Finding the Edge with Practice

In youth sport leagues, teaching skills is usually coached by demonstrating, then simply expecting the kids to benefit from repetition. What about the kid who is athletically underdeveloped and the basic skill you expect everyone to perform is too hard for them? What about when the drill is too easy for the 8 year old "stud" athlete?

Either way it's wasting valuable practice time.

The edge is when we find that spot that is just a little out of reach, and we can quickly make adjustments to get there. Some have called it deliberate practice, deep practice, or meaningful practice. If it's too easy, little progress is made and the brain can quickly fill up with ideas and thoughts that hard work isn't necessary because everything comes easy to me. Fixed mindset. If it's too hard the brain can shut down with frustration.

Maybe better practice was what Shaq needed?

Finding this edge is an art. Every skill and exercise can be different for each kid. After recently teaching some young athletes the skill of jumping and landing, we quickly realized breaking down the skill is MUCH, MUCH harder than making it complex. Narrowing the focus to one aspect of the skill and building from there is necessary for laying a successful foundation for growth. Keeping the kids engaged by asking questions about how they are performing and how there peers or the coach is performing allows them to be apart of the process and continues the ignition to expand the skill.

The amazing part after breaking these skills down to the very basics and giving success, we saw nothing but smiles and a desire to keep staying at their edge. We even had a couple kids say, "I don't think I'm at my edge." So we progressed them.

There is no reason we can't have a young child understand this concept and apply it to other skills like music, math, science, etc. Understanding how they can get the most out of their practice time makes learning fun and engaging, rather than something they're told to do.

If you're in the San Diego area, Encinitas/North County, I am working with a company called Brain Highways to teach young kids, ages 6-8 and 9-12, this ability to find their edge by using 8 fundamental movement and sports skills. The class starts October 5th on Wednesday evenings. To sign up visit this link,http://www.brainhighways.com/c/sports, or shoot me an email @ Caseywheel@gmail.com.

Agility vs Change of Direction Speed

Brian McCormick and I had another great email thread this past week. If you've read his last posts on his new website, he talked about agility versus change of direction speed. In Brian's post he stated this quote:

“Research has demonstrated the importance of agility, inclusive of reaction to a sport-related stimulus, and its distinctiveness from physical qualities such as sprint and CODS (change of direction speed) ability,” (Sheppard and Young, 2011).

This is implying that just throwing down cones drills and having your kids may not be the best way to coach and teach multi-direction speed or agility. Usually the most agile players are the best at reading the situation in their sport which comes from numerous repetition and deliberate practice. Agility is an open skill that requires your brain to process multiple factors, while change of direction speed is a closed skill that the athlete can focus on a pre-set pattern.

So this past weekend watching the NFL combine, the 40 yard dash, 20 yard shuttle, and 3 cone drill evaluate your speed and change of direction speed, that is only small piece of a much larger picture. These numbers are important because there is probably a cut off point or a range that a NFL player needs to be in in order to be able to keep up while still being able to react to the stimulus.

Lets look at Darrelle Revis. He is an incredible athlete and he ran some very impressive numbers, 4.35 40 yard dash, 4.08 20 yard shuttle and a 6.56 3 cone drill. Though Darrelle Revis' number where not the highest seen at the combine by any means. If it were all about the numbers than Chris Houston would be just as if not more productive as Revis. Who's Chris Houston? Exactly (he's actually a decent corner but plays on the Lions).

In the NBA, Shane Battier, Ron Artest, and Bruce Bowen are three guys who are know for great defense. They probably have very average Box Lane Agility times but they are masters of reacting to what the offensive player does and putting themselves in the best position to make it a difficult shot.

So while these numbers are important, it should be more about there ability to react to their sport-related stimulus. Most of these elite athlete's probably fall within 1 standard deviation of the combine tests, but in the end it's their ability to read various amounts of information instantly will ultimately determine whether or not they will be a valuable player in their sport.

Throwing down a closed skill test (cone drills) will only give you a fraction of the information you need to know whether or not an athlete is agile and can perform in their respective sport.

Coming next post is ways to increase athlete's agility...........