Drilling vs Live - club practice
My son recently started at a new club as his previous is a youth, k-8 club only and he will be going into high school next year.
He made really big jumps at his previous clubs the last two years. They were very detailed oriented. First part of practice would be coach showing technique and drilling with staff going around room correcting. They would always finish with some live periods.
At his new club, it's completely different. Very little drilling or technique being taught. A lot of situation live and live wrestling. I don't really see the coaches correcting or coaching during these periods.
I did ask a coach about it and he said they like doing learning by exposure. Put the kids into live situations and have them work through it and figure out ways to score and what works best for you.
This new club has very good reputation, really strong kids in the room, and always produce hammers. Problem is my son is continuing to express frustration about how the practices are set up and feeling like he is not getting coaching/learning new technique. I've been keeping an open-mind and telling him that he is most likely improving, even though it may not feel that way just by wrestling really talented kids in these live situations.
Is this type of coaching/predominantly live practices effective?