LANDED IT… THE IMPORTANCE OF EXPLORING
Looking like a strange cross between a scifi landscape and a warehouse a skateboard park takes a whole lot of thought. They don’t scribble a sketch and build some random hills. The curves are calculated and connected from the angles to the run off!
There is something deliberate about this very expressive and creative place! Kids roll, flip and twist and do things that are almost beyond our imagination. The simplicity of the board (basically four wheels and plank) is in stark contrast to what they can do on it and with it because it’s not about just riding it. It’s about performing a trick and landing it!
Strangely there were no skateboard coaches as I watched. A range of different ages and ability levels experimented without judgement to perfect a trick often falling or stumbling as they failed over and over again! The risk is worth the reward, to achieve the challenging, the almost impossible and to celebrate with a cheering crew.
This is one of the reasons that I am so enthusiastic about creating practice environments for kids, not lessons that double up as oncourt classrooms or tournaments where parents cling to the fence hanging on every ball struck. A practice session is where one coach creates a jungle with lots of kids out on court experimenting and experiencing, sure there can be a structure to it but it’s loose and non judgemental, scores are not recorded and thinking off the board is encouraged!
The Evolution Hero App is just one tool that we built to make this environment more creative. It challenges kids, comes with it’s own brand of luck and one game later it takes you to the next challenge.
It’s simple, just a pack of cards on an app, just like a plank and a few wheels. After all it’s not the board but the rider that creates the magic!
Join the Conversation at the It’s My Game Conference May 20th – 23rd 2021. Register now at www.itsmygame.net.
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