FOSBURY FLOP

Andreu Enrich has understood it perfectly: he is a COACH, in all caps, with every letter. It does not matter the sport. Because Andreu knows that, both on and off the field, it is only with the heart that one can see rightly, that what is essential is invisible to the eye... or to the whiteboard where many draw technical-tactical arrows. Up next, Andreu shares his authentic perspective to us in Catalan. If you’re interested in the English version, the YouTube video of the episode is waiting for you.

Martí Cañellas | Fosbury Flop

Notes of the episode

Coaching meditations | Andreu Enrich

Citadelle | Antonie Saint-Exupéry

The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable | Nassim Nicholas Taleb

La Preparación ¿Física? en el fútbol | Rafel Pol

Exploring the Relationship of Declarative Tactical Knowledge With Participation, Football Competence, and Potentiality in a Professional Club (Real Sociedad) | Rubén Sánchez-López, Ibon Echeazarra, Jon Mikel Arrieta & Julen Castellano

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind | Yuval Noah Harari

JORDI FERNÁNDEZ | Questioning methodologies

’Visualise tragedies —not commedies’ - A conversation with Andreu Enrich | The Talent Equation Podcast

Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration | Ed Catmull

Direct theory of perception | Gibson

Theory of Cooperative-Competitive Intelligence: Principles, Research Directions, and Applications | Robert Hristovski & Natàlia Balagué

Decisiones vitales | Pep Marí

SMALL-SIDED GAMES: How to effectively train your players in variable and complex environments | Andreu Enrich

Hockey: 50 Tips From Intelligent Players | Andreu Enrich

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Alex Sarama, Director of Player Development for the Cleveland Cavaliers, invited me to the Transforming Basketball Camp. There, I was able to know how Alex thinks about basketball performance and how Transforming Basketball, the company he leads, helps players, coaches, and organizations make sense of an evidence-based approach: the CLA, Constraints-Led Approach. What I liked the most, however, wasn’t any scientific theory or basketball task; it was Alex's constant dedication to the learning of the players and coaches who trusted him.

Notes of the episode

Transforming Basketball: Changing How We Think About Basketball Performance | Alex Sarama

Transforming Basketball website

Alex Sarama on Twitter

La evolución táctica del fútbol | Martí Perarnau

The Constraints-Led Approach: Principles for Sports Coaching and Practice Design | Ian Renshaw, Keith Davids, Daniell Newcombe & Will Roberts

Bernstein’s Construction of Movements | Mark L. Latash

JOAN CORTÉS | The coaching genius

CRAIG MORRIS | Prepared, not planned

JORDI FERNÁNDEZ | Questioning methodologies

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.fosburyflop.blog/subscribe

Pau Casassa is the technical director of the Barça Academy in Catalonia and around the world. They don’t coach football players, they coach kids who play football. And they do it with a playing idea that does not seek the results at any cost. The Barça idea is the one that brings a team closer to victory exciting the people who practice it, the spectators who observe it. An idea to train football that can transform lives, that makes Barça more than a Club. Pau explains it to us in Catalan. You have the English version available in the YouTube video of the episode.

Check the notes, other episodes and related blog posts in: fosburyflop.blog

Notes of the episode

ADN Barça | Paco Seirul·lo

El mejor libro de táctica y las probabilidades | Juanma Lillo

ALBERT BATALLA | The art and science of teaching

La evolución táctica del fútbol | Martí Perarnau

Will Coello be the Fosbury of padel?

JAMES VAUGHAN | Tell me where you live and I’ll tell you how you play

Universal Play Grammar | Ted Kroeten

The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business | Erin Meyer

Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World | David Epstein

The Ignorant Schoolmaster: Five Lessons in Intellectual Emancipation | Jaques Rancière

La preparación física no existe | Paco Seirul·lo & Ángel Cappa

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.fosburyflop.blog/subscribe

Tactics do not exist.

Go to https://www.fosburyflop.blog/ to check the written version of the episode, its notes and much more content.

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Shawn Myszka started training players of the National Football League trying to make them bigger, leaner and stronger. Everything changed the day he asked himself: Are the players performing because of me or in spite of me?  He didn’t like the answer and led him to become a Skill Acquisition Specialist for NFL players. In a sport where training is based on dribbling cones and running ladders as fast as possible... Shawn brings some sanity and hope.

Check the notes, other episodes and related blog posts in: fosburyflop.blog

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.fosburyflop.blog/subscribe

My lighthouse.

Go to https://www.fosburyflop.blog/ to check the written version of the episode, its notes and much more content.

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In training, we have increasingly accepted that we will never find the perfect technique, because it will depend on the characteristics of the player who executes it in the environment she is in; we are beginning to assume that there will never be a universal collective game model, but that its perfection will depend on the individual and emerging qualities of those who make up the group. Why, then, do we continue to seek and monetize supposedly perfect, universal and absolute methodologies that lead to success regardless of where they are applied or by whom? Isn’t this thought contrary to everything we preach? Are methodologies such as Tactical Periodization or Structured Training sources of empowerment or prisons for the coaches’ thinking and quality? We spend more and more resources on player improvement... but who cares about the coach? Or only players need to learn because we, the coaches, already know everything? Is the methodology of a club a cause or a consequence? These doubts were awakened in me by Jordi Fernández: current Methodology Coordinator of Venezia FC and former member of the Methodology Area of FC Barcelona. Next, you will find his reflections in Spanish; if you want it in English, don’t miss the YouTube video of the episode.

Check the notes, other episodes and related blog posts in: fosburyflop.blog

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.fosburyflop.blog/subscribe

Ferran Adrià is one of the 100 most influential people in the world. He was the chef at elBulli, 5 times chosen best restaurant in the world. In sporting terms, it is as if Barça had won 10 Champions Leagues in a row and he was the head coach. We met one evening to talk about it at a hotel in Barcelona... the rest is history. It is in Spanish. If you prefer the English version, you can watch the YouTube video of the episode.

Check the notes, other episodes and related blog posts in: fosburyflop.blog

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.fosburyflop.blog/subscribe

An unpopular opinion about “technique” in sport

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This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.fosburyflop.blog/subscribe

Abraham Maslow said that “if the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail”. As coaches, we unconsciously carry a toolbox made up of our favorite ones that condition how we perceive and act in the reality we find ourselves in. As a result, we do not observe reality, but a biased image of it conditioned by what we want to see. Craig Morris beat the game and chose not to see reality based on his toolbox. He realized that, often, “the more you know, the less you see”, he threw away his toolbox and embraced an ethos of not-knowing to be open to what he found, not to what he was looking for. Craig is Olympic Canoe Slalom Coach for British Canoeing and at Fosbury Flop he tells us how his journey has been.

Check the notes, other episodes and related blog posts in: fosburyflop.blog

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.fosburyflop.blog/subscribe