Ase Strandbu, Kari Stefansen, Ingrid Smette, and Morten Rensio Sandvik The Big Idea “Involved parenthood” in organized youth sports is what these Norwegian researchers are attempting to better understand. Child-centered parenting they note—using the United States as an example—is still evolving since its early cultural development in the 1960s. Organized youth sport in those days was in its infancy, preceding the appearance of involved parents. On a personal note, this reviewer—who is from the U.S.—recalls his early childhood sporting days in the 1960s, and happily…
environment
Cameron Knowles has been part of the Portland Timbers organisation for well over a decade. Following a 7 year professional playing career at Real Salt Lake, the Timbers and Montreal Impact, Cameron made the move into coaching where he worked as an Assistant Coach with the first team for five years. The holder of a Masters in Psychology & now into his second season as Head Coach of Portland Timbers T2, Cameron joins PDP Editor, Dave Wright for a conversation on his journey through the…
As a coach, it’s easy to overlook the sacrifices players and their parents make to pursue their love of sport. With support from Murray United Technical Director, Adam Carty, PDP Contributor, Lara Mossman shares an article on commitment and motivation for young players, providing advice for coaches on how to create autonomy supportive environments. When young players sign up for talented and elite player programs, the commitment is usually considerable. Compared to their counterparts in community sports programs, some players travel several hours each week…
What value does belonging have in youth development? PDP Contributor & Founder of Raising Excellence, Reed Maltbie shares a personal story that outlines the critical importance of the environments we create and the tribes we belong to. I sat in the parking lot, a quiet observer, hoping not to be noticed by my son. People change when they are being watched. When they know someone is observing, they change behaviors, words, interactions. When they are “in their element” and not aware of watchful eyes, they…
What experience are you delivering as a coach and what legacy are you leaving for young people? PE Teacher and blogger, Sporticus reflects on his own practice and evolution as a coach, outlining the importance of creating environments for children that go beyond just playing sport. ‘If teaching is to have meaning beyond the facilitation of learning, if it is essential rather than accidental to learning, then it has to come with the notion of “transcendence.” it has to be understood as something that comes from the outside and brings something radically new.’…
In this fascinating and in depth conversation, PDP Editor, Dave Wright hosts International Hockey Coach & Coach Developer at Oxford Brookes University, Danny Newcombe. Danny and Dave discuss a wide range of topics around skill acquisition, constraints based coaching, creating a learning environment, the coaching spectrum and more. This is a must watch interview with a true innovator and thought leader in coaching. Danny is a Senior Lecturer, Coach Developer and Skill Acquisition Expert at Oxford Brookes University in England. A leading Hockey Coach, Danny…
A Constraints Led Approach is a coaching methodology that Player Development Project actively promotes. Top PDP contributor, PE Teacher and blogger, Sporticus shares his excellent reflections from a coach education event in late 2017 in Sheffield, England attended by researchers and thought leaders in coaching. Over half term I had the pleasure to attend a seminar on Research and Practice Design in Elite and Development Team Games Programmes at Sheffield Hallam University. The three presenters Vanda Correria, Mark O’Sullivan and Danny Newcombe shared their current research and practice which…
Founder of Changing the Game Project and top Player Development Project contributor, John O’Sullivan shares his ideas about the definition of performance and how to create an environment of autonomy, learning and accountability. Last week I received the following email (edited for anonymity). We get calls and emails like this quite often from amazing, passionate coaches who are trying to make a difference. Take a read: Dear John, I’m currently a head football coach…I took over the program last January after being on staff for…
Game sense, how do we develop it? PE Teacher & regular PDP contributor, Sporticus shares his innovative approach to PE and helping his students develop skill and game understanding in cricket through realistic scenarios, interactions and guided discovery. As a department we have over timed moved away from ‘sport as sports technique’ method of teaching sports within our curriculum to ‘sport as tactical concepts’. This is in the belief that: The game sets the context of learning and gives that learning some meaning. Play is…
