Competition is defined as a “league” or “tournament” that collects results from matches to form a final outcome or league placings.
To develop a player it is important that competition games are used to test their decision making, skills, mental understanding and provide real feedback for their growth mindset to assimilate.
There are 3 main areas of player development:
- Developing skills and decision making in a deliberate practice with clearly defined learnings and goals.
- Competitive training environments in which the player can hone their skills, receive accurate feedback and test their learnings at a high level repeatedly.
- Competition matches that will allow the player to test their skills against opposition players. This environment is about allowing the subconscious to make and execute decisions based upon the knowledge that has been gained in the training environment.
I consider it like this:
Gain the skills through practice, hone and test the skills in competitive trainings and then unlease the skills in competition matches.
When a player is unable or incapable of executing good decisions in spite of his or her great training practices then more work is required to develop the skills.
This is an ongoing cycle and part of the skill acquisition cycle.