The first instructional videos we shot were with Kevin MacKenzie, a soccer coach who trains both boys and girls.  We were incredibly fortunate to work with him, because he really understands what PlaySportsTV is looking for— “teachable moments” that clearly present a specific playing technique or skill.

For our shoot, Kevin brought along one of his players, Lily, and we ran through several goaltending techniques.  They nailed ‘em all.  For every video, Kevin introduced the concept briefly, demonstrated it himself and with Lily, and then wrapped up nicely with a quick reiteration. 

A coach who has this ability to precisely encapsulate and demonstrate a necessary skill for his or her players is a true asset, both on the field and in PlaySportsTV videos.

Doug

Posted by Doug Donaldson at 09:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The initial video shoot for PlaySportsTV was me and a cameraman friend of mine.  The first thing I wanted to do was demonstrate an easy soccer drill a coach could run for really young players—“Monster in the Middle.”  I set out cones and my friend started shooting.  On-camera, I explained that the coach acts like a monster.  So, there I am, on a beautiful spring day, running around with a crazy expression on my face, acting like a monster.  My friend thought I was an idiot.

Then, we ran over to a baseball diamond and shoot a couple of quick drills.  My friend still thought I was an idiot.  Well, fortunately, we were able to get a number of people interested in our new venture, PlaySportsTV, just from those few video pieces.  That was surprising and exciting!

Doug

Posted by Doug Donaldson at 08:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

After my frustrating experience trying to find youth sports instructional materials, I did a little market research.  It turns out there are 58 million kids who participate in non-school related sports every year.  I imagined that many of those kids, their parents, and their coaches were looking for easy-to-understand instructional materials.

Being a visual learner and a new-media guy, I thought, “Online video.”  I decided to produce “bite-sized” instructional sports videos to be uploaded to a website.  The first batch of videos I shot became my “proof of concept”, and I took them to contacts I had at MSN and at Yahoo!.  Their response was positive, so I thought I might be on to something.  Then I got together some creative folks I know, along with some great coaches, and we started building out PlaySportsTV from these core videos.

Doug

Posted by Doug Donaldson at 08:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A couple of years ago, I was asked to coach my son Jack’s second-grade basketball team.  I was totally excited about it.

On my way to the first practice, I thought, “Okay, I’ll start by teaching them about box-and-1 defenses.”  When I got to the court, reality hit me in the face.  I had almost a dozen little kids staring up at me, wondering what the heck I was doing. 

Not surprisingly—as these were 8-year-olds—they knew almost nothing about the game.  I was totally clueless.  I decided to start with the basics—dribbling the ball.  But, I actually didn’t know how to demonstrate the right way to put your fingertips on the ball and all of that.

After that first practice, I realized I had to start from scratch.  I started looking for resources that would help me—the new parent-coach.  And so I went to Barnes & Noble, I went Amazon.com, and I searched online.  I couldn’t find anything that was geared toward instructing younger players.  All of the materials were meant for older players—high-school and college—and their coaches.  I figured that if I found it a challenge to find materials to help me teach youth sports, other parents and coaches were, as well.  From that one experience, the seed for PlaySportsTV—a comprehensive website for youth sports instruction and coaching—was planted in my mind.

Doug 

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