The Goal of Every Practice

I heard a great speaker talk about the importance of being purposeful in practice.  

He said that every practice should have two goals:

1 - Every individual gets better and FEELS better and more skilled.   Players have more fun when they are more skilled because they have more possibilities and solutions available, and they are more confident.

An everyday goal should be to GET BETTER.

2 - The team should be more prepared to win games.

I would add that another goal should be that athletes are more prepared to win at life as well.

'THAT IS WHAT WE WORKED ON'

He uses the phrase, 'Thats what we worked on to constantly reinforce and reward teaching points.  He says that we want our players to always come back to understanding what we are working on and if it is helping us become better players and teams, he does that by using the 3 Rs:

Reinforcing what we teach.
Reminding what we teach.
Rewarding and noticing progress.

A big key in the teaching process is following FEEDBACK with ACTION.

When you make a great teaching point, give your players the chance to implement it immediately.

Don't delay or move on because SUMMARY FEEDBACK gets lost.

Connect feedback immediately to an action and let them apply it.