Practice Makes Perfect?
May 19, 2013
For years, leaders of educational athletics have been critical of sports specialization, citing the physical, emotional and financial price that is often paid by young people and their families as young athletes (or their parents) chase unrealistic dreams. The weight of evidence I’ve seen has made me conclude that sports specialization is good for some, but a multi-sport experience is better for most young people.
Recently I’ve read about a new challenge to the sports specialization myth. It’s called “interleaving.” It posits that “mixing things up” is a better way to train; that brains and muscles get a better workout by mixing tasks.
This is getting national attention at thedanplan.com which chronicles a 30-something commercial photographer, Dan McLaughlin, who quit his job in Oregon with the goal of becoming a top-level professional golfer. He had read in Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers that 10,000 hours of practice would gain him international expertise.
Along the way on this quixotic journey, Dan McLaughlin not only has been testing the 10,000-hour theory, he’s been testing interleaving – mixing lengths of putts during putting practice, mixing different types of shots on the driving range, etc.
Time magazine reported in April that this has the attention of UCLA’s Learning and Forgetting Lab which is testing the Florida State University theory popularized by Gladwell, and is searching for “the biological sweet spot.”
FYI: McLaughlin has not yet qualified for the PGA tour. But on the other hand, he still has about 4,000 practice hours to go.
Every Coach, Every Year
April 20, 2018
Fourteen years ago, the Michigan High School Athletic Association retooled its coaches education program and launched the Coaches Advancement Program. We charged MHSAA Assistant Director Kathy Westdorp to take CAP “anywhere, any time” ... to deliver this face-to-face coaches education anywhere and any time school districts or leagues or coaches associations gathered a sufficient number of coaches to attend. Kathy delivered. Kathy and a committed cadre of trained instructors/facilitators who give up many evenings and weekends to deliver in-person education.
We launched CAP with the slogan, “anywhere, any time.” But it’s time now for a second slogan ... “every coach, every year.”
It doesn’t have to be CAP, but it does have to be every year for every coach. A coaches education program that is organized and documented, research-based and relevant. Student-centered coaches education that goes well beyond Xs and Os.
We cannot define and defend educational athletics – we cannot deliver educational athletics – without this commitment to such education, every year for every coach.
In the wake of tragic events in Michigan that have received nationwide attention, it is not surprising or unmerited that our State and Federal lawmakers are busy with bills. Legislation is on the way, and much of it will focus on coaches ... including coaches among those who are mandated to report suspected sexual abuse and requiring specific training for coaches.
All of this screams for the need for coaches education ... for every coach, every year ... no matter how experienced or revered. In business, politics, entertainment and sports, it has often been the most experienced and respected persons who have acted the worst.
The need is for every coach, every year.