" Additionally, "The goal for sport coaches is to select practice activities and use instructional techniques that improve positive transfer to the competitive arena." If athletes practice or train in conditions that copy the actual competition conditions there will be a transfer of skill and performance on the day of the competition. I had a youth travel soccer coach that would practice in all weather conditions, windy, rainy and even snowy. He often faced complaints from players and parents. He always explained that, we were practicing in horrible weather because we may have to play a game in it someday. I think I was about ten when I played my first soccer game in a complete down pour. My team had practiced in the slick conditions with heavy, water soaked uniforms on several occasions and we gladly took the field that day. Within the first few minutes, it was easy to figure out that the other team was playing in the rain for the first time. We had used the Principle of Transfer, the game conditions were so much like the rainy practice that we easily won the game. Another example comes from basketball. Basketball coaches have for many years ended practice with a free-throw shooting contest. Basketball games can often be decided by free-throws, especially pressure packed free-throws at the end of a game (Finish the Game Pressure Free Throw Shooting Drill. (n.d.). There is a mental quality to being able to handle that pressure and still physically perform the relatively easy task of sinking a free-throw. So as to "feel the pressure" many basketball coaches usually end their practice with a free-throw shooting drill. This is the Transfer Principle in action. Players are tired, as they would be at the end of game, and to add pressure there is often an importance associated with each player making or missing their free-throws. If a player misses the free-throw, then the entire team runs.
