Here’s wishing everyone a safe and fun New Year’s Eve and a Happy and Prosperous, Lucky ’13!
Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a comment »
Here’s wishing everyone a safe and fun New Year’s Eve and a Happy and Prosperous, Lucky ’13!
Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a comment »
Told in a slide show of humorous photos.
Filed under: Sports World | Leave a comment »
Here is an organization we’ve discovered to seems to be worthwhile. Their mission is to bring the game of soccer to disadvantaged and at-risk youth. One of their programs is “Soccer in a box”, which consists of building an enclosed soccer facility in an area where children don’t have access to open fields or facilities, usually on an unused and abandoned tennis court.
Filed under: Sports World | Leave a comment »
A few days ago, the L.A. Times’ Chris Erskine wrote this cute and funny column about his experience watching his children play AYSO soccer. We thought we’d share it with you.
Filed under: Parents and Children | Leave a comment »
If you missed them, our December issues of OnDeck for baseball and soccer can be viewed online. As always, if you’d like to sign up to receive them direct to your inbox, you may do so here.
Filed under: Corporate News | Leave a comment »
The holidays are upon us! This is a time to reflect on the past and look ahead with hope for a new and brighter future. Here are a few items on my holiday youth sports wish list:
That all parents who are about to complain about league politics attend one year’s worth of board meetings before speaking up.
That moms and dads who yell at referees or umpires in a youth sports game have to officiate the next one.
That city municipalities strapped for cash don’t immediately look to charging youth leagues for services that used to be free as a way of balancing their budgets.
That the word “scholarship” be erased from every parents’ mind until their child has at least reached puberty.
That coaches who run onto the field and scream, “THAT’S YOUR FAULT!” to the ten year-old player who made a mistake that let the other team score, (as my son observed while coaching a 10U travel game) would be made to play a game against each other. Every time one messes up, a kid from their team gets to drill them with a ball from close range.
That there was a safe place in every town where children could get together and choose their own teams, decide their own rules, and officiate their own games, with no parents watching.
That all kids who wish to play sports could do so without injury, politics, nepotism or undue parental pressure damaging the experience.
That once each week every frazzled volunteer coach who is scrambling to practice from work, trying to organize a group of energetic kids and figure out what to do with them has a parent come up and say, “We really appreciate you. Is there anything I can do to help?”
In a perfect world, we wouldn’t have to wish for any of these things. However it’s our job as parents, coaches and league officials to try to make youth sports as perfect as it can be. Here’s wishing all kids have as near the perfect youth sports experience as possible. Happy Holidays and best wishes for a fantastic 2013, from CoachDeck.
Filed under: Parents and Children | Leave a comment »
Our popular OnDeck newsletter will go out a week earlier than usual due to the holidays. If you’d like to have it sent to your inbox, you may sign up here. We’ve got some great stuff in this month’s edition. Don’t miss another issue!
Filed under: Corporate News | Leave a comment »
Another of the ten “Underdogs” videos in the great Sports Illustrated series on high school football. This one about the players at Fort Campbell High School whose battle through adversity beyond the ordinary.
Filed under: Sports World | Leave a comment »
The nature of experiential learning: assimilation and accommodation.
The Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget (1896-1980) is considered the father of children’s cognitive-development theory and amongst his significant observations on how children learn are two critical ideas: the concepts of assimilation and accommodation.
Assimilation suggests that we first try to place new experiences within our existing understanding of the world, while accommodation suggests that when a new experience cannot be explained by what we already know, we either ignore the experience, perhaps forever, or create new understanding. In these ways, assimilating new information allows us to deepen our existing understanding, while accommodating new information allows us to broaden our knowledge base. Learning over the course of a lifetime becomes a never-ending, spiraling process in which we continue to accumulate knowledge on a wide range of subjects, while adding layers to the information we already possess.
We can only assimilate new information within knowledge that already exists, such as when a player who habitually curves the ball with the laces learns to drive the ball in a straight line. Conversely, introducing a crossing and heading practice to eight-year old players who are just beginning to feel comfortable with the ball will not result in learning because they have no prior need to cross and head (failure to assimilate) and they are not intellectually ready to attending to this aspect of the game (failure to accommodate). Because the information is beyond their capacity and motivation to learn, no new learning takes place.
The nature of experiential learning: contextual interference theory
Shea & Morgan first published their research on the phenomenon of contextual interference in 1979. This theory suggests that leaning is more personal and permanent when it is untidy and unpredictable. Contrary to expectations, when we are faced with the performance of a repetitive learning activity, such as passing back and forth, our brain adapts to t he mental effort required to succeed and then tunes out. It would appear that after a few repetitions the novelty wears off and the motivation to attend to detail is lost.
While we do, initially, demonstrate improved technical proficiency in learning from repetition, the ability to reproduce the technique at a later time, particularly as skill (the application of technique) in novel situations is not retained. In contrast, when practice involves, for example, receiving balls arriving indiscriminately at different heights, speeds and spins, and particularly when there are a number of additional variables, such as opponents to factor into the technical and tactical solution, our brains are required to pay close attention in order to adjustment our responses. Because the responses are similar (receiving a ball), yet different (trajectory of the ball, surf ace required, position of attackers and defenders), the next action interferes with the encoding of the last action, forcing our brain to constantly create connections between each event.
The weave of mental links between t he range of possible technical responses and the associated tactical contexts make learning more permanent and the ability to successfully improvise made more likely. Contextual learning is not clean and predictable because there are many different ways in which knowledge is being constructed, and sensory information may fi nd relevance to performance immediately, tomorrow, years later or never.
Creativity and youth
There is a famous anecdote in education about the young child who is told to draw a tree. The child draws what looks like a trunk and adds branches and leaves a nd then colors the trunk purple and the canopy blue with yellow spots. It is a very bright tree.
When the teacher sees the tree, she tells the child that it is not a very good tree because trees have dark trunks and green canopies, except in the fall when they may be red or orange. The child is upset that the teacher didn’t like her version of a tree and obliging ly draws another tree in the way the teacher had suggested. The original drawing was crumpled up and thrown into the garbage can and the child never drew a brightly colored tree again.
Youth is the time to play and experiment. Youth is the time to imagine and dream. Youth is the time to make mistakes. Youth is the time to succeed and be told everything is good. Youth is the time to lay the
foundation. Youth is not the time to build the roof. Create an environment; talent will come.
Tom Turner is a U.S. Soccer National Staff Coach, Region II Boys ODP Coach, Ohio North State Director of Coaching. He can be reached at coaching@oysan.org.
Filed under: Working with Players | Leave a comment »
TO BE A SUCCESSFUL OUTFIELDER YOU MUST
TO BE A SUCCESSFUL INFIELDER YOU MUST
TO BE A SUCCESSFUL CATCHER YOU MUST
o Getting Cut Off Man in Position
o Getting into position to receive the ball
BE PREPARED TO AND BE VOCAL WHEN TELLING OTHER FIELDER’S ON THE FIELD:
PERSONAL PREPARATION TO PLAY
Ryan Sienko is founder and CEO of Catch and Throw, a catching instruction, information, and conditioning company. He played professionally for eight seasons with the Texas Rangers, Chicago White Sox and in independent baseball where he was an All-Star. In early 2010 the Joliet Jackhammers inducted him as the inaugural player to their Hall of Fame. He is also an associate scout for the Baltimore Orioles. Ryan can be reached at ryan@catchandthrow.com
Filed under: Working with Players | Leave a comment »