New podcast - Reed Maltbie - Star Soccer Club & Changing the Game Project

Reed Maltbie is a coach that takes his craft seriously. Alongside a lifetime of experience and ongoing learning he also has 2 masters degrees in Psychology and Child Development so when it comes to developing children in sport....he knows a thing or two!

His passion for coaching and for the impact that a coach can have have on children led him to deliver a TED talk on the subject of communication which you can check out below

In this great podcast episode Reed explains how he develops positive environments for young people to thrive within. We cover a lot of topics including:

• The impact of words on people

• How an email from a parent 'cut him in half' and nearly made him quit coaching

• Strategies he uses to build positive relationships with parents including having a 'lollipop parent' patrolling the sidelines to manage behaviour

• How 'the why' of coaching is the most important thing that a coach can have to help them navigate player and parental relationships

• The 3 'V's' of communication - Visual, Verbal, Values

• How to stop being a 'joystick coach'.

This was a super enjoyable conversation packed full of quality information, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Listen below or subscribe in itunes here

Podcast: Building great relationships - The secret to the development of the 'Gifted Junior'

Stuart Morgan from www.stuartmorgangolf.com was the Director of Instruction at the International Junior Golf Academy in the USA. Stuart has spent his life helping young golfers to develop and has a wealth of knowledge to share with the talent community.

We focus on the experiences he went through with developing a young female golfer called Emily Price and her journey of success towards several amateur titles and the way that the engagement with the family is all important. In the episode we cover:

• How Stuart works with young players on the course and in context as much as possible. Designing challenges and using constraints to challenge their skill set.

• How the relationship with the parents is all important but the relationship is built in having clearly defined roles.

• How a delayed specialisation model was used in Emily's development. How keeping her away from the formal 'talent pathway' until the right moment played an important role in her development.

• Creating an ecological environment around her in order to develop resilience and the characteristics required for excellence.

• How Stuart still provided coaching even though he was on the other side of the Atlantic.

• How Stuart's book 'Gifted Junior' can help parents and coaches to navigate this process.

Enjoy the episode

You can subscribe on iTunes here

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More surprises from the gamified garden

In my previous post I explained how I experimented with constraints to see if I could help my son to develop his ability to hit a cricket ball to different areas and develop some different shots.

In this post I wanted to share how I tried something similar with my 4 year old daughter Isla...with surprising results.

My daughter is 3.5 years younger than her brother so when she wants to come and play cricket with us we have to adjust the game so that she can play. I bowl under arm to her from much closer and also bowl slower so that she can hit the ball more easily. She is pretty impressive in the way that she can judge the bounce of the ball and she does hit the ball pretty well.

But like her brother (and most young kids) she always wants to hit the ball baseball style across her body to her left.

Now she is only 4 and I don't expect her to be able to develop technique and I wouldn't do that anyway. But I did think it would be interesting to see what happened if I gave her the same challenge as her brother and take away the option of her being able to hit the ball to her left and only hit the ball to her right.

In this scenario I didn't do any modelling I just wanted to see what she would do..

I made this video to show you the process she went through and the way she chose to solve the problem for herself.

I was fascinated...she just played the same shot but the other way. That was the way she chose to solve the problem.

It is interesting that this method is now being adopted by T20 players as a means to get maximums over the off side of the field as pioneered by a certain Mr Pietersen,

I was fascinating watching her refine the technique all on her own. At the start it was a direct switch hit but after a few unsuccessful attempts she was going for more of a reverse ramp shot!

I could have taught her the 'proper way' but she came up with something else.

I think I might let her carry on and see how she gets on!

It is magic giving kids problems and seeing how they go about solving them!

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