Most sports coaches are generally trained to break down their sport into specific, measurable functions and instruct their players to perfect them. To assemble teams by building systems of pre-planned functions. Teams compete with predictable, attritional, systems of functional play.

A focus on player welfare means most governing bodies are changing their rules to make playing less attritional and easier for players to create more Wow moments for social media. This is allowing a different playing strategy to emerge. It is where players time their movements in relationship to others to open and close space. Compared to the functional approach this relational strategy is a much more organic, natural, and flowing style of play. It is less likely for players to get major injuries and less likely to be fouled out of the game, and it creates the Wow moments we want to watch and be part of.

Transitioning from…