When it comes to learning, development or performance, what is ‘The Zone’? In this article, motivational researcher and rugby coach, Jonny McMurtry shares some ideas as to how we can help athletes get into the zone. Driven by my on-going reviews of my current research and listening Coach Reed Maltbie’s recent podcast regarding Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximial Development, I wanted to look deeper into the theory, applying ideas against recent articles and incidents in the coaching world to highlight my perceived importance to this matter….
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Good planning is an essential part of coaching. As coaches, we want kids to be respectful of the people around them and come to practice ready to learn and give their all. But we owe them the same respect in return — and this means preparing well-organized practices that are captivating, educational, and tailored to their needs as both individuals and a team. Session planning often seems daunting for inexperienced coaches, but it’s something we can all improve if we’re willing to learn. Below, we’ll…
Aidan Moran The Big Idea When it comes to research in cognitive psychology, until fairly recently there had been little interest in studying sport-related mentality. In its early history, the typical cognitive psychology researcher was quite comfortable interpreting human mental activity as information processing, as something computer-like. By implication, motor behaviour (the body) was considered to be independent of thinking. The consequence was to reduce motor skills such as sports to a rather uninteresting research status. And which in turn helped to trivialise sport actions and…