The Two Practice Tools You Need This Summer

Happy Friday to everyone gearing up for a big Summer.

Do you expect your players to come back better this year than they were last year?

We can't give away what we don't possess. So how are you going to be better?

Let's go all in on preparation, we’re here to help. Let's get better at designing an off-season practice.

Remember, our practice planning is intended to build a process that returns us compound interest over time. It's not what you do that creates a championship program, it's how you do it.

Here’s two tools that will get you better returns when you get clear on your objective for each segment of your practice. I call them, war game and sandbox.

War Game

Years ago, there was a lot of concern in the Pentagon when North Korea got access to nuclear material. It escalated the ongoing tension in that part of the world. The greatest military minds began to plan for the worst-case scenarios of military escalation. They prepared — or rather, practiced — for the most important test of their skill.

After years of planning, the US military still didn't feel prepared. So they brought in an outside expert. Someone who had lots of experience creating open-ended games. This expert took the top generals through "war games" over and over. He established the objectives, the scoring, and the rules. They drew sides and played it out.

Each time they played a war game, something unexpected came up — something they had never planned for. It informed their leaders and improved the performance of the military. It can do the same for you and your team.

War games in your practices will...

• Identify blind spots you may not see

• Reveal obstacles that will come up in games

• Provide data to make key decisions

• Duplicate the pressure and environment of games

While establishing war games on your team will benefit your players and provide clarity of role, they are primarily for you as a coach. You can have better practices and be better prepared this season if you plan war games and observe during those moments. Most coaches miss things when they are fighting every battle alongside their players. That's when dangerous blind spots develop — because you're too busy correcting and motivating to see the full picture.

A war game is as similar as possible to a real game in order to test, measure, and identify what we need to adjust.

Here are five things you can observe and measure in war game scenarios:

• Roles — who helps their team win the most, and in what roles?

• Reads — what reads do your players struggle with the most?

• Units — what players work well together, and what players don't?

• Strengths — what scenarios does your team execute well naturally?

• Weaknesses — where do you struggle, and what is the cause?

Your ability to assess those five things and address them will determine your success this season. Exponentially more than yelling at Timmy to make a pass. By the way — if Timmy is your best decision-maker, maybe he shouldn't pass it very much. Let's war game it and find out.

A war game is a way to test your assumptions, resolve questions, settle conflicts of opinion, and prove things to players when they have doubts.

But if you only test yourself constantly, you won't have time to study, learn, and improve the areas you expose in that testing.

So you must balance your war games with sandbox time.

Sandbox

In Daniel Coyle's book The Talent Code, he examines talent hotbeds around the world — the outlier places that produce the world's best performers in sport, music, and business. What he found should change the way you design your practices.

I'll simplify the book in one sentence — but go read it if you haven't:

Environments that prioritize deliberate practice massively accelerate improvement.

Most practices don't create an environment for deliberate practice. Chances are, you're missing the boat along with most coaches.

Deliberate practice, in its simplest form, is performing an act with clear intent.

Intent = Intensity

When a mistake is made: self-correct, do it over correctly, and increase the challenge in pursuit of the next mistake. Then repeat.

So how are you missing the boat?

You don't have planned sandbox time in your practices. Sandbox time creates an environment that is the opposite of a war game.

Sandbox time is where players can get messy, learn, play, make mistakes, correct them, try things they don't get to do in games, and expand their skill set. We are not evaluating execution during sandbox time — and players need to know that. They won't earn or lose playing time in the sandbox. They're getting better, and we're helping them do it.

Here are five reasons you must have sandbox time in your practice:

• Players improve faster when they know they aren't being judged for performance.

• Players freely make mistakes during sandbox time — and that's the key to deliberate practice.

• Training is set up to repeat the same technique, read, or action over and over so players can correct mistakes.

• You and your staff can shift completely into development mode. High clarity leads to high performance.

• Teams with limited sandbox time don't make jumps — just incremental execution gains.

Your ability to create a high-functioning sandbox will determine whether your team levels up this season.

And remember — sandboxes are messy. Sand gets everywhere. It agitates. It often looks like chaos.

Adversity strengthens. While most coaches run away from the sandbox, a SAVI coach embraces the mess — knowing that's where the magic happens. Which is why a SAVI coach can leapfrog more talented programs, if they have the courage to go digging in the corners.

If you're still reading, you're probably intrigued and bordering on convinced — but you may not know where to start.

Let me tell you: try it.

Perfection is the enemy of growth. Move, and the way will open.

Principle: Designate and communicate whether you are in sandbox time or war games during each progression. This allows players to maximize their development or their performance accordingly.

Here are five ways to start using war game and sandbox designations in practice:

1. Be clear on which mode you're in. When players and coaches know whether it's a war game or sandbox, they align their efforts with the objective.

2. Start with a war game early in practice. It raises energy, creates a championship environment, and helps your staff identify focus points for the rest of the session.

3. Set clear constraints in your sandbox time. Identify principles, direct the intent, and show players how to level up.

4. Use sandbox time to focus on reads before technique. You'll see performance improve faster with better reads than with better technique.

5. Score and measure the things you care about in your war game. Create a competitive cauldron and you'll build a championship environment.

I'm Tyler, and I'm here to help.

P.S. If you liked this, you’ll love our SAVI Coaching Podcast, The Hours. We provide coaching insights every week for your drive or workout. Subscribe here.

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