“Skate to where the puck is going to go.”
Famous words spoken by The Great One.
Anticipation is a skill that elite players possess.
But what if I told you it wasn’t just for players…
And you could benefit from training this skill as a coach.
No, I’m not selling you a product.
The skill we want to develop as coaches is what Doug Lemov calls, “anticipating errors.”
Don’t get mad, get to writing
Anticipating errors is about unloading your working memory as a coach. This idea is different than what most coaches normally do. Most coaches are at a surface level of systematizing what the hell they do every day.
Level 1: Simply observe what is going on and hope you remember where the team struggled…
The problems with this tactic are boundless, yet this is a coaching default for most. You’re not going to remember all the individual coaching points in observing 10 minutes of a drill/exercise. And that’s just one exercise for 10 minutes.
What if your practice goes for 90 min? Forget about it… Literally.
You won’t remember:
what players are doing well
what players are struggling with principles of play
what principles of play each player is struggling with
if there’s a common theme problem (or just the first problem you see, you start seeing everywhere)
Example
Let’s say you’re working on breaking out of your zone. It’s early in the season and you’ve gone over your principles of play twice with the team and given them some study material. So in fairness, even the broad ideas will still be new to your players.
With this in mind, write down in your practice plan notes a few concepts your players “could” struggle with. This is anticipating their error. This is Level 2.
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