More great thoughts on skill model from Alexis Lebedew. He’s definitely right that the way elite players do things is irrelevant to how to teach a beginner the same skills. There’s an inevitability that the players you coach at a developing level will go through technical reinventions as they move on. The authorship of a player is clearly a malleable concept.
I agree with the skill issues in development. I think part of the issue is what we hope to get from Skill Models.
Most (if not all) literature about skill learning/teaching talks about making any Keys/Cues simple, and making as few of them as possible. Both to cut down on overcoaching and also make it easier for the athlete to remember. I’ve seen some success using the idea of: What can you absolutely NOT do as a developing athlete if you want to be sucessful at the elite level (without taking 2-8 years to change a technique). Once you look at things from this perspective some things become clearer.
For example with blocking – I’ve seen some coaches of developing athletes use only 2 cues: get your hands over the net as far as you can and as early as you can, and land where you took off from. Now, do the best blockers in the world do this? Sometimes, somewhat. But what the best in the world do is often irrelevant for developing players (and coaches). On the other hand, if a player can do those two things before going to the ‘next level’, then they can progress quickly. For Setting I’ve seen the following cues work effectively: follow through in the direction you want the ball to do, and see the ball through your hands as it comes down.
Remember – skill models are not what are used to master skills. They are to learn and teach skills.
