If you have a kid who is not into sports, that’s great. I’ll bet you can figure out fun ways to get him or her outside and engaged in a way that will be rewarding for you both.

My daughter, Olivia, thinks her head is a “ball magnet,” so she does not participate too actively in sports. That’s cool. She does love helping people, though, so I signed her up to be a buddy in a basketball league for kids with special needs. She loves it.

Last summer, Olivia volunteered at an equestrian camp to assist kids as they learned to interact with horses. She realized it was hard work, and she definitely got her exercise.

We also love to swim in the ocean together. Every summer it takes her a few hours to get used to the size of the waves and remember her technique for diving under. Once she gets it, she’s a fish and she won’t get out of the water.

Olivia's Dad

Posted by Doug Donaldson at 01:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Summertime and the livin’ is easy? I think summer should be different for a kid than the school year is. A time when kids can try different things, explore, and just be a kid. Camping, hiking, free play. Summer can be a great break from organized leagues, formal practices, and scheduled routines.

Trying different games and activities with your kids—especially if you’re a coach or active sports parent—allows them to see you in a new setting and may help them gain another perspective on the value and meaning of play.

Posted by Doug Donaldson at 01:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Summer is great because the kids step out of the organized leagues and get to have a bit more goofy fun…lots of bike riding, body surfing and swimming in the lake and ocean, surfing, and skimboarding.

Also ladderball, which I guess is more of a game like horseshoes than an actual sport. Who know?—Let’s hear from you horseshoe pros and ladderball aficionados.

Posted by Doug Donaldson at 02:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Jack is also learning Ultimate Frisbee—and I’m totally psyched. That’s one of my favorite sports from college. The other day, he and I were out tossing the disc around. We practiced the traditional throw and also the “flick” method.

We just shot some Ultimate Frisbee videos for PlaySportsTV, so I'll keep you posted on when they'll be live on the site. Until then, keep those discs flying! (Hey, remember that early glow-in-the-dark model?)

Posted by Doug Donaldson at 02:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

So, my son, Jack, is enjoying his summer. Right now he’s at sleep-away camp in Maine. It’s a great, traditional place that’s been around for 100 years. All boys, 8-14, and no electronics! I can’t wait to hear how he’s enjoyed it.

We purposely didn’t schedule anything for him the first week he was out of school, back in June. The funniest thing he did then was that he and one of his best friends played on our swing set for hours. They came up with a synchronized swinging routine where they both flipped over, swung upside down while just holding on with their feet, and just other crazy stuff. Their dismount was hilarious.

Doug

Posted by Doug Donaldson at 02:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

So you don’t need to know much about the sport your son or daughter plays to meaningfully share this experience with him or her.

This truth is a big part of our goal for PlaySportsTV. We want to provide straightforward instructional videos and other materials that easily give parents an understanding of the game their kid plays. A lot of our videos demonstrate particular skills you can demonstrate or drills you can run with your child.

That way, you as a parent won’t feel intimidated to just go out and play the game with your daughter or son. In the end, PlaySportsTV wants kids to develop their skills but also develop their confidence and understanding of sportsmanship. And ground-level, I think that’s comes about when we parents spend meaningful time with our kids—just knocking the ball around.

Posted by Doug Donaldson at 03:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

So one of my buddies asked me what I plan to do for Father’s Day.  My automatic response was, “Chill on the couch, watch the U.S. Open and maybe a ballgame, and just relax.”

And why not?  It’s the first week in the past two and a half months I don’t have lacrosse games to coach or other similar commitments.

Funny thing, though.  Many of us fathers think we get a day off from fathering and parenting this Sunday—a day we have a built-in excuse to NOT father.

Shouldn’t be the opposite?  Shouldn’t we make sure we plan time with our wives and kids to celebrate the whole fatherhood thing?

That’s my Father’s Day Challenge!  Let’s all try to find a little time to get in the backyard with our kids…and play ball, chase ‘em around, run through a sprinkler.  Anything that let’s us see, feel, and enjoy being a father.  Life is short, and these memories will make a more lasting impression than taking a nap in the hammock. 

It may be counterintuitive, but that’s exactly how Fathers Day should be spent….at least until the last U.S. Open group gets to the 17^th tee!

Doug 

Posted by Doug Donaldson at 05:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Time and knowledge—those are the two biggest barriers I’ve found to sharing sports experiences with my son Jack.  As for time, it does seem like it is a definite commitment—practices, games, and so on. 

It’s not always easy finding that time.  Often, Jack and I just go in the backyard, usually to play soccer or lacrosse.  We get out there and make up our own fun games to play; for these times, it’s not about constantly getting better and better and pushing him to excel.  That’s for practice and for games.  This is about fun and time spent together.  Of course, Jack sees it as a time to show he can beat me 1 v. 1 with his new dribbling or stick skills!

Doug 

Posted by Doug Donaldson at 12:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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)

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 

Posted by Doug Donaldson at 05:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)