Are you training the dead time in matches?
The dead time is the time in between points, games and sets. Data shows that dead time makes up 75% of the actual match time. Which means that 25% of match time is spent hitting and playing, but a whopping 75% is made up of well, nothing. Or is it?
Dead time is important
I ask a lot of players what they do and think during a match when they are not hitting the ball. The most common response I get is, ‘I don’t know’, followed closely by, ‘What you do you mean?’ or ‘Nothing.’
But if you talk to pro players and watch them, you will hear and see that this dead time is actually super important. That’s because this time is thinking time. It’s planning time. It’s the time you need to reset and reload.
Practice the dead time in training
An athlete’s brain is trainable, just like a muscle, and we need to train that brain in our coaching sessions. We need to teach players how to think, because thoughts create actions, and good decisions win matches.
A mistake I often see with young coaches is that they try and pack their sessions with non-stop action. It’s 30, 45 or 60 minutes of go, go, go. But that’s not how a match is played. A player pauses for 10 – 20 seconds after each point. They break for a minute and a half every two games. And practicing what to do in those times is equally important so that good behaviours, routines and thought patterns are set for match day.
So, start implementing thought habits and dead time into your training. Because if a player is not training their thinking, when they get to the match, their thinking will generally let them down - their decision making, their problem solving, their ability to fight against that instinct to flee when things get hard.
This is what you can do
For example, when your player is warming up, encourage them to focus and not get sidetracked because that’s what needs to happen on matchday. Stop them regularly during point play and drills to ask what their thoughts were in that situation. Or ask them to create a routine between points and practice it during training. Pause for a regular drink and bite of a banana.
In short, train the 75% of thinking time, as much as you are training the 25% of hitting time.
Regards,
Marc Sophoulis