Definition:

The degree to which the informational cues and movement requirements of a practice session simulate the actual competitive environment.

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Coaching Application:
If a drill removes the defenders or the "read," the RLD is low, and the skill is less likely to transfer to game day.

Definition:

The specific level of task difficulty where learning is maximised. It is the "sweet spot" between a task being too easy (performing) and too hard (overwhelming).

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Coaching Application:
We aim for a success rate that is slightly lower than what you can expect to see for the same skill in competition. This provides enough success to maintain motivation but enough failure to trigger the necessary adaptation.

Definition:

The intentional introduction of changes in the environment, task, or equipment to force an athlete to find new movement solutions rather than repeat the same solution over an over again.

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Coaching Application:
Variability ensures that skills are robust enough to survive the "noise" and chaos of real competition sessions by making them more adaptable to varying contexts.

Definition:

Skill load is a concept used by skill acquisition specialists to monitor the intensity of skill practice sessions.

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Coaching Application:
Just as an S&C coach monitors physical load to prevent injury, a SkillACQ coach monitors "Skill Load" in order to adjust training sessions to hit the right training goals. 

Definition:
Agility is the ability to change body position, velocity or direction in response to a game-relevant stimulus (or to inhibit yourself to do so)

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Coaching Application:
True agility is a "read-and-anticipate" skill. Running through pre-planned ladders or cones likely does not accuractely mimic these demands. Instead, reacting to a defender's hip movement reflects Agility as a Perceptual-Motor skill.

Definition:

The inseparable link between what an athlete sees/hears/feels/experiences (Perception) and what they do (Action).

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Coaching Application:
When we de-couple perception and action components (e.g., hitting a ball off a static tee), we are training a skill that may not exist in the game.

Definition:

The strategic planning of skill practice over time by using modifications to Skill Load and Practice Variability.

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Coaching Application:
Aligning skill development with the physical phases of the season to ensure athletes optimise performance throughout the season. 

Definition:

The phenomenon where high performance in practice often masks a lack of actual learning.

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Coaching Application:
A "clean" session is often an indicator that a session was focused on performance, not learning. In that case a coach has traded short-term perforamnce benefits (confidence) for long-term mastery (competence).

Definition:

Information provided to an athlete from an external source (such as a coach, video, or data sensor) that adds to the athlete’s own internal sensory feedback.

 

Coaching Application:
We often encourage to use Augmented Feedback sparingly. The goal is to provide enough info to guide the athlete without making them "coach-dependent" for every solution and to remember that as a coach providing feedback, you are translating the information in the athlete's surrounding for them, which is powerful but not always beneficial for robust learning to occur. 

Definition:
A coaching style that positions the coach as a 'live' manipulator of the practice environment. By dynamically modifying components of the practice contexts, players remain in the optimal learning zone for longer.

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Coaching Application:
Instead of waiting 24 hours to make modifications to practice sessions (i.e. the "set and forget" method, a dynamical coach modifies practice on the fly whenevber behavioural drift occurs. 

Definition:

A session design strategy where learning is driven by the collective interactions, cooperation, and competition of a group rather than isolated individual work.

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Coaching Application:
By using Group-Based designs, we ensuring practice is optimised for  to encourage cooperation, not the individual performances of a group of individual athletes.