Good Game

04/04/2024

Our stroll around the latest in youth sports...including some hopeful legislation aimed to prevent underage sports wagering.

Plus, more news and youth sports reads worth your time.

04/02/2024

Pass it on.

03/22/2024

What a heroic mom 👏

"It was hitting me that I'm doing CPR on my son."

12/21/2023

Maria Sanchez just signed the most lucrative contract in National Women's Soccer League history. She never played club soccer.

https://sports.yahoo.com/houston-dashs-maria-sanchez-becomes-highest-paid-player-in-nwsl-history-022355103.html #:~:text=The%20Idaho%20native%20never%20played,player%2C”%20Sanchez%20told%20WSJ

The three-year deal includes a mutual option for a fourth year that can total almost $1.5 million

12/18/2023

Love everything here, especially makes players think. 👊

Seven quick ideas for coaches that are simple but (probably) require a bit of thought…

1. Coaches: for players to learn through instruction, information needs to be encoded deeply. Here’s ways to help players encode deeply:

-make sure they’re paying attention…all eyes on you!
-comms must be short & understandable (lean & lucid)
-give them a chance to ‘picture’ what you’re explaining
-check their understanding

2. Coaches: help your players build their leadership toolbox…

How?

-more collaboration during activities…give them chances to experience leadership
-negotiate type of leadership: by action, by
instruction, by energy…which type fits each individual best?
-see leaders as an extension of coaches...create informed leaders (flatten the coach-player hierarchy)

3. Coaches: the human cognitive architecture for visualisation includes:

-central executive....choose it!
-phonological loop....say it!
-visuo-spatial scratchpad....see it!

Help players choose what to visualise ("Tell me about your best")
Help players to say it and see it...in detail!

4. Coaches: a key to learning is attention!

Attention is driven neurochemically by the release of:

-dopamine (interest)…reward
-norepinephrine (alertness)…threat

Make activities:

-personally meaningful for each player…reward!
-collaborative (social)…reward!
-challenging and pressurised…threat!

5. Coaches: Helping players develop relevant cue words & phrases prior to a game can help limit the amount of spontaneous self-talk they experience during the game (that can distract from picking up environmental clues)

Prepared cue words & phrases can decrease thinking during a game!

6. Coaches: player ownership can be a key to learning tactical movements

In training, as an activity unfolds, if a player is doing something wrong avoid correcting…

Instead, trigger their curiosity by telling them there is something they can improve…and ask them to consider what it is…

Don’t stop play…let them ‘think’ and ‘find solutions’ themselves

7. Coaches…

Help players have action-changing words (adjectives) then ask them to embody and
enact their actions in the style of these words

Alert…alive…lively…sharp…relentless…focused

Action-changing words hone identity. They guide attention and influence intensity…

12/11/2023

A look at Stay-to-Play, the biggest scam in youth sports.

It all comes down to three little words that thrown together should be banned.

12/08/2023

Question: At what age did your kid fall in love with their primary sport?

10/11/2023

"This is my child’s game, not my chance to relive my sports dream." Well said, Knoxville Moms 👏

When it comes to youth sports, the lessons aren't only for the kids. Parents can learn a great deal from watching their kids play too.

10/06/2023

Soccer refs wearing body cams. So sad it's come to this.

Some referees with Ontario's soccer association started wearing body cameras this week as part of a new pilot project meant to deter parental abuse, which is a main reason officials are quitting the job.

08/29/2023

This madness must stop

A Northern Virginia soccer coach is recovering from injuries after a parent beat him with a metal water bottle during a scrimmage at George Hellwig Memorial Park in Manassas on Saturday.

08/02/2023

'Be a goldfish' and a bunch of other gems. Thanks TED LASSO.

Just like Jason Sudeikis' character in Ted Lasso, you don't have to be an expert in the sport you're coaching. You just need to have an open mind.