. Examples of what I might say are:
“Now swap so the ups are own or the downs are up” “Same course, but use a different style of breakout for each of the ups” “Now do 3 ups and a spin” “Sweep strokes only on the downs and no reverse strokes on the ups”
Ever Increasing Staggers
I set a stagger sequence. Once all the paddlers have done the course (sometimes I let them do it twice!) I move a gate a little to make the staggers slightly harder. I keep going in this manner with the sequence getting progressively harder. The paddlers can make their own call as to when they move from technique to technique, or I can set constraints such as “this gate always has to be bow rudder – sweep”
All Change
I set a course with at least as many gates as I have paddlers. After 2 reps each paddler moves a gate by 20-50cm. Then they all do 2 more reps before they all move a gate again.
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