In this fantastic interview with England U18 Rugby Coach, Russell Earnshaw, PDP Editor, Dave Wright dives into a conversation with Russell on the types of environments England rugby is looking to create in order to develop sustainable success. Russell shares his own experiences both as a player and coach, talking about the importance of player ownership, decision making and chaos. This is a fantastic conversation in which coaches across all codes can tap into the knowledge of a man driving standards in England’s youth rugby…
What can we learn from one of the most innovative companies on the planet? Since its inception, Google has been known for innovation and creating environments where its people flourish. Founder of Raising Excellence, Reed Maltbie discusses the cross over from commercial to coaching environments. Headed into the 2004 Olympic Games, the Men’s USA Basketball team was 110-2 all-time. They were 24-0 since the introduction of the 1992 “Dream Team”(NBA-era). The team consisted of current and future NBA stars. The best of the best. The…
What are affordances? PDP contributor and associate lecturer at Oxford Brookes University, Ben Franks shares his work on affordances, what the term means and examples to bring the concept to life. Affordance is a new ‘in vogue’ term, and appears to be replacing the Constraints-Led Approach (CLA) as the modern evolving coaching methodology. Similarly to the nature of a CLA, affordances exist – they are properties of the environment that are ‘real’, emerging and decaying naturally. By definition, an affordance is the key origin…
What are team values and how do they influence culture? In the first of a two part feature, International Coach Developer and expert in culture in sport, John Alder discusses the balance of team culture and how often this is an element in team sport where control cannot be exerted and we have to look beyond slogans on walls and team meetings in order to greater understand team dynamics. *John contributed to this article in his personal capacity. The views expressed are his own…
The environment surrounding the player must be understood to ensure we help players achieve their potential. PDP Lead Researcher and PhD candidate, James Vaughan discusses the holistic view of player development that the PDP team has been working on as a result of over two years of conversations, interviews, research and experience. Ruben Jongkind is the former Head of Talent Development at Ajax and now works for Cruyff Football. He and Johan Cruyff worked together to implement ‘Plan Cruyff’ at Ajax between 2011 and 2013….
Duarte Araújo, Christina Fonseca, Keith Davids, Júlio Garganta, Anna Volossovitch, Regina Brandão, and Ruy Krebs The Big Idea Essentially, this publication is a position paper. The topic of the paper is the development of sport expertise. The more conventional understanding of the interactions between an individual and a specific performance environment is to seek explanations for such expertise based mostly on what is going on “inside” the player (referred to as “organismic asymmetry”). The less conventional understanding—and the position taken in this paper—is that too…
How do we manage our own bias in coaching and player development? Founder of Fit Across Cultures, Susan Salzbrenner discusses this difficult topic that is inherently part of human nature but manageable if you invest time with learning to understand your players. Every coach has a favorite player. Although most of them would never admit that. Giving all players a fair chance to prove their worth is a quality many coaches pride themselves with. But is there really such a thing as being a fair…
Player Development Project Magazine Editor, Dave Wright was fortunate enough go behind the scenes at Liverpool FC Academy with U21 Manager Mick Beale. Following on from our 2015 interview, Dave gets Mick’s views on developing better people and watches the U21’s train prior to their match against Middlesborough. On a gloomy day in the North West, I arrive at the Liverpool Academy with fellow coach and friend, Dan Wright to meet with U21 Manager, Mick Beale – a man who was featured in Issue 7…
Founder of TOVO Institute & regular Player Development Project Contributor, Todd Beane discusses whether the Coerver Coaching model is in fact flawed. In this challenging post, Todd questions the value of skill acquisition in isolation versus the benefits of game-based learning in the dynamic environment of football by asking ‘did Wiel Coerver get it right?’ This blog may upset a lot of people in soccer. Having said that, this article may also resonate with some of you soccer coaches out there that somewhere deep in…