Episode IX: Tiny Leaps, Big Changes, Playing Multiple Sports, Positive Sum Games and Scandinavian Approach to Youth Development
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Episode IX: Tiny Leaps, Big Changes, Playing Multiple Sports, Positive Sum Games and Scandinavian Approach to Youth Development
"It is much easier to strive for perfection when you are never bored!"
Every week, I share a couple of things that I’m reading, learning or actively doing in my personal and professional life. This week, we dive into:
Current Podcast: Tiny Leaps, Big Changes
Practice Idea: Play Other Sports
X’s & O’s: Stationary Advantages
Leadership Thought: Positive Sum Games
Recommended Article: Norways Simple Approach to Youth Sports
Reflective Question: Quality of Time
Current Podcast: Tiny Leaps, Big Changes
Tiny Leaps, Big Changes is a solo podcast that is hosted by Gregg Clunis. I stumbled on this show some time ago as I was looking for ideas on how to host my own podcast. As I was interested in doing a solo podcast, I came upon this and was hooked.
Clunis does a terrific job of owning the space as he packs a lot in just a short time. Check out the podcast here and see what I’m talking about.
Practice Idea: Play Other Sports
One of the things that is lacking in Austria is their emphasis on Physical Education in the school systems. There is no set curriculum or guideline (from what I’ve seen), and a lot of the time, it is entirely up to the sports teacher to do what they want.
That means teachers who play or enjoy football would naturally do more of that versus teachers who prefer dancing, gymnastics or any other sports. This has resulted (again, in my opinion) in a lack of basic fundamentals in the kids’ coordination and fundamental movement skills.
Today’s practice idea attempts to address that. Instead of starting practice in the traditional way, how about you play another sport? Not the full sport, but by stealing the best parts of other sports, you can design a warm-up that will address key skills that players are missing out on in your youth club.
We have included American Football, Rugby, Soccer and Baseball within our warm-ups. As the season progresses, I am looking to steal some more ideas and also include them in our warm-ups.
The overall development of the player is my concern, not specifically their ability to shoot or dribble a basketball.
Food for thought 🥙🥙💭💭
X’s and O’s: Stationary Advantages
This week I thought I would share my favourite stationary advantage starts. There are three things that we do in every single one of our practices. These are:
Finishing/Shooting Segments
1v1 segments
3v3 segments
I hope to address why in a later post. For now, however, it is worth looking at the 1v1 aspect.
We don’t necessarily just roll the ball out and let the guys play 1v1. We want to adapt the segment to cater to the skills that we think the kids need most. Depending on the skill level of the player and the emphasis, we will put the offense in an advantageous position to start the drill. When introducing new concepts, we usually begin with a stationary start.
The important thing for us to consider is, “where are we struggling during gameplay?”
If we are struggling to play after our screen away option, we’ll break down the movement of the screen receiver and put him in a position to play one on one from the catch.
Maybe, it is our dribble hand-off action that gives us some trouble. This is actually the case, especially our fake hand-off and go action. So, we move the drill to the wing and place the defense in a position to give our offensive player the visual cue for a baseline drive, then play 1vs1 following the initial advantage.
Here’s two of our go-to stationary advantage starts
Leadership Thought: Positive Sum Games
Leaders who play Finite games are always comparing themselves to others. In their minds, there is always a winner and a loser.
Compared to leaders who play infinite games, these leaders focus on their vision, which is so clear to them that it doesn’t matter what others around them are doing - These leaders indeed separate themselves from the herd as they lift everyone else around them.
Be an infinite type of leader.
Recommended Article: Norway’s Simple Approach to Youth Sports
There is no “one size fits all” and every country or culture has their own approach and philosophy to do things. Whilst, it is understandable, every so often you hear of an idea that just makes so much sense and wonder why everyone else is not adopting it.
Norway’s approach to youth sports development really emphasises the role of the learner throughout their journey and is worth a couple of minutes of your time.
https://www.stack.com/a/what-america-can-learn-from-norways-shockingly-simple-approach-to-youth-sports/
Reflective Question: Quality of Time
Am I happy with the trade that I made today? 24 hours of my life for what I accomplished.
That’s all for this week. If you found this interesting, I would appreciate you sharing it on your social media accounts.
Until next week.
Nabil Murad