At the IIHF Hockey Symposium, researcher Job Fransen explored how skill acquisition science can transform practice design and help athletes achieve lasting growth.

Job Fransen wears many hats — researcher, practitioner, and advocate for research credibility — with 15 years of experience applying skill acquisition science to high-performance sports. In his talk, he posed an important question: “What does skill learning look like when considered through a social lens?”

Fransen broke down coaching as a mix of intuition, experience, and science. “Coaching,” he said, “is 50% intuition, 50% knowledge and experience, and 50% science.” It may not add up mathematically, but it reflects the complexity of a coach’s role.

One of his core lessons was the distinction between performance and learning. Performing is a temporary change in behavior — athletes can quickly gain confidence with small boosts in performance. But learning? That’s something much deeper. “As coaches, we’re interested in learning,” Fransen explained. “We don’t want athletes to perform once. We want something that persists over time.”

This deeper kind of learning is much harder to observe. In fact, athletes often learn more from their failures than their successes. Training in what Fransen calls the “zone of genius” — where training errors match the errors players make in competition — creates the most meaningful growth.

“Skill errors are one of the most valuable tools you have as a coach.”

Fransen urged coaches to constantly refresh practices, add new drills, and introduce new challenges to prevent athletes from finding shortcuts. He emphasized that confidence and competence training serve different purposes, and effective practice design balances both.

Ultimately, his message was clear: practices should focus on creating adaptable, confident learners — not just temporarily improved performers.

Coaching Takeaways

• Distinguish performance from learning. Temporary improvements don’t always translate into lasting skill development.

• Embrace errors. Mistakes are one of the most powerful tools for growth.

• Train in the “zone of genius.” Keep drills challenging enough to mirror competition demands without overwhelming athletes.

• Refresh your practices. Prevent players from “cheating the drill” by introducing new skills and challenges.

• Consider the social side of learning. Cooperation and social elements can boost skill acquisition.

Challenge for coaches: Are your practices focused on short-term performance — or are they truly designed for lasting learning?

Noteworthy timestamps:

• 0:20 Background + outline
• 4:00 Performance vs learning
• 7:50 Confidence - competence training
• 16:25 Information guides action
• 22:00 Skill errors and practice challenge
• 26:50 Challenge point in sport - zone of genius
• 33:05 Skill learning as social and cooperative learning
• 43:05 Be deliberate/ Dynamic coaching as a starting point
• 50:25 Key takeaways