SHAPING THE GAME: Sampling and Exploration (6:7)

By Coach Barry Jones IIHF Level 3 High Performance | USA Hockey Level 3 Performance

Sampling and Exploration: How the Iceberg Builds Versatile Athletes

Sampling Lives Below the Waterline

In non-linear coaching, sampling is not a lack of structure. It is a deliberate design choice.

Athletes do not experience sampling as a framework. They experience it as freedom to try, fail, adjust, and try again.

Sampling lives below the waterline, where the environment quietly offers multiple pathways rather than forcing a single solution.

Exploration Is How Athletes Learn What Works for Them

Athletes are not identical systems.

They differ in perception, movement tendencies, emotional responses, physical capacities, and prior experiences.

When environments only reward one solution, learning becomes narrow and fragile.

Exploratory environments allow athletes to discover solutions that fit their own constraints, not the coach’s preferences.

Variability Is a Feature, Not a Flaw

From the surface, variability can look messy.

Different athletes solve the same problem in different ways. Outcomes vary. Movements are not uniform.

Below the surface, variability is doing important work.

It exposes athletes to multiple affordances, changing information, success and failure across contexts, and adaptation under uncertainty.

This is how robust learning forms.

Sampling Prevents System-Dependent Athletes

When athletes are trained only within fixed roles or rigid systems, performance becomes conditional.

They perform well when conditions match training and struggle when they do not.

Sampling across roles, positions, solutions, and constraints prevents athletes from becoming dependent on one pattern or one system.

They learn how to adapt, not just how to comply.

The Coach Curates the Solution Space

Sampling does not mean chaos.

Below the surface, the coach still controls the size of the space, the time available, the number of options, and the consequences attached.

The difference is that the coach curates possibilities, not answers.

Above the surface, athletes appear creative and adaptable. Below the surface, the environment has made that creativity necessary.

When Sampling Is Removed, Exploration Disappears

Environments that over-prescribe solutions remove the need to explore.

Athletes stop searching. Decision-making narrows. Creativity declines.

This is not a confidence issue. It is a design issue.

Exploration only exists when the environment allows it.

Linking Forward

Sampling and exploration are not short-term tools.

They prepare athletes for changing opponents, evolving game demands, long-term development, and adaptation over time.

The iceberg does not stay static. It changes shape as athletes and environments interact.

Author Bio: Barry Jones is an IIHF Level 3 High Performance Coach and USA Hockey Level 3 Performance Coach. His work blends ecological dynamics, nonlinear design, and athlete-centred leadership to build adaptive teams that thrive in uncertainty.