I Made Them Repeat It 10 Times. Four Kids Remembered.

Watching our fall season, I noticed a problem with how my kids were learning right away. It's one all youth coaches experience.

Picture it for a second. Your 10 year old at practice with locked hands on a leg, standing up, head down, running around the mat in circles trying to finish, only to inevitably get sprawled on and have their lock broken.

I knew this was a problem. I thought my games were addressing it. At least, that's what they were designed to do.

So I let it run. We focus a lot on finishing leg attacks, and I wanted to see if the principles came through over time through self-organization. That's the idea that kids figure out the solution if the game is built right.

But at our one fall tournament, about five weeks into the season, it was clear. As coaches, we talked afterward and agreed: kids weren't getting "in deep" on legs.

What the Review Showed

I've always been a planner. Which means I've always reviewed my seasons. I want to know what it is I'm trying to do. I want to improve, so I look at it at the end and try to make determinations and adjustments. I prepare for what I think is most important: what skills, what concepts to learn, what physical skills to develop.

With Whistle, Claude, and all the new tools out there, I knew I could go deeper, and I was excited about it. This review was the first fruit.

I wanted to know about timing. I wanted to know about quantity in each position. Nothing really "surprised" me. But I didn't realize how consistent it was. Every game ran about a minute over, no matter how many games were in the block. Seeing it in the review made it clear I needed to adjust.

My Games Were Too Broad

Chest to leg is really a proxy for in deep. To most people, in deep means head up, back straight.

But we tell kids they need to "get to a leg." Kids stretch that to its worst position: chest away from the leg, head down, because they "got there." It's the lowest hanging fruit.

What we really want is to hold the standard: in deep, chest to leg.

In the finishing games, we thought starting chest to leg would make it clear that it works better. That's not how it worked. When they got sprawled on, they didn't focus on getting chest to leg first. They did the lowest hanging fruit to get closer to finishing: stand up.

My games allowed them to get close without doing the hard part. Getting a lock on a leg is relatively easy for kids, physically and tactically. They'd get close to finishing, but not do it consistently. And it was a big leap for them to focus on chest to leg when it wasn't explicitly the goal.

We want them to see that getting chest to leg leads them to winning more, right away. That's what motivates them. The old games let them keep trying the bad way. It would take a really long time for them to figure out, through self-organization, what we know works: getting in deep. I do think they'd figure it out eventually. But modifying the game should get them there faster.

Make the Task the Win

For the fall, the win was a takedown, and the task was getting chest to leg. It didn't work. So we changed it for the winter: the win is chest to leg, and the task is something else that helps them get chest to leg.

Three games came from this:

Game 1: Hold chest to leg. This is Greg Souders' principle of starting at the end and moving backwards. The idea is for them to start with the leg on their chest in a double and hold it for as long as possible. When you lose it, switch positions with your partner.

Game 2: Get chest to leg. Now they start in a semi sprawl with their chest away from the leg. Once they get their chest to the leg, they win, game over. This narrows the scope, letting them practice this all-important principle.

Game 3: We go back to the original games, where putting them on their hip, back or butt, our proxy for finishing, is how offense wins, with a task of getting chest to leg. This completes the journey of understanding that chest to leg is the best way to finish.

The new task is moving your knee forward, aka knee sliding. It's not the only thing they can do; I don't want to over-constrain. But I do explain to them that trying to pull the leg to your chest is tough. It's usually better to move your body to the leg. This makes them self-organize into knee sliding.

It's still early, but within the games kids were knee sliding at a higher rate, getting in and staying deep. Kids are also understanding and remembering the importance of chest to leg more, rather than locking on the leg. That's a step in the right direction.

Four Kids Remembered

When we first taught front headlock drags, we did a little technique. To help them remember how to drag, I had them repeat "over the head and under the arm," probably 10 times per practice we ran it. I was sure they'd remember it because I made them repeat it so many times. Then when I tried to do it the second time, about four kids remembered.

When I went through Whistle for this review, I saw the gap. After we taught the drag on September 11 and 15, it came back once as a drill two weeks later. Then it didn't come back for 35 days.

Just because we don't review it doesn't mean they won't learn it. But learning science tells us we need reminders. Make It Stick, by writer Peter Brown and learning scientists Henry Roediger and Mark McDaniel, calls this spaced practice. Staggering it also allows new kids, or sometimes absent kids, to still catch up.

Everything Comes Back

I moved blocks from three days in a row in one position to two days: generally one day for offense, one day for defense. That allowed us to get through all the technique we needed for the first tournament. Then, after the first tournament, we can run through it all, and more, again.

Everything comes back once, ideally within 30 days. Then, as they learn more, it helps them connect it to the last time they learned it, with another position we did nearby. I always try to move through positions adjacently. Finishes and sprawling connect with shots and downblocking, and with turns and breakdowns. Turns and base building connect with stand-ups and breakdowns.

Talking Takes Twice as Long

I always underestimate how much time it takes to talk. It ends up being almost double what I plan.

The biggest piece is clearly explaining rules, starting positions and tasks, multiple times, so everyone hears and understands.

I also use a kid as an example, which takes time, but I think it's worth it. When kids see the mistakes and the setup by a good kid, they understand that it's okay, and I get to root it out right then and there. I also get to define a little more, so kids understand what a win is and what a loss is.

Plan for the Talking

The games themselves should be 3 to 4 minutes. At 5 minutes kids get bored. At 2 minutes they don't get enough reps.

Rounds let kids hear more tips and hear the tasks again, to reorient them and give them more ideas and goals as they play, along with a moment of rest so they can go hard again.

So far, planning 8 minutes per game has proven to be correct. With older kids, I explain less and we play more. With younger kids, I explain more and play a little less.

Review Your Own Season

Whatever you do, make sure you review what you've done. Without collecting your thoughts about what has happened, it's impossible to make thoughtful adjustments to get more of what you want in the future.

Here are a few things to think through:

• Consider your initial macro plan. Where did you succeed, and where did you fail?

• Then do some counting of both. Was it due to quantity?

• Consider what you saw when they did wrestle.

• Then think: what positions were they bad at, and why? Consider how to adjust to get your athletes to do it better next season.

• Consider your practices' timing and structure. With Whistle, ask it to make a report. Wherever else it is, lay it out, whether on paper or digitally.

Just by writing it out, you'll see trends. Make adjustments from there.