Research on acquiring skills shows that Deliberate Practice is one of the main drivers that accelerates learning and comprehension. You can read more about those here:
10,000 Hours to Becoming an Expert Part 1, 10,000 Hours to Becoming an Expert Part 2, Peak Performance
When we assess what most sport practices look like on a day-to-day basis, how many are actually achieving a session that takes an athlete to their maximal capacity, and then lets them recover and learn from their effort? One of the reasons why this topic seems to be more apparent now than ever, is through snippets of training sessions that I see all the time on Facebook, Instagram, and blogs. It seems the majority of people are promoting middle of the road skills/agility/conditioning/strength training all-in-one. The person demonstrating the exercise, skill, or training move usually looks awesome doing it. That’s because they have already acquired the qualities necessary to deliver the outcome. If you were to throw someone new into that drill, there would probably be a host of issues that wouldn’t lead to early success or let them reach the fringe of capacity and effort to create an adaptation.
This is where great coaches excel. They create drills or games that bring players to the brink of their ability and then allow them to recover and learn. In the context of soccer, we saw a post the other day of an athlete doing lateral hurdle step overs, facing away from the goal. As he came to the end of the hurdles he turned around and ran at a ball to shoot on net. https://www.instagram.com/p/BsdfeNLCHtB/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
This might look like something every soccer player should be doing, but I would argue that it is largely a waste of time.
The hurdles slow the player down too much to ever let them reach their real maximum speed (which doesn’t mimic anything I have ever seen in a game) and the reality is, very rarely does a player run on to a stationary ball. Why not just have them lateral shuffle, then turn and either receive a ball into space or at least have them dribble the ball before shooting? The speed of play will be much higher and will more accurately mimic what happens in the game.
Based on what we see out there, it makes more sense to invest time and energy in something that will create that environment. If you have an awesome skills coach, then great! You should be noticing improvements in your game. If you feel like practices can be better, why not invest in building your physical qualities until you find someone that can help you with the skills practice?
In the SPC, we look at our athletes’ programs and every day there is something on there that they can improve upon. Whether it be pushing a heavier weight, trying to run a faster time, or gain competency in a movement pattern; all of these can stretch the athlete to their capacity and also allow failure and recovery.
Don’t waste time with gimmicky training ideas. If it looks crazy and the person doing it looks like they could jump over your head, chances are they established the ability to do so from doing something else. https://www.instagram.com/p/Br21mizCBUT/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link 
Keep it simple with smart skills sessions and training sessions to constantly challenge yourself.
TS Training Systems 