Think Outside The Box!

…It is all about achieving and maintaining correct body alignment and posture, body and spatial awareness, and the prevention of injuries…

…It is all about improving and/or further refining existing motor skills to enhance overall movement efficiency to optimize and maximize performance…(Schloder, 2010)

Albert Einstein’s famous quote, …“insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”… ought to challenge coaches at any level to ‘think out of the box’ and look for alternative activities for cross-training to increase all-round athletic abilities or so-called ‘physical literacy’ (2012 Canadian terminology). Yet, many coaches still are reluctant to experiment with creativity. Therefore, especially younger athletes get bored easily. The drop out rate among 12-13 year olds is now at 73/%, according to research. Given the fact that only 11% move on to a higher level of competition and less than 1% to High Performance levels … we need to really think about… What can we do better? How can we change our programs, so children enjoy learning and that they are motivated to remain in the sport? AND for that matter… “Stay Active for Life’ which is the ultimate goal of ‘physical literacy.’ This term replaces the traditional concept of ‘general athleticism’ as ‘physical literacy’ is deemed as important as the ability to read and write efficiently. It forms the first 3-Stages of so-called Long-Term Athlete Development, which is a 7-Stage Model leading to elite performance. I will discuss this in more detail in the next newsletter.