the ranter
Debutant
- Feb 23, 2004
- 136
- 0
- Other Teams
- collingwood
POSITIONAL COMPETENCY and the BACK SIX
The key feature of the great back six’s was their ‘ability to work together’ (and think together). They seemed to read each others minds and they all acted as one.
Whether it be the Manassa, Magro, Ireland, Picken, or the Sexton, Deans, Silvagni, McKay’s.
Stating the obvious - your back six needs to be constantly reading the play and adjusting accordingly. Unlike forwards, the back six needs to watch the ball, read the game, read their direct opponents mind and read any other players mind who charges into the defensive zone. In the back six you need players with the mental side of their ability reasonably well developed. If you mentally go to sleep or MAKE THE WRONG CHOICES you will have goals kicked on you or allow the play to unfold such that the opposition dominates in your defensive zone.
One clear point that arose out of the 2003 grand final (apart from not going hard for the ball) was that our Positional competency was far lower than the LIONS. As I mentioned above, we are talking about the mental side of the game here.
The game (obviously) is a series of choices, whether you go with your gut or your fore-brain. We regularly see backmen making bad choices.
Often coaches say that“the player should have followed his first instinct/ gut instinct”.
Then when the player follows this instruction and bombs badly the coaches assessment will be “it was poor decision making on the part of the player”.
These two ….are contradictory and opposite. You cannot do both. Using your brain in decision making means not following your first instinct.
Going with your first instinct every time does not involve any form of decision making process. It is the most simplistic form of decision making process in that to a large extent it doesn't involve making a decision. It is a means of NOT making decisions. It’s like going into a Chinese restaurant, you are confronted with a variety of dishes and you order the same dish every single time. There is little, if any, in the way of a ‘decision making process’involved. Its following your heart/ gut rather than your head.
If a player makes the wrong choices, its because their decision making competence is poor. (low competency in the mental side of the game) NOT because they didn't follow their first/gut instincts which requires little if any decision making process at all as it is simply an automatic reaction.
Developing your decision making process is the ‘mental’ part of the game. It is about knowing where to run, when to run, why I'm running there and what I'm going to do when I get there.
A Paul Roo’s had an advanced ‘decision making process’. He had a high level of competence in the choices he made and as the years passed he continued to raise his ability in that area of the mental side of the game. He had what could be termed ‘POSITIONAL COMPETENCY’ and as the years passed he developed that ‘postional competence’.
Some young players are gifted in that they innately possess a high level of ‘positional competence’. Most coaches say it can't be taught. ( Even though you can watch kids without it develop it over time.)
But if you impose a coherent system on your back ‘six’ say, (even with a bunch of 11 year olds, I've already done this) then run them through endless Real Time scenarios, over time they should increase their ‘positional competence’ individually and more importantly AS A GROUP.
Even if only once in a year, one of those scenarios occurs and the player reacts in the way he did at training, and the result is positive and it is that correct choice that leads to a crucial win, then running through the 'what if’s’ at training and raising that players positional competence by just 1% was worthwhile. Paul Roo’s was not a one dimensional unthinking, 'just keep it mindless and simple back man', that was why he was such a champion.
Of course, developing ‘positional competence’ won't stop the individual or the group from making mistakes, you will still have players making poor decisions, but if the number of bad decisions is decreased in the heat of battle there arises the chance that, that one that prevents the goal which would have lost you the game may occur.
Some coaches say that a backmens mind will lock up if he thinks too much about the consequences of an action” (I'm sure Paul Roo’s mind rarely locked up and he played as if he was always ASSESSING the consequences of his actions), this is why you need a solid coherent SYSTEM in place, so the backmen have that as the foundation of their game. It can be a fall back position if there are doubts creeping in. A simple system that requires little thought and no choice, you just do the same thing in all situations. However, as no two teams are the same and no two games are the same, if sometimes you can't adapt appropriately to what is going on around you then you will suffer. Not being able to read a change and thus not being able to ADJUST accordingly can be catastrophic. To read the play and adjust, requires the development of the mental side of the player.
Assess and Adjust. Champions develop the mental ability to do this do it instantly and do it successfully throughout their careers. They possess ‘positional competence’ and I believe that it can’t be taught but the level of it can be RAISED.
