PLAY TO THINK A LITTLE MORE DIFFERENTLY
LifeSkills21.club is a multi-sport community club for players who want to develop an equally important skill to attaining higher technical standards. The ability to play with ideas. A skill which, when added to technique, makes for all-round excellence! And keeps us young at heart
WELCOME
WE COACH GAME IQ. WE DON'T COACH HOW TO CORRECTLY PLAY A SPORT
We are Neurodiverse Sports Coaches and we help everyone develop their fluid intelligence - their Game IQ - by playing a particular format of various sports and games. While Sports Coaches correct mistakes players make in how they move their bodies - we help players harmonise the two hemispheres of their brain knowing something good - we have no idea what - will happen. We don't play sport in the normal way. We are not connected to, supported by, or affiliated with any sports governing body.
We offer a response to the over reliance on one-dimensional procedural sports coaching - where coaches only correct mistakes players make in executing their instructions.
Fluid intelligence - Game IQ - is the ability to think freely to solve problems we are not prepared for. To get a result when things we don't want to happen, happen
Technology photo created by kjpargeter - www.freepik.com
"We play a format of games and sports designed to develop fluid intelligence - Game IQ. No trials. No drills. No technical skills coaching. Nobody correcting procedural mistakes.
Everyone is encouraged to find ways to express who they are as players as we play for fun, fitness, and kindness. We laugh as we all (teammates and opponents) share in a dance of movement. A warm welcome is guaranteed."
The process of developing fluid intelligence helps us harmonise the hemispheres of our brain so that we influence the rhythm and flow of our lives and share a dance of life with each other
Not correcting procedural mistakes is not bad coaching - it's Neurodiverse Sports Coaching
"Why do I go to Jon's neurodiverse sports coaching - that he calls Game IQ coaching sessions?"
"They are fun. They are stress free - Jon has a way of teaching that I don't feel I am being told what to do. I am encouraged to make my own choices and then supported with the decisions I make. There is no wrong decision. Only learning opportunities. Jon always finds a way to make feedback constructive and positive to help me make my own evaluations about my performance and how I can improve. He is supportive while pushing you to always be better and reach maximum potential" - league level player
"I like Jon’s sessions because instead of telling us what to do we all just work it out ourselves" - young player
"It’s refreshing to see someone run a sports session with a focus on kindness and flexibility instead of adherence to set patterns based on traditional ways of learning. We have always been made to feel welcome and encouraged to participate and my children gain confidence by being part of something that requires teamwork. As an observer I enjoy seeing the players thinking about not just themselves but the whole team. It’s not about just playing ball, it’s about creative thinking, consideration of others and teamwork" - a parent
We play games for our brains and with our brains and laugh as we share - teammates and opponents - in a dance of sport
Click here to ask us a question
FLUID INTELLIGENCE GAME IQ
The ability to think freely to solve problems we are not prepared for and get a result when things we don't want to happen, happen
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When we don’t have enough fluid intelligence to deal with the things not going the way we want - our only option is to try harder to make it go as we want. It never occurs to us to try other ways. We are Neuro-locked - our brain's neural networks are so fixed-wired that no matter what the external data is telling us - we can’t see a solution or understand the situation. Everything feels outside of our reach. All we can do is execute what we planned even when we know that is not working. When we are Neuro-locked it is a challenge to see the value of having fluid intelligence but it’s a challenge that needs to be met if we want to change what is not working and do more than we know we can do.
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We are not connected to any sports governing bodies. They all seem to focus on training coaches to make things go to a plan. This is the opposite of what our Neurodiverse Sports Coaches do. When the two types of coaching are harmonised we get agile players and teams that can execute a plan and adapt to get a result if it doesn’t work.
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Things rarely go to plan in competition and in life
"Competition and life is a balance between practicing to deliver what we plan to do and growing fluid intelligence to solve problems we are not prepared for"
"Everybody has a plan until it goes wrong - then it gets interesting. Then we get to use our fluid intelligence - to be neuro-diverse - open to different ways of thinking - or we fail"
It is a fact of life that no matter how much we learn, plan and practice nothing ever always goes the way we want it to. We all need to be fluidly intelligent.
“NOBODY - can have a plan for every eventually because NOBODY has absolute control of everything and NOBODY knows everything.
There is always space between everything is known and nothing is known - it’s where the game of life is"
Fluid intelligence is how we get out of our comfort zone and do more than we know we can do - to be alive
It's a balance between practicing to deliver what we plan to do and growing flexible intelligence to solve problems we are not prepared for and get a result when things we don't want to happen, happen
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We play a particular format of games and sports designed to develop fluid intelligence
Fluid intelligence maintains our brain's ability to rewire its circuitry to keep adapting how we think - to better meet the challenges we face. It keeps us Neuro-fluid so that we keep diversifying the way we think to find a way. Hence Neurodiverse Sports Coaching
Technology photo created by kjpargeter - www.freepik.com
When Neurodiverse Sports Coaches work in harmony with Sports Coaching we get players and teams that can execute as practiced AND have the fluid intelligence - Game IQ - to solve problems they are not prepared for - to get a result when things they don't want to happen, happen. We all get the best of both approaches.
