Challenges of practice design

Following on from my recent post on practice design, I felt a good follow up would be to discuss some of the challenges that are involved in practice design and potentially some solutions. This post was very much inspired by a video Rob Mulcahy (@robmulcahy3) shared on twitter around his work over the last 2 years with Clare GAA. This inspired a lot of thought around how bio-banding can be so beneficial for coaches when designing their sessions, and subsequently for players with their skill development. I will discuss this aspect below. But first, it is important to outline some of the challenges that come with effective practice design. Much of my work currently is in youth sport. Within any youth sport setting, there will be challenges with recruitment of players, coaches, referees, admin staff, pitches etc. However, this post will discuss the challenges that exist for coaches when designing practice to develop skilled athletes.