In sports and in life, CONNECTION is as important as everything else put together.
When we believe that control is the only way to stay safe or escape a trap, it's easy to fall into the mindset that we need to achieve perfect alignment, with each element working together seamlessly. However, this perspective restricts everyone involved to merely the sum of their individual contributions.
We provide an immersive experience of being part of something that is greater than the sum of the parts. To embody a **Gestalt of connection**.​​
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We don’t access a Gestalt by following instructions. We achieve this level of connection by observing and copying those in the Gestalt we wish to join, and processing the entirety of the experience so that we embody the Gestalt. It is easier to access a Gestalt when someone is shaping it for us.
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HOW TO SHAPE A GESTALT - think Steph Curry and Antoine Dupont
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1. Clarity. Ensure that the next move is apparent to everyone
2. Patience. Wait to see how everyone reacts
3. A Sense of Calmness. If the chosen move can’t be executed, stay calm, and allow another move of clarity to unfold.
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The ability to experience genuine connection is a crucial life skill for the 21st century
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JON THORNE
Founder of GamesCoaching.ORG
When we coach to what is conventionally measured as performance - we help others to better achieve what is conventionally measured as performance. But, should we stop there?
Being a spatial awareness and timings coach helps others to find performance beyond what is conventionally measured.
HOW CAN COACHINGÂ SPATIAL AWARENESS AND TIMING - MAKE ME A BETTER SPORTS COACH?
​It will help you find performance beyond what is conventionally measured by coaching players to time when and how to exploit space.
You can coach players to create more space and time to better execute a technical skill;
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​You create teams that phase their movement through the space between opponents - generating options - to score or deny a score;
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You help players stay open to options. The ability to pause and adjust between tasks - prevents small issues - from turning into big problems. An essential skill to navigating our world when nothing in it is making sense.
Go to the welcome page to the script of a talk by Jon Thorne
WHAT DOES A COACHÂ DO?
We call coaches who heighten spatial awareness and timing - Games Coaches.
​Games Coaches heighten spatial awareness and timing by giving people a feeling of space. We all feel space when we feel the energy of having a group hug and take three steps back. The drop in energy is space. As we become consciously aware of space being the absence of things - we start to look for the space between things. We learn how to move through the space between things generating options as we go.
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Qualified coaches are peer-reviewed to be experts by experience in...
1. Setting up games where players get in each other's way. Not to dominate. To play a chess match of who can open and close space at the right time - in the right place - to get through the space between us. Games to share a dance of space. Games to get better at moving through the space between opponents. To be in the right place at the right time - to give a teammate an option - at the moment all theirs are running out.
2. Helping players remain open to options.
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3. Helping players time their movement between things by constantly zooming in on one thing - moving it - zooming out to see how this affected the space between things - and zooming in again. And so on. As illustrated by the video below.
HOW DO I JOIN AS A COACH?
We call the coaching members - Games Coaches. Instead of making Games Coaches operate to The Standard for games coaching we use three forms of peer review...​​
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Peer review of Games Coaching members by players. All sessions are pay-as-you-go, with no trials, no squads, and players turn up because they want to. If players keep turning up they are giving their peer reviews of their Games Coaching.
Existing Games Coaching members peer review when someone can join as Games Coach
Existing Games Coaching members peer review each other to maintain membership.
The second and third peer reviews follow these steps…
Step 1: Current Games Coaching members keep an eye out for players who attend our community sessions and who are very comfortable playing games to diversify their thinking and ask if they would like to explore joining.
Step 2: Those selected by current Games Coaches members attend a course on how the brain works in the most and least effective way while working alongside current Games Coaching members. No exams. No certificates. It’s just interesting. The basic content is outlined later on in this document.
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Step 3: When 3 of the Games Coaching members confirm someone is ready to run their own sessions they are accepted as Games Coaching members of NeuroDiverseGamesCoaching.ORG
Step 4: Once a year all Games Coaching members attend a festival of games where we have fun as we play games to diversify our thinking as a way for of us all to peer review each other.
Step 5: If 5 Games Coaching members agree a current Games Coaching member is no longer suitable to be a member that person is removed. If they want to come back they go back to Step 1.
SkillsofWow.org is the governing body for those who coach the skills of Wow.