Shaws Little League

Got to love parents having a go at pitching to their children. The coaches give parents instructions on how to pitch and the areas to aim for. We don’t tell them that we have instructed the children to smash the ball as hard as possible back at their parents. Amazing to see the ball flying off the bat and the parents ducking for cover!
The children really enjoy your participating in the class and we are sure you do too - beats doing maths homework with them for sure. It also means that the children get more turns at bat and have more fun; more opportunities for crossing the midline and the left-right brain coordination. Am sure the children are looking forward to your cricket bowling soon.

What do our coaches do? We are just normal. We do things normally - maximise fun, maximise participation, understand your child, let them feed off our own knowledge, energy and effort.

When your child does something amazing, we will just shrug our shoulders and say that’s what we are trying to achieve and then we give them easy and simple instructions to improve.

Our normal is about trying to make your children awesome.

‘How do I apply lessons from the Crusaders to a non-professional environment?’

Here's Robbie Deans’ surprising answer…

“We have a lot of organisations, coaches, and apprentice players who come in and experience our environment.

“The most common feedback that we get from them is they can't believe how simple our approach is. And it's all based around enjoyment.

“One of the big misunderstandings with professionalism is that it's that much more complicated out of necessity.

“It's not.

“What an under-five coach does is no different from what the Crusaders coach does.

“You're dealing with people who love the game. They turned up because they want to enjoy it. Anyone that straps boots on doesn't want to fail, they want to succeed. You’re tasked with helping them to not only succeed but also enjoy the experience.

“The fact that you're paid for it or not is totally irrelevant. The fact that it's under-fives as opposed to Super Rugby is totally irrelevant. It's exactly the same thing.

“The one line that I keep throwing back at coaches is ‘let the kids play’. Doesn't matter what age they are, they're kids; they're either overgrown kids or they're yet-to-grow kids.

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Easy…..

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“Fire it up!” Something to think about….

What Does "Fire It Up" Mean? In sport, the term “fire it up” is used a lot. It gives connotations of a stove or a BBQ or something like that. You know - firing up a stove or a BBQ is going to help you succeed in sport…Not! Because of the lack of evidence that links the ability to fire up a stove or BBQ is to sports succes...

Sport as a microcosm….. we could talk about this for life

Are the NFL rules really that confusing? It just seems to be just an organised version of monkey in the middle and bulldogs. The Chiefs will pull a Swifty and win.

And MJ did the coolest half-time show ever.

It’s great fun doing demonstrations - the little guy waiting at the blue hoop seems quite excited to see his teammate get folded

Why are we closing down and limiting access to sports facilities?

Sport helps to build physical and mental health, coordination, confidence, courage, belief, decision-making, teamwork, leadership and social cohesion. Sport brings joy and happiness to both participants and spectators regardless of what level you are playing or watching. Sport helps to build dreams. Sport also tests you physically and mentally and helps to make you tougher. Sport levels the playing field between the classes and in its purest form is the best democracy ever.

Is that why?

Molly-coddled India Capitulates

Congratulations Australia on winning the cricket world cup, but was it really an upset?

Winning in anything is about being able to make decisions, execute skills and deal with adversity under pressure. Australia did just that. India didn’t.

The Australians had some practice at it – injuries, losing their first two matches, NZ running them close, Afghanistan having them by the balls.

What did India have – adulation, they were almost god-like, everything taken care of. Like that child whose parents provide everything and believes in entitlement. We know how this ends up.

Their campaign was similar to the All Blacks in the 2007 Rugby World Cup – a relentless march through the pool stages with no errors, no pressure, the easy road. The All Blacks weren’t prepared for Chabal and his mates.

So when it mattered, India were unable to cope – the lack of flowing boundaries, couldn’t angle the bat and work one’s and two’s, giving easy singles, not having a plan and instead just riding on emotion. They didn’t plan enough, react enough, graft and want to roll the sleeves up and get stuck in to the contest when it mattered. They, and everyone else thought that just turning up was enough.

How great is sport? You can be the richest, biggest, strongest, but David always has an opportunity to beat Goliath.

Australia took their opportunity.

Be David. Even when you are a Goliath. Not just in sport…