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How Teaching Techniques Early Can Impoverish Fluid Adaptability Later in Life
What if our understanding of skill development is fundamentally backward? We often assume that technical proficiency must precede...
Don Draxler
Mar 176 min read
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Play vs. Practice
Player—Led/Coach—Led When discussing youth sports, we often separate "play" and "practice" into distinct categories. Play is viewed as...
Don Draxler
Feb 214 min read
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Copy of Breaking Free: A Future Gift from the UK
The Mafia With sweaty palms and white-knuckled grips holding onto anything to steady your pounding heart, imagine a boss standing...
Don Draxler
Dec 25, 20244 min read
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Exploring the Art of "Playing the Question" in Coaching
Topic or Problems vs. Questions Juicy topic! It’s inspiring to see this shift happening in coaching circles. Traditionally, “playing a...
Don Draxler
Nov 8, 20243 min read
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How Can We Understand How to Use Explicit Teaching in Youth Coaching?
Photo by Kimberley French 1992 Explicitly State the Rules of the Game State the rules of the game—nothing more is needed, except perhaps...
Don Draxler
Oct 28, 20244 min read
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Setting Aside 'Our Idea' of the Game
Is it Possible? Can we, even for a short time, put aside the pressures to conform our coaching to match the weekend games? Instead of...
Don Draxler
Sep 27, 20243 min read
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Creativity is Confetti: Overused and Misunderstood
I hold great respect for the work of James Vaughn PhD. My thoughts here are less a critique and more an expansion on different ways to...
Don Draxler
Aug 16, 20244 min read
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Rethinking Technical Overload: A Critical Look at Prescriptive Drill-Based Methods of Learning
Do We Learn This Way?... Yours and my kid look just like this, beneath the facade of their human nervous system with skeletal chemicals...
Don Draxler
Jul 23, 20247 min read
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The Forgotten Meaning of a Coach
We Often Coach Like the Airlines In the current landscape of youth sports, we often witness young athletes dressed in flashy uniforms and...
Don Draxler
May 9, 20242 min read
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The 21st Century Playground
Game Based Learning Video games have long captivated people of all ages, offering immersive experiences akin to animated films. They...
Don Draxler
Mar 13, 20243 min read
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The Road Less Traveled
Embracing the Uncharted In the ancient year 1978, M. Scott Peck penned this literary gem, urging us to embrace the road adorned with...
Don Draxler
Jan 19, 20243 min read
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What is Ball Mastery?
This entry was my response to a question posed to coaches in the membership section with Players Development Project PDP. I highly...
Don Draxler
Dec 11, 20233 min read
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Why We’re Losing the Majority of Young Athlete’s
Coaching is Learning You know, it's pretty wild to think about why most young athletes drop out of sports. I mean, most of us see...
Don Draxler
Nov 11, 20232 min read
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Watercolors or Paint by Numbers?
Fluid or Rigid Many times, we're drawn to the enchanting world of watercolors, yearning to immerse ourselves in the exquisite beauty they...
Don Draxler
Oct 27, 20233 min read
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Embracing Change: A Fresh Start with Every Season
Schools and Seasons Have Started Isn't it fascinating? As summer draws to a close, schools around the world reopen their doors. It marks...
Don Draxler
Oct 1, 20233 min read
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Preserving the Joy of the Game for Young Athletes
Parents Mean Well Contrary to what some might believe, most parents on game day are fantastic. They're cheering, not screaming, and their...
Don Draxler
Sep 27, 20233 min read
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No Parachute for Referees’
Spectator Codes of Conduct? The youth sports community faces a pressing issue - a significant decline in referees. Nearly half of newly...
Don Draxler
Sep 27, 20232 min read
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Killing Our Youth Sports: Who’s the Drivers?
Top 20%, Are the Most Vocal and Influence Our Youth Sports In the realm of youth sports, a significant power struggle unfolds, where the...
Don Draxler
Sep 22, 20233 min read
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Is Coaching Teaching? and Is Training Coaching?
I Think Caution on Both Accounts You may think that teaching our youth and training them to do something is a good thing, yes? I believe...
Don Draxler
Sep 20, 20233 min read
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Inconsistent Leadership: Help Volunteerism in Clubs
Volunteerism is often likened to "Dad's Army," a phrase coined by Andy Pitchford, Head of the Centre for Teaching at Westminster in...
Don Draxler
Aug 24, 20233 min read
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