At the moment Sports Coaches are only being trained to correct the mistakes players make in executing the coaches plan.
The absence of Neurodiverse Sports Coaching means coaches and players don’t have enough fluid intelligence to deal with the things not going the way they want.
The absence of fluid intelligence means the only option coaches and players see - when things don't go as they want - is to try harder to make it go as they want. It never occurs to them to try other ways. They are Neuro-locked.
When we are Neuro-locked - our brain's neural networks are so fixed-wired that no matter what the external data is telling us - we can’t see a solution or understand the situation. Everything feels outside of our reach. All we can do is execute what we planned even when we know that is not working.
When we are Neuro-locked it is a challenge to see the value of having fluid intelligence but it’s a challenge that needs to be met if we want to change what is not working and do more than we know we can do.
Only coaching players to execute a planned way of playing is one-dimensional coaching because it needs all participants to strive to execute the same instructions, at the same time, to the same standard. It limits competition to who has the most athletic superiority. It divides us by age, excludes those whose Neurodiversity makes it hard to always follow all instructions, and limits the performance of everyone to what a coach can instruct. It’s time to change. Playing sports and games needs to play a bigger role in building inclusive, diverse, and high performing communities
"When coaches only select players based on their ability to execute the coaches instructions - that coach limits performance to what they know, discriminates against those whose neurodiversity makes them poor at following their instructions, and guarantees failure when things don't go the way the sports coach wants"
Jon Thorne - founder of LifeSkills21.club
When players are only exposed to one-dimensional coaching they are limited by its singular approach!
None of us need to limit ourselves just because a sports coach won't accept the fact that we can do something else
A player who doesn’t do as instructed is NOT less than a sports coach wants - they are different.
Neurodiverse Sports Coaching is playing a format of games and sports to use the brain in the most effective way to grow fluid intelligence
No trials. No drills. No technical skills coaching. Nobody correcting procedural mistakes
Everyone is encouraged to try things they have no idea will work to see where it takes them as we play for fun, fitness, and kindness. We laugh as we all (teammates and opponents) share in a dance of movement. A warm welcome is guaranteed
‘The wise scientist’, wrote Chargaff, ‘will be aware of the eternal predicament that between them and the world there always is the barrier of the human brain’
WHY DO WE NEED NEURODIVERSE SPORTS COACHING?
If games are played as a way to categorise players as either winners or losers players tend to focus on making the least number of mistakes. This makes playing games more left hemisphere. Playing this way will not harmonise the brain. It stops us developing our fluid intelligence. Neurodiverse sports coaching acts as a balance to the one-dimensional sports coaching that only corrects procedural mistakes.
CAN EVERYONE USE NEURODIVERSE SPORTS COACHING TO BECOME MORE FLUID THINKERS?
Yes. Regardless of our athletic abilities - in fact it easier when we have fewer athletic abilities - we can all play games and sports to develop our fluid intelligence. And the more of us with fluid intelligence the easier it is for us to build inclusive, diverse, and high performing communities.
“One-dimensional sports coaching can stop us using our brains in the most effective way ”
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We are not connected to any sports governing bodies
"A thing without opposition ipso facto does not exist … existence lies in opposition."
C.S. PEIRCE
WHY ARE YOU NOT CONNECTED TO ANY SPORTS GOVERNING BODY?
It is easier for sports governing bodies to train, categorise, measure, quantify and qualify sports coaches on their ability to correct procedural mistakes players make in executing agreed standardised perfect ways to play. This is fuelled by an increase in that data being captured - accept in a few elite teams where great coaches use inadequacies to diversify and improve. To encompass views and attitudes that don't occur to them but which have merit when added to what they do.
When we spend all our time practicing to reduce the number of procedural mistakes we make when executing instructions - we lose sight of the need to develop the fluid intelligence to think freely to solve problems we are not prepared for. We can't get a result when things we don't want to happen, happen. Nobody can plan for everything.
We hope that by adding in Neurodiverse Sports Coaching we can help many more people watch and play sport to be entertained, inspired, to experience joy.
IS THIS LOWERING PARTICIATION IN SPORTS?
We think so yes. It's one-dimensional coaching because it needs all participants to strive to execute the same instructions, at the same time, to the same standard. It limits competition to who has the most athletic superiority. It divides us by age, excludes those whose Neurodiversity makes it hard to always follow all instructions, and limits the performance of everyone to what a coach can instruct.
It’s time to change. Playing sports and games needs to play a bigger role in building inclusive, diverse, and high performing communities
CAN YOU WORK WITH THE GOVERNING BODIES?
We hope so. But for that to happen they need to add Neurodiverse Sports Coach training alongside their current procedural training. When these two types of coaching are harmonised we get agile players and teams that can execute a plan and adapt to get a result if it doesn’t work.
