Dr. Fergus Connolly is one of the world’s foremost human performance thought leaders and influencers, so it’d be smart to take into consideration his advice on quality of reps for your players.

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Quality, not quantity is the emphasis according to Dr. Connolly. “[Certain] days in practice, you really want to focus on doing as few [reps] as they’re going to do on a game day,” says Connolly. “But, every single one of those must be of high quality. It’s like a golfer or a marine sniper. You can go out and shoot all day, but the only [reps] that count are the quality ones. In fact, it’s not even just that, bad reps count.”

This is gives coaches more reason to reduce the amount of reps and make sure the small amount are well-performed reps. “Bad reps are making your players worse,” emphasizes the Ireland native. “If the experiences and the reps that they’re executing are very good, high quality reps at maximum intensity, that’s what they’re going to get used to doing. Then on game day, when the pressure comes on and they’re struggling, that’s what they’re instinctively going to go back to.”

Thus, the question looms: how do you, as the coach, increase the quality of reps for your players?  

Connolly details several ways. “The first thing is to look at the amount of time that you want to practice for, not as much as you can do,” says the author of two books. “Then, using [the warmup] as individual period, rather than just wasting 25 minutes with nonsensical movements. Using that with the skills coaches and increasing the complexity. Going from very, very [rudimentary] drills for the players, introducing them to technical drills where they’re using some skill and then into tactical drills.”

Connolly goes on, explaining the differences between technical and tactical drills. “A technical drill is essentially where they only have to execute one skill. Moving into a tactical drill, we’re increasing the complexity, so there’s a scheme component and a decision-making component with more than one player,” Connolly explains. “Then [the players] move into a tactical game scenario, where you’re starting to go seven-on-seven or whatever. So, the player is on a continuum where he sees that the actual skill being incorporated now into a tactical [scenario], where there’s a scheme element where he has to execute the skill and make a tactical decision at the same time.”

What Connolly is ultimately getting at is the fact that extremely structured drills won’t make your players as successful as they could be. “It’s about finding that happy medium where [players] have to be very conscious, very aware. And you’ve created the environment where [the player] is going to see one of those four or five scenarios that [they’re] going to face in the game. That’s what you’re trying to rep. That’s what you’re trying to prepare for. It’s about moving that dial as the season progresses, to create that experience for the player.”