The key feature of the great back six’s was their ‘ability to work together’ (and think together). They seemed to read each others minds and they all acted as one.
Whether it be the Manassa, Magro, Ireland, Picken, or the Sexton, Deans, Silvagni, McKay’s.
Stating the obvious - your back six needs to be constantly reading the play and adjusting accordingly. Unlike forwards, the back six needs to watch the ball, read the game, read their direct opponents mind and read any other players mind who charges into the defensive zone. In the back six you need players with the mental side of their ability reasonably well developed. If you mentally go to sleep or MAKE THE WRONG CHOICES you will have goals kicked on you or allow the play to unfold such that the opposition dominates in your defensive zone.
One clear point that arose out of the 2003 grand final (apart from not going hard for the ball) was that our Positional competency was far lower than the LIONS. As I mentioned above, we are talking about the mental side of the game here.
The game (obviously) is a series of choices, whether you go with your gut or your fore-brain. We regularly see backmen making bad choices.
Often coaches say that“the player should have followed his first instinct/ gut instinct”.
Then when the player follows this instruction and bombs badly the coaches assessment will be “it was poor decision making on the part of the player”.
These two ….are contradictory and opposite. You cannot do both. Using your brain in decision making means not following your first instinct.
Going with your first instinct every time does not involve any form of decision making process. It is the most simplistic form of decision making process in that to a large extent it doesn't involve making a decision. It is a means of NOT making decisions. It’s like going into a Chinese restaurant, you are confronted with a variety of dishes and you order the same dish every single time. There is little, if any, in the way of a ‘decision making process’involved. Its following your heart/ gut rather than your head.
If a player makes the wrong choices, its because their decision making competence is poor. (low competency in the mental side of the game) NOT because they didn't follow their first/gut instincts which requires little if any decision making process at all as it is simply an automatic reaction.
Developing your decision making process is the ‘mental’ part of the game. It is about knowing where to run, when to run, why I'm running there and what I'm going to do when I get there.
A Paul Roo’s had an advanced ‘decision making process’. He had a high level of competence in the choices he made and as the years passed he continued to raise his ability in that area of the mental side of the game. He had what could be termed ‘POSITIONAL COMPETENCY’ and as the years passed he developed that ‘postional competence’.
Some young players are gifted in that they innately possess a high level of ‘positional competence’. Most coaches say it can't be taught. ( Even though you can watch kids without it develop it over time.)
But if you impose a coherent system on your back ‘six’ say, (even with a bunch of 11 year olds, I've already done this) then run them through endless Real Time scenarios, over time they should increase their ‘positional competence’ individually and more importantly AS A GROUP.
Even if only once in a year, one of those scenarios occurs and the player reacts in the way he did at training, and the result is positive and it is that correct choice that leads to a crucial win, then running through the 'what if’s’ at training and raising that players positional competence by just 1% was worthwhile. Paul Roo’s was not a one dimensional unthinking, 'just keep it mindless and simple back man', that was why he was such a champion.
Of course, developing ‘positional competence’ won't stop the individual or the group from making mistakes, you will still have players making poor decisions, but if the number of bad decisions is decreased in the heat of battle there arises the chance that, that one that prevents the goal which would have lost you the game may occur.
Some coaches say that a backmens mind will lock up if he thinks too much about the consequences of an action” (I'm sure Paul Roo’s mind rarely locked up and he played as if he was always ASSESSING the consequences of his actions), this is why you need a solid coherent SYSTEM in place, so the backmen have that as the foundation of their game. It can be a fall back position if there are doubts creeping in. A simple system that requires little thought and no choice, you just do the same thing in all situations. However, as no two teams are the same and no two games are the same, if sometimes you can't adapt appropriately to what is going on around you then you will suffer. Not being able to read a change and thus not being able to ADJUST accordingly can be catastrophic. To read the play and adjust, requires the development of the mental side of the player.
Assess and Adjust. Champions develop the mental ability to do this do it instantly and do it successfully throughout their careers. They possess ‘positional competence’ and I believe that it can’t be taught but the level of it can be RAISED.
