Distinguishing Tactics from Technique

A big source of confusion is the difference between tactics and technique. Any good athlete has to have strong technique and the ability to change their tactics to succeed.

Technique is spending hours working on your jump shot, golf swing or backhand. It is breaking down the swing in to different movements of the body and perfecting it. If you are doing a drill of focusing on a particular movement of the body, you’re teaching technique.

Tactics is making changes on the fly. What club should I use? Should I do a chip shot? What play do we run? In skiing terrain (bumps, steeps), conditions (ice, powder) and tasks (gates, halfpipe) require us to make adjustments to be effective. If you are in the bumps and having students do schmeary/skidded turns, you’re teaching tactics.

You can change up your tactics by using

DIRT

Duration length of time you do something
Intensity power or force of the movements
Rate speed of the movement itself
Timing when you make the movement

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