Author: Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

Personalizing Practice Plans – Part 1 of 3

Coaching Directors and Coaches have great training materials they have used
successfully in the past they need to share training with coaches and
player(s). These next three articles will demonstrate the process used to
create media elements (videos, links to other systems, Images, Documents,
Audio) and incorporate them into your practice plans right along with the
MOTI 3D media elements.

Creating Organization or Team videos to share:

Directors and coaches depending on the system rights provided by
their subscription my upload and make videos available to other coaches and
or players.

There are several things you must be aware of while creating your media
elements for sharing with other coaches and players.

Make the Content Acceptable to all.

  • In the MOTI Terms and Conditions you accepted when you signed in to our
    system.
  • You are asserting you own or have permission to put the material on the
    web for public consumption of your coaches, parents and players and you
    are not violating any copyrights.
  • The material you are putting on our system contains content you or your
    organization has approved of with respect to not being offensive to any
    parties accessing your content
  • Does not violate any terms you’ve agreed to by signing into our system

Uploading a video:

MOTI provides for directors and coaches with permission to upload video
content.

We recommend this be accomplished via a laptop ot desktop browser as
addressing the media file location is much simpler.

1. Select the MEDIA LIBRARY from the Menu Options

2. Click either the ADD MEDIA Button at the bottom of the Media Library display or the “+” in the upper right and side of the Media Library List

ADD Media Screen:

The next few steps will involve completing the information about your media
element “video” for uploading and accessing in the system.

3. Complete the following information for the video you wish to upload:

  • Title – make this identifiable as to the team or organization it belongs to and what it represents, keep it short as it need to be able to be seen on a mobile device.

Example: “MOTI U6 Team – Scramble Exercise”

  • Media Description – This may be an extended description as to what the
    video contains.
  • Language – Select the language the audio component of your video is in
  • Media File – You will use the browse button to select the file to
    be uploaded. Acceptable video formats allowed are MOV, MP4
  • Category – This is a drop down box that enables you to select the type
    of media you are adding to the system. Select “Video”

4. When you have entered the information, click “SAVE MEDIA” at the bottom of the Media Add page to have your media element video uploaded and saved

NOTE:
This will take some time to accomplish so be patient and watch the progress
indicator on your web browser. Once upload is successfully completed:

  • the screen will refresh and change to the Edit Medias screen vs the Add
    Media screen
  • the Media File name will display a reference number vs the file name
    and location on your system
  • the Version level and upload date and time will be displayed of this
    media element.

Displaying the Media Library once again, will show your media element as a
video with your organization name or coach name displayed.

Clicking on the media element will display and play the video in a window
within either the browser or mobile app

To be continued…

Choosing How to Communicate


Choosing to communicate is important. “How” we choose to communicate is critical to making sure what we want our audience to hear or see is clearly understood.

Today young players and coaches are tethered to their smart devices. It just makes sense to have your training curriculum visually engaging and available on their devices.

In the past when a coach wanted to communicate the tactical activity or technique / skill they wanted the player or team to perform, they could:
• demonstrate the skill or walk the team thru the tactical activity
• use handouts with diagrams with a written explanation
• show a video with audio queues what is necessary to perform
• use the grease board with a verbal explanation

Today, with the smart cell phone or tablet, visual learning is at the fingertips of both coaches and players.

MOTI Sports’ 3D Mobile Soccer Training platform uses 3D Motion Capture with an audio track to explain technique /skill to player and coaches and we use 3D Animation with an audio track to explain a tactical activity. The 3D allows a player or coach to circle around either the technique or tactical activity to view it from any perspective. One can even view the tactical activity from the Player’s perspective on the playing field, so that they can pick up the visual references, as a Player would.

MOTI Sports attended a conference for Physical Education Educators in Minnesota and all the educators clearly understood the “See it, Do it” animation, and how it would work with young players learning to play the game of soccer.

Educators understand that what we were doing works well in the field of instruction as they have been using the “reverse classroom” process for years. It made me think about “how” we choose to communicate and the methods available to all of us these days made possible by technology.

In Rochester Minnesota, Alan explained how a digital Practice Plan works to a Park and Recreation Director for a local community. The Minnesota Parks and Recreation Association members have a number of local youth soccer programs they sponsor around the state and need a good solid method of communicating how to coach a recreational soccer team for parent volunteer coaches. Several communities have or are planning on using our system to help their coaches and players.

