Differentiated Coaching for players at various levels - As easy as A,B,C

The Dreyfus model describes how people acquire skills through instruction and practice. It suggests that in mastering skills a subject progresses through 5 levels as shown below

All seems fairly straight forward so far. However what happens if you are presented with a group of players/students who could be placed on all 5 levels of the model and you are have to coach them within a single group?

Most sporting organisations and bodies have some form of Long Term Athlete Development as Development Plan and it is fair to say that the majority of these use Baileys Model of LTAD model as their starting point. A derivation of this is represented below. I chose this example as it contains ages whereby these milestones are supposed to fall between.
All good so far but what happens when all these lovely colours are all mixed up into a dull grey i.e. your group are taken from across numerous levels.

Courtesy of Pacific Sport Vancouver Island


Even going back to the Dreyfus model within each level of competence there are many steps within each of the stages. A more accurate representation of the model may be the one below.

Within each level there are a number of progression steps and indeed some overlap into other levels. There can never be an ideal model of progression when you are dealing with human beings or human error.
People learn to walk, talk, crawl, read, write, jump run cycle and play sport at various speeds and with varying levels of ease and difficulty. One child may learn to cycle with a balance bike another with stabilisers another may graduate from a tricycle and as a result they could be an advanced beginner in one model and a novice on another. Eventually they will both be able to cycle a BMX or whatever the bike of choice is among our youth at the time but they will arrive at  it in different ways at different times but ultimately with a level of proficiency. However it is safe to say that all start with tutoring in the basics be it
When it comes to team sports like basketball or soccer, GAA or rugby the participants must learn some of the basic skills before we throw them into game based scenarios. Too often in this authors opinion children are thrown into competitive sport at too young an age and as a result the need to develop a rounded skill set and game sense is replaced by a basic need to survive in the game with a very basic skill set and as a result the early introduction into competitive sport can be counter productive as motivation becomes results based too soon.
When learning to play Basketball a child most learn the catch, throw, bounce, travel skill components before introducing some level of opposition into games. However the very teaching of these skills can be developed in a fun, engaging way with the children doing relays and tag games. From this situation it is easy to observe the child's basic skill-set and because we are providing instruction to the child within a fun laden atmosphere the child is more receptive to any basic correction and can practice the intervention in the most meaningful way - immersed in the game they are wanting to play.
As teachers and coaches a fun, engaging, active learning with opportunities fro progression and refinement is what we are looking for in our sessions but what happens if we are presented with large differences in the ability level among our young players. How can we provide both challenging and assistance opportunities within the one session?
Below are some options

Peer Learning
It is often said children learn best from each other. In small groups a child will adjust and apply themselves to learn quicker in order to accommodate others in their group so when picking your small groups for activities pick groups not passed on a ranking but with mixed abilities. It is in effect the opposite of learned helplessness. Please don't leave all the weaker players among themselves is a training session or class. Where is the motivation for them? Where is the modelling for them? Where are the problem solving opportunities? Assisting and challenging is happening in the most satisfactory way for the player- among their peers.

Scenario Based Learning
SBL is something that should be part of every session from an early age. Children need to understand the context within which they will use the skills in order to be able to refine them further. This is the point where drill effectiveness runs out. The child can throw the ball overhand, underhand, one hand but doesn't know which should be used in what situation. By providing them with some basic 3 v 3 games or 2 v 3 defense attack scenarios children can learn by seeing and doing and thus the ability to choose the correct skill or option to execute in a situation becomes an acquired learned process.  While some children are performing these scenarios use the opportunity to chat to the other children about what they are doing right, or wrong or what they would do differently. Include them in the learning process and give them ownership of how they learn.

Create skills zones or zonal learning
As one of your methodologies you can create skill zones circuits which might involve a little against the clock competitiveness. Choose 5 skills/scenarios you would like to work on e.g. shooting, blocking, object manipulation. Decide on a scoring mechanism for each zone and create small teams. Give each team the same time at each skill zone and record their scores. Watch their morale sore as part of a mixed ability group and see them become more receptive to the overall learning process.

Create differentiated opportunities within your games
Weight your small games in such a way that opportunity fr engagement is provided for all. Recently i threw in 2 different balls into a hurling session. The score for one ball was 2 points and preforming the same skill with the other ball was one. The more able children all went for the 2 pointer but the weaker children were still involved in the same game and contributing with their 1 pointers. The self esteem of the group soared and the overall goal of the game in terms of what we would like them to learn didn't change.

Blended Leanring
This is the method I favour most but it has to be refined in order to make sure that you don't spread yourself too thin in terms of your outcomes. I often use this within the one scenario. So for instance if I was coaching rounders I would show the skill, teach the skill, have fun with the skill, place the skill in the game. I find it covers the most bases in terms of building skill competence and also provides the most engagement along the way. If a child struggles at something for too long they lose motivation to play because their self esteem becomes associated with the task and if they cant perform it they want to disassociate from it. By showing the basic, watch them do it, let them show you what they know and have fun with it the learning process becomes part of the fun process and the child remains in the centre of the process.



Finally I really like Newell's chart below on learning acquisition below. The larger the variety of learning opportunities we can provide for all our learners the longer they are likely to stay engaged with us and the game. Some provide greater progress than others but try and expose them to as many methods as possible with them remaining at the centre of the process. Its as easy as A,B,C Assist, Blend, Challenge!