https://soccertoolbox.net/player-development/the-importance-of-play?utm_content=1ab433349488fc68b1ca475a0defaf05&utm_campaign=180927Soccer&utm_source=Robly.com&utm_medium=email
By John O’Sullivan, founder
of Change the Game Project
Let me be blunt and scream
this from the rooftop: the best athletes PLAY sports. They don’t work them,
they play them. When sport becomes more work than play, athletes struggle, they
grind, and if they cannot get back to playing instead of working, they eventually
drop out. From youth to pros, when the fun goes, soon to follow is performance.
But what about developing future athletes? What is the role of play in the
training and advancement of aspiring young players to the next level? Should
they be practicing or playing sports? If they do both, is one more important
than the other?
For
kids under 12, I believe wholeheartedly the answer is yes. And that answer is
PLAY!
The
role of deliberate practice in skill acquisition is a hot topic. Without
rehashing everything I
have written on the subject in the past, simply defined deliberate practice is the focused improvement
through repetitive activity, continual feedback and correction, and the delay
of immediate gratification in pursuit of long term goals. There is no
question that expert performers accumulate many hours of deliberate practice,
and there is a strong correlation between hours of deliberate practice and
performance level in elite performers.
What
gets lost in the focus on practice is the massive importance of deliberate
play. Researcher Jean Cote defines deliberate
play as “activities such as backyard soccer or street basketball that are
regulated by age-adapted rules and are set up and monitored by the children or
adults engaged in the activity. These activities are intrinsically motivating,
provide immediate gratification and are specifically designed to maximize
enjoyment.”
In
our increasingly structured world of youth sports, coupled with the decline of
recess and playground pick up games, deliberate practice is increasingly
emphasized, and play is deemphasized. Yet is this helping us develop better
athletes? I say no.
Why?
First,
at the very core of great athletes is a
burning passion and love of the game. That love and enjoyment provides them
with the intrinsic motivation to pursue sport excellence. While coaching can
foster this love, and provide an athlete with the feedback needed to develop
skill, the flame must be fed primarily by the athlete and not the coach. Kids
play sports because they are fun. Sports must belong to them. Play instills this type of love and makes it
fun, while practice often does not. Instilling love of the game early on
sets up a player mentally to engage in deliberate practice later on.
Second,
an early focus on deliberate practice and pursuit of long term success, instead
of playing for the love of the game, can
cause motivation to become extrinsic, rather than intrinsic. Athletes
motivated extrinsically by championships, fame and social identity tied to
athletic success have been shown to burnout at a much higher rate than athletes
who participate for enjoyment. They are also more likely to protect that
identity through cheating and other maladaptive behaviors designed to continue
successful outcomes.
Third,
free play and multi-sport play promotes
the development of better all around athleticism. As children play less and
practice more (often in a single sport) using sport specific muscles and
movements, experts in many sports have noticed a decline in the agility,
balance and coordination skills of young athletes as compared to decades ago.
Finally,
and perhaps most importantly, play stimulates
brain development. It hastens the growth of the brain centers that regulate
emotion and control both attention and behavior. Play inspires thinking and
adaptation, promoting creative problem solving and conflict resolution. It
allows children to build their own games, define their own rules, and develop
the cognitive skills that are needed not only for athletics, but in every
aspect of life.
One
of the greatest differences between adults
and children is that adults are goal oriented, and children are focused on
immediate pleasure. Adults see everything as leading toward something in
the future – the big picture if you will – and thus tend to look at everything
we do not simply for “how does this serve me now” but “how will this serve me
in the future.” As a result, we tend to look at play, with its focus on
immediate gratification instead of long term goals, as a waste of time, and an
obstacle to long term growth. It might be getting in the way of things we want
for our children in the future, so we tolerate it only to a point.
As
a result, we look down upon coaches who
roll a ball out and say “go play.” We get angry when our soccer coach
sits quietly on the bench, letting the kids work through their own problems,
all bunched up in a giant blob, making mistakes without fear of repercussions
and public correction, and playing a game that looks nothing like the adult
version we see on TV.
We
get upset that our coach does not teach kids positions, when in reality they do
not possess the ability to understand a position until they understand
positioning (do I need to provide, depth, width, close support, etc.). In other
words, we have a long term goal in mind,
and we want to get our kids to that goal as quickly and efficiently as
possible. Clearly by sitting there and not fixing the problem, our
coach is delaying their development, right?
Wrong.
The coach is doing it right. He is fostering development by helping them learn,
and guiding their discovery of the answers rather than providing the answers.
He gives them ideas in practice, but then lets them develop skill, creativity
and critical thinking during the game. Everything that intuitively feels like
inhibiting development is actually promoting it.
Yet
many parents and coaches do not realize this.
As
a result, we want them to practice, and not play.
We
feel compelled to tell them where to be and what to do, instead of guide them
to find the answers on their own.
We
believe that if we help them acquire enough skill first, then they will fall in
love with the game and be intrinsically motivated to pursue it to a higher
level.
We
measure development through the outcome of games, because outcomes are how we
measure success in the adult world.
In
the end, we take away play, and substitute work, believing that is the path to
performance.
We
are wrong!
Show
me a list of the best players in any team sport where creativity is valued,
such as soccer, hockey or basketball, and the vast majority of them, if not all
of them, will
have a background filled with a lot more play than practice prior to the age of
12. For some it is play in one sport, and others it is multi-sport
participation. The common denominator is an early focus on enjoyment and
fearless competition, rather than results and advancement. Top athletes played
sports, and have a higher level of intrinsic motivation and autonomy than their
fellow competitors who go down the early practice route.
Hopefully,
we all want our athletes to develop the ownership, motivation and enjoyment to
pursue a sport long term, not only as an participant, but as a fan, a coach,
and a lifelong passionate supporter of the game. It is very hard to put
aside our adult values, to ignore the great futures we see for our athletes
and/or our kids, and instead allow them to focus on the present. It is
difficult to put aside the perspective we have gained over the years, which
tells us that the only things we regret are the things we did not do, that
talent we did not develop, the sport we chose not to pursue.
We
do not want our kids to make the same mistakes. That is a great thing.
An
even better thing you can do is to realize that the way to help them avoid
those mistakes is not to force them onto
the path that in hindsight we wish we had taken, but to give them the tools to
find that path themselves.
And
the best way to do that is to let them PLAY!