Earlier we attended the Florida Youth Soccer Association Annual General Meeting and made a presentation on how our 3D Motion Capture and 3D Tactical Activities work with both coaches and players in youth soccer teams. Our Spanish audio was well received by many club DOC(s) throughout the FYSA geographic area.

The 2018 USA CUP provided us an avenue for having our system viewed by over 1,100 teams from 28 different countries including Minnesota. There were a number of people that wanted Alan to explain the benefits of using our system.

MOTI Sports, Inc. is just starting up this past summer; we’ve had over 3,000 players, 750 coaches, from several states and countries benefiting using a new method of “How” to communicate with coaches and players.

MOTI Sports Updates and Announcements

MOTISports.com/app, New MOTI Soccer App, Sports Engine & Team Snap Integrations

MOTISports.com/app
Our old site coachespage.com is re-directing you to motisports.com/app which is under our motisports.com domain. We are doing our best to eliminate confusion for our customers and make it as simple as possible to access our system. So you can now access motisports.com and gain access to the website via the “SIGNIN” at the top of the screen to access the web based Team Pages, or “My Account” to access your subscription account, or simply use the MOTI Soccer app as a player or coach and enjoy the 3D Skills and 3D Drills as you always have.

New MOTI Soccer App (previously known as MOTI Mobile)
The MOTI Soccer mobile app is undergoing performance improvements which will enable MOTI to load up faster, operate smoother, and expands into other areas in the future while lowering overhead in your mobile device. As this release goes into the stores we will require you to upgrade to version 2.8.0. So just go to either iTunes or Google Store and conduct the upgrade. Thank you!

Sports Engine & Team Snap Integrations
Alternative Logins – This will allow coaches, whom are utilizing team management systems to login to MOTI Soccer App using their MOTI username, go to their rosters and IMPORT their team roster from their team management system using their access credentials to either Sports Engine or Team Snap. From that point on, coaches and players can simply click the ICON of their team management system and login with those credentials.

Here is a brief video on how the integration works –

Technique / Skills Mastery – “I am watching you”


Recently, I was observing a coach providing some coaching points to a player, reminding them of the proper move or form to strike the ball. The player appreciated the attention and direction. The player kept working at the move without the coach’s feedback for a while. The player became less rigid in their form over time. The coach simply turned and remarked “I am watching you” and the player’s form or technique improved instantly.

Coaches often obtain knowledge of the game and how to work with players thru course work at the sports local club, state or national organizations. This knowledge transfer is gained thru “education”.

Coaches also learn thru direct visual observation of methods and experiencing and employing various methods with players to attempt to obtain the desired behavior. This knowledge transfer is gained thru “experience”.

In a similar manner, MOTI Sports offers through its MOTI Soccer App, 3D Foot Skills / Techniques, the ability for coaches and players to watch, understand and observe the proper foot technique. Auditory and visual references are provided so that the knowledge transfer of how each technique can and should be performed is provided to the coach or player in the form of “education”.

The role of the Coach is to observe and guide the player thru the process of learning how to do the Foot Skills / Technique and gain knowledge thru “experience”. Players can easily observe and begin performing the Foot Skill / Technique in a “See it, Do it” basis. The Coaches role is then to observe and guide the player’s performance of the movement providing observation and feedback to the player to enhance their knowledge and learning “experience”.

Coaches or parents need to employ various methods of verbal reinforcement (how do I get the player to do what I am telling them they should do) which are continued until success is achieved.

Learning the correct skill / technique is critical to mastery. Once accomplished th skill / technique needs to be performed hundreds of times until it comes naturally.

Operant Conditioning has two methods of behavior reinforcement that we are seeking to use as coaches. Positive reinforcement, we anticipate that a behavior will be continued. Positive reinforcement works by presenting a motivating/reinforcing stimulus to the Player. Negative reinforcement should not be thought of as a punishment, but as a method of decreasing an undesired behavior so a behavior will stop. A simple example is providing a positive reinforcement like “nice push thru the equator of the ball” to the player will reinforce that behavior. A sample negative reinforcement would be saying something like “now let’s try that again, with…whatever movement you did not observe in the player’s technique”.

As coaches we need to be continuously verbalizing and providing both positive and negative reinforcements to the players until they succeed in the behavior we desire to see happen. Then we need to see that behavior in the form of practice continue time and time again. Whether in the backyard, or at the field watching your players practicing their technique, providing proper verbal coaching is critical to reinforcing behavior. Being “the strong silent type” in coaching is the wrong approach. Players not receiving any reinforcement either positive or negative on a continual basis are less likely to listen to you as a coach when you need them to.

