Let your athletes play, make them play, but not just in the way you’re likely accustomed to. When I speak of “play” within a training plan for athletes, I would assume a large majority of people are thinking about competitive team building drills, strongman-like activities, or actually playing a game of a particular sport as a training stimulus. That is all great and relevant and I advocate all of it in the right scenario, but it is not what I mean by play. Play is what you did when you were a child, keeping yourself amused for hours in the backyard by yourself. You created, moved in ways that were completely foreign at the time, and acted in an unplanned manner. Children play all the time, so we tend to think of it as a childish activity or behavior, but for our adult purposes here, let’s think of it as experimenting, tinkering, or discovering.
We can define experimental play as activity that is fun, voluntary, and improvisational with no specific purpose (1). It is characterized by a learn-as-you-go, embrace-your-mistakes mentality. This behavior is often somewhat random and may appear unnatural or uncoordinated at times. Competitive games, in contrast, are more work-like in that there is generally an end goal, a set of constraints or rules, and a win or a loss. Competition can certainly be fun and voluntary as well, but performance is the emphasized concern. Both of these behaviors are playful in nature, but what we are referring to as play differs in that it is intrinsically driven. Each movement pattern, action, or decision is initiated without judgment of what the outcome may be.
In his article “Thoughts on Play,” Todd Hargrove wonders how it is you can tell if an animal is playing. Repetition of the same basic movement pattern with random variation is indicative of playful behavior. Repetition of a pattern without variation may look like working or anxious behavior. Think of a tiger at the zoo pacing back and forth in its cage. You might think the tiger is stressed or planning some type world domination attack. Imagine the tiger doing the same thing, but this time it intermittently adds a jump, roll, crouch, or speed change. This would look much more like play. If the tiger acted completely randomly with no repetition of pattern at all, it may just be crazy. (2).
I often take the athletes that I train through variations of the carioca drill for general coordination and warm-up purposes. Variations might include lateral, forward, backward, low hip, high hip, wide, narrow, fast feet, slow feet, knee lifts, and any combination or transition between. When the athlete has shown proficiency in a number of the variations, I let them improvise. What they end up doing is completely up to them and should be as varied and random as possible within the constructs of a carioca pattern. In a very simple way, this is play: repetition of a basic movement pattern with random variation.
What is the point of such silliness? Think about the animal in Todd’s example and imagine it out in the wild as it chases its prey or runs from its predator. The movement you see the tiger make is in no way contrived or overly repetitious. It is improvised on the spot for the task at hand. Now, relate the animal to your athlete and its wild habitat to your athlete’s competitive environment. Improvisation is evident, variability is necessary, and some level of randomness may well determine the outcome of the competition. If you only trained your “animal” to sprint on demand, jump on demand, and change direction when it sees a cone, how effective do you think it would be in escaping or catching the “animal” that can sprint forward and backward, jump, roll, or change direction at absolute will? The latter of the two may not always need each movement or capability, but the options available for solving a motor problem are far greater.
In sport, we want resourceful athletes who can adapt and focus attention in order to achieve a goal. The path to victory is often paved by the most efficient method of attaining that goal. In a movement context, if the goal is to put the body into a certain position, an athlete may have a preconceived pattern they have learned that will get them there. They probably came about the pattern in some way or another and repeated it time after time through practice of their sport. What if this was not the most efficient pattern to achieve the positional goal? The purpose of experimental play is to allow the exploration into novel movement patterns, no matter the initial short-term outcome. High variability often times does not lead to the highest immediate success, but the long-term outcome may be a much more efficient answer to a movement question. Another way to think of it is in terms of fluency. When learning a new language, you may not be considered fluent until you can speak in full sentences and hold a conversation. Similarly, when learning an instrument, fluency is recognized when you can improvise and write creatively (3). In the language of movement, an athlete may have a vast bank of individual prerequisite patterns, but cannot be considered a fluent mover until creatively piecing them together in the realm of improvisation, which in itself necessitates the development of new patterns.
As with any information I put out into the public eye, I have to mention that context is important. The type and level of athlete are you working with will influence how you implement play into your training plan. There is undoubted benefit to a novice practicing a specific skill or pattern in a repetitious manner for the sake of learning (4). Too much variability too early on is just motor confusion. On the opposite end of the spectrum, however, elite movers attain their status not just through constant repeated effort, but through playful experimentation and creativity (1). Athletes who aspire to compete at the highest levels need to be able to handle any scenario or problem that may be thrown at them. Your athletes should succeed through such adversity because you’ve opened their cage, embraced their potential mistakes, and allowed them to explore.
Whether it is through simple carioca drills, experimenting with ball handling skills, exploring basic acrobatics, or literally jumping around like a tiger, your athletes need to play. Don’t be afraid of getting laughed at when you tell your elite football player to warm up by moving like their favorite animal for 10 minutes. If they’ve never done it, they will benefit from it more than either of you can initially see. If they have familiarity, make them pick a new animal or even start to inch toward more sport-similar movement. Before long you’ll be surprised by the increase in degrees of freedom available for patterning movement.
References
- Hargrove, Todd. “Play, Variability and Motor Learning.” RSS. Bettermovement.org, 17 Dec. 2013. Web. 01 July 2016.
- Hargrove, Todd. “Thoughts on Play.” RSS. Bettermovement.org, 2 May 2016. Web. 01 July 2016.
- Sloboda, John A. Generative Processes in Music: The Psychology of Performance, Improvisation, and Composition. Oxford: Clarendon, 1988. Print.
- Wulf, Gabriele, and Richard A. Schmidt. “Variability of Practice and Implicit Motor Learning.” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition23.4 (1997): 987-1006. Web.
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