“Just from a movement literacy standpoint, if you take an 8-year-old child and put them on a soccer field and say ‘hey, you’re JUST going to be a soccer player,’ at 8-years-old almost everything in soccer is moving forward and on the ground. So they’re doing everything in this specific movement pattern, there’s nothing overhead, there’s nothing behind their shoulders, they’re not backpedaling. You can watch a Premier League game and say ‘they’re moving in 360 degrees, that’s part of the sport’… well, it’s not part of the sport when they’re eight.
So, if you want someone to have that kind of movement literacy you need to hit them flyballs, you need to challenge them to get up off the ground for a rebound, you need to have them pick up a stick and use it on something small…”
Key Points Covered
- Benefits & challenges of coaching multisport athletes.
- Using @freelap & @pocketradar to drive intent in training for club soccer & travel softball.
- Using technology to solve problems and combining it with the all-important coach’s eye.
- Building up a body of practical experience and reflecting on things that did not go as planned as antidotes to the imposter syndrome.
Enjoyed the chance to join jCoach Coop on the @coaches.compass podcast for an in-depth conversation on long term athletic development and the building blocks of a career in writing and sport.