Remember, coaching needs you to be involved with continuous verbal feedback to the player to make a difference. Remember, “I am watching you”, gets and reinforces results.

Opportunity for FUN in Recreational Soccer!

Hi – Parent Volunteer Soccer Coaches and Soccer Players, we’ve been waiting for you!

Are you a “parent volunteer soccer coach” looking for training on “what”and “how” to coach soccer players?

Good! You’ve found us! That is what we do with our Mobile App!

We’ve developed a mobile application (App) to walk you “the parent volunteer coach” thru every practice session step-by-step, with a system that enables the Players to develop while you are developing.

Recreational soccer coaching requires guidance (practice/session plan) to run an educational, engaging and effective practice every evening. We’ve taken the guess work out of preparing for each practice, by providing a template (practice/session plan) for your soccer team to follow. We’ve taken the guess work out of “what” to do, and “when” to do it. Plus, while you the coach are developing as a coach, we know that players can certainly be part of the development process and be as engaged as you are! So our system is designed and tested to have players see and study right along with you. It works!

We’ve put together practice/session plans for U6, U8, U10 & U12 players that are age and skill developmentally appropriate. We provide these plans in 3D animation that is EASY to learn from, FUN to watch and gender specific.

Have you ever been driving to practice trying to run thru the list of what you’re supposed to do during practice, while balancing other priorities in your head? Solved! Each practice plan contains a visually engaging series of 3D segments you watch in sequence to run the practice. Each step of “what” activity to do and “how” to do it, is in 3D visually and fully explained. Finally all the “coaching points you need to focus on” for each step in the practice are covered.

Do you wish you could mention an activity during practice and the players knew what you were talking about? Solved! Our system is designed to have players and their parents see the practice “before practice” so they can come prepared to engage in their training. Players can watch, listen and visualize all the activities /drills you want them to do during practice in 3D engaging animation, saving you time in setting up, and providing you more time to encourage players.

Do you wish you could help Players develop techniques (foot skills) with the proper coaching points? Solved! Players can see and practice the techniques using our 3D Motion Capture Skills. These are developmentally selected for the age & skills groups to allow players to “See it & Do it” before or during practice.

We are glad you found us! We can help you, as a coach, and your players learn while having FUN in recreational soccer.

MOTI Website Tip: Announcements – Bringing Spirit to the Team

As the season starts, spirits among players and coaches are high, and the Announcement Board on your Team Page is one way of keeping that positive attitude among your players and parents. If you make the announcement fun and interesting at the beginning of the season and change it daily, it becomes a connection point with your players and parents. The Announcement Board great communication tool that is easy to use.

Alan Merrick has mentioned many times during presentations, that putting a inspirational quote like “, a positive remark about a game or practice, a mention of someones birthday, will help maintain that “can do” and “fun” attitude. Often distractions from the things that didn’t go as planned in a practice or game can be useful to help the players move ahead. Allowing a feeling or what went wrong to fester is unproductive for the team.

So as you move thru the season, if the fields are a bit soggy because of wet weather, remember to keep the announcement lite and spirited like saying “Players to bring their “Life Vests” in case the ball goes floating away on the south end of the field. But also a pair of dry socks for the end of the session / game would be a great idea. Oh and happy birthday to Ben. “.

Connecting with the Team is easy with the Announcement Board which every player and parent will see daily. Have fun with it!

As Alan always ends his emails with:

“However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.”
Winston Churchill

MOTI Website Tip: End of Season Results

As the season closes for most spring soccer programs, the most pressing
questions for a Coach or Director of Coaching are:

  • Did I succeed on making an impact on the kids and improving their
    technical and tactical abilities?
  • Did we improve our process of teaching / training methods?
  • Do we know who used our system and how much it was used by users?
  • What was effective and what wasn’t?
  • What do we do next to increase our effectiveness?

Our Coachspage system can help you the Coach or Director of Coaching answer
some of those questions.

Our Team Analytics will show you by Roster Member or Practice Plan who used
which 3D Training Elements, from which medium (desktop or app) and the last
time they used the system. Coaches can evaluate this information and
decide, based on their observation how players progressed and where
improvements are needed in individual player skills. Directors of Coaching
can drill down to the team level and evaluate the same information.

User usage for the entire organization is available with the ↓ (download arrow) from the All users menu.

This will download an Excel spreadsheet providing a login summary by user,
team and season in your organization.

Remember that some of this is direct observation and some of it can be data
driven. Remember to ask your coaches, players and parents.

Remember we at MOTI are here to help you succeed. Have a restful break.