Play is our future Skill is measurable w/ two resources 1)…

Orgel's First Rule:

"Whenever a spontaneous process is too slow or too inefficient a protein will evolve to speed it up or make it more efficient."

Faster (speed/strength)-Deliberate Practice
Easier--Play

Overload (D.Practice) builds faster=hypertrophy and results in measurable selection resulting in problems such as Relative Age Effect, and players with very fast cars saddled with inexperienced drivers

It's more likely to be wrapped around a tree than finish the race.

as Orgel says, if we allow it, play will produce faster and easier

Kids in play build the driving sills first, in Go Karts, like Ayrton Senna

Big brains, slow cars, easier

But where speed is limited by physics,

Ideas are plentiful and under resourced in US youth sport

Almost every coach will agree w/ the following

Competition is important
Training is more important than games
Play is more important than both

But,

the big thing is to keep the big thing the big thing

Children dream of being the best-

But we don't walk the walk?

- one simple coaching methodology--Don't coach kids, play with them and try to win, show them how much you love play, do your best...Kids will follow the models and love play too

They will build a stronger Play Brain, a brain where ideas are combined and tried out to see if they float....A sort of idea boat factory. They watch you and each other as their boats copy each other--seeing what sails and what sinks. The sea (game) then fashions the boat (skill)

Popper says a theory can never be proven, but it can be falsified

Play uses something we fear, negative feedback

kids in play discover what DOES NOT work

teaching "check your shoulder" is positive feedback and will not create robust players that see the field.

But play will

Each action is tried. Every action is "black boxed"

Did the plane fly? if so great, but no one knows why

or did the plane crash? w/in micro seconds the NTSB is on site reviewing the block box--that info is freely shared from the player to game mates & those watching

we learn

The learning is shared, the planes fly faster and higher, the pilots and all watching getting better (easier/faster) with every crash.

The faster the crashes (falsification) the faster, and more efficient the planes (and cars, and boats and players)

This is how the game is the best teacher. Want more proof? Ask the experts with the most at stake:

The 10 year old with a ball under his arm

"How good do you want to be"

"the best that ever was"

"How do you plan to do it?"

"I don't know, just have fun, I guess."