Despite coaching basketball for over twenty years Socrates still manages to make the same stupid mistakes he tries to teach his young players to avoid. The old fool turns up for a game of pick-up with a bunch of fellow old coots and manages to make a complete goose of himself by doing precisely what he knows doesn't work! The moral of the story? Even if you are playing with a … [Read more...]
Michel de Montaigne on coaching sports
Sixteenth century French philosopher Michel de Montaigne would have been a great sports coach. In the twenty-first century world full of politicians, religious leaders, military people, celebrities, business tycoons, cultural experts, sports and coaching gurus who all seem to know, without question, the answers to all the world’s problems Michel would have been a stand out. … [Read more...]
Small town Rugby League star gives birth to brilliant strategy!
Like many big bloke athletes, a mate of mine (who, incidentally, was the hard man power forward for my high school basketball team), considered himself a tactical mastermind. Not too many years ago, Big David was still playing in the back row for the Warialda Wombats regional Rugby League footy team. As a student of the game and a serious thinker to boot, David used to look for … [Read more...]
Can Usain Bolt succeed at soccer?
A couple of days ago the perceptive and articulate (especially in relation to sporting matters), Peter Fitzsimons, threw his hat (or bandanna) into the twitter sphere ring of people commenting on Usain Bolt’s intention to swap his snug running daks for baggy soccer shorts. Fitz was less than enthusiastic about Usain’s prospects and offered a catalogue of sound reasons why the … [Read more...]
Should serious young athletes stick to one sport? Not if you believe data from this years NFL draft.
According to Tracking Football, a U.S. American Football recruitment and sports data analysis service, over 88 percent of players drafted into the NFL’s (American National Football League) professional ranks in 2018 played multiple sports in high school. Multi-skilling an advantage? Such a statistic makes one wonder why many coaches still encourage their young athletes to … [Read more...]