Thus, while experienced coaches recognize the importance of tactical development to beat the opponents and be successful, novice coaches are more concerned with selleck 17-AAG technical development. Results also showed diverse approaches in physical items. While novice coaches, probably influenced by the fact that they are usually involved in the initial stages of athletic development, recognized higher importance to capacities of which optimal windows of trainability are placed in earlier ages (Balyi, 2002) experienced coaches gave higher rates to conditioning. Nowadays, it is consensual that the development of predominantly conditioning or coordinative abilities does not induce the same effect or adaptation in players at different ages (Stafford, 2005).

Thus, those who were involved with children or youth (consequently more susceptible to develop coordinative abilities) seem to prefer the development of those type of physical items (Malina et al., 2005). Conversely, it is reasonable that experienced coaches, usually linked with elite players, dedicate more time to the appropriate development of strength, speed or endurance (Blimkie and Bar-Or, 1996). Finally, several studies (Helsen et al., 2000; Malina et al., 2000; Glamser and Vincent, 2004) suggest that besides adjusting the stimulus induced to the maturational development of the players, physical loads should be integrated with technical and tactical training (Memmert and Roth, 2007). The increasing competitive demands from youth sport to high-level performance may help explain the results obtained in several drill items like opposition, competition, execution speed, timing, decision-making and game.

In fact, while in the initial stages of the players�� development (where inexperienced coaches are more often involved) these items are valuable but are not priorities, success in high-level competitions highly depends on the ability to beat the opponents, making better and quicker decisions throughout the game. Moreover, as the final score is almost the only measure of success at this level, it is understandable that experienced coaches highly rank those drill items. Thus, these results should benefit the debate among team sports coaches, in order to increase the quality of the sports training and promote an effective athletic development related with expert performers�� models.

Selecting drills where game-like situations are more frequent (Strean and Holt, 2000), where cooperation and opposition occur in a dynamic interaction, stimulating GSK-3 the ability to execute skills within the right moment (Gr��haigne et al., 2001) and encouraging tactical awareness, expressed by the constant need to make proper decisions (McPherson and Kernodle, 2003), can benefit the development of the tools needed to achieve a higher level of performance. However, teaching players to make good and quick decisions is not an easy task (Turner and Martinek, 1995).