Day 4: Practice Routines
Learning Goals:
1) Understand ways in which mental and physical health are intertwined with esports success.
2) Have some sense of what it takes to attain a high rank in individual gameplay.
2) Develop a practice routine which includes:
a) Wellness and academic components
b) Warmups and cooldowns
c) Gameplay and analysis
Deliverables:
1) Post a breakdown of what a possible routine practice schedule might look like for your team, on the Esports Training for New Coaches Discord server in the Day 4 section.
2) Evaluate a 3rd-party analytics or coaching site for the game you happen to be most familiar with. Post your quick review in Discord.
If you have time, I found parts of this very interesting too:
Amount of time it takes to move up in ranking
When gameplay analysis adds the most value
Utilizing scrimmages, and optimally challenging environments
Warmups, drills, and breaks
A possible practice schedule
Highlights:
12:00 VoD at the beginning of the NEXT session, not the end of the current one.
45:00 A possible schedule for an extremely competitive high school player.
In the infographics below, you'll get a sense of what is happening at the professional level. I certainly hope our students aren't spending as much time gaming as the professionals, nevertheless, I also hope they learn to value fitness, wellness, nutrition, sleep, and purposeful practice in the same way the pro-scene does!
If you want to really deep-dive some of these ideas, then check out these books, and perhaps even share them with your students via a book club component to your practices:
The Inner Game of Tennis by Timothy Gallwey - purposeful practice, the hazards of over-coaching, intense focus, and dealing with tilt
Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise by Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool - this one is on my to-do list still, but I've heard good things about it.
Playing to Win: Becoming a Champion by David Sirlin - playing in an optimally challenging environment, comfort picks vs. the meta, and mastering your game
Here are the additional references cited in my video overview:
•Gerber, H., Sweeney, K., Pasquini, E. (2019) Using API Data to Understand Learning League of Legends: A mixed methods study. Educational Media International. 56:2, 93-115, DOI 10.1080/09523987.2019.1614250
•Hilvoorde, I., Pot, N. (2016) Embodiment and fundamental motor skills
•in eSports, Sport, Ethics and Philosophy, 10:1, 14-27, DOI: 10.1080/17511321.2016.1159246
•Keh, A. (2019). E-Sports Embraces Traditional Training Methods: Less Pizza, More Yoga. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/02/sports/esports-league-of-legends.html
•Steinkuehler, C. (2019). Esports Research: Critical, Empirical, and Historical Studies of Competitive Videogame Play. Games and Culture, 155541201983685. https://doi.org/10.1177/1555412019836855
And here's that injury prevention routine specific to esports, from Dr. Levi Harrison, as well as the 7-minute plyometrics routine from Gretchen Reynolds.
Lastly, here's a great research-based website on everything you need to know about gaming ergonomics:
https://www.1-hp.org/blog/hpforgamers/esports-health-it-starts-with-ergonomics-and-posture/
Remember to hop on our Discord server and post your thoughts in response to the Lesson 4 prompt!