Reflection – Mind Mapping

Challenge

In my spare time I help the coach of a local Rugby club to improve the game of their youngsters’ team.  The target group consists of 25 kids in an age between 12 and 14 years of age. During last season this  team won only 1 game in a tournament (out of 20 games played) and this clearly brought frustration  and dissatisfaction in the young players. The team coach was worried that many kids would drop out  from the team and look for a different sport. The local club isn’t a very wealthy one, and their success  is founded on building senior players from within the club. Losing young players today has a high  impact on the future of the club and their senior team. Our challenge was to design a new way of  training kids, aimed to improve their game and make them stay with our club for long time.

Selection

In the What is? phase, we looked at the current reality and collected some statistics around errors  occurred during games (like ball handling, missed tackles, missed catches etc.). We also focused on  the errors occurred during the training sessions, and collected interviews with different kids (across  different clusters, like as an example: by position, by maturity level, by fitness level, …). These  interviews were aimed to highlight problems of the kids with different fundamentals of the game.  Along with a colleague, we then selected Mind Mapping tool in order to explore the data we collected  and to identify common threads. Through Mind Mapping we were able to identify some common  patterns in how kids learn sports (observation, listening to, emulation, …) and translate them into  design criteria for the future training sessions.

Application

We began by using some visuals to display the common mistakes. We invited the kids (our customers)  to review these common mistakes and identify the fundamentals connected to those mistakes.  Individually then, they matched fundamentals with a specific training situations that they had  perceived as “good stuff” in past training sessions. We then brought all observations back together  and identified labels or clusters of observations. Once completed the labeling, we moved into  transforming insights into design criteria for the future training sessions. This wasn’t a trivial task but  we managed to identify what was important with a couple of sessions of work.

Insights

It became immediately apparent that kids learn fundamentals in different ways, there is no “one size  fits all” in sport practice. Some kids learn sport fundamentals better through emulation of a famous  player that they see on TV, some other kids must hear a clear explanation of the exercise before they  attempt it, some must try it for themselves in a safe environment, before they can display it correctly.  Above all, we learned that the practice sessions must have fun elements (like challenges with rewards  and fees, …). In a nutshell, “training diversification” and “fun elements” were the 2 biggest takeaways.

Approach

Next time I would definitely select the same tool, as it is easy to review the findings as in a “art gallery”  (as portrayed by Rodriguez). One mistake that we initially made was to present common  mistakes done by specific kids in real situations. This put them on the spotlight and triggered a  defensive behavior. We had to correct this immediately and selected instead a generic representation  of common mistakes, to avoid making them too personal.


Reflection – Mind Mapping Challenge In my spare time I help the coach of a local Rugby club to improve the game of their youngsters ’ team . The target group consists of 25 kids in an age between 12 and 14 years of age . During last season this team won only 1 game in a tournament ( out of 20 games played ) and this clearly brought frustration and dissatisfaction in the young players . The team coach was worried that many kids would drop out from the team and look for a different sport . The local club is n’t a very wealthy one , and their success is founded on building senior players from within the club . Losing young players today has a high impact on the future of the club and their senior team . Our challenge was to design a new way of training kids , aimed to improve their game and make them stay with our club for long time . Selection In the What is ? phase , we looked at the current reality and collected some statistics around errors occurred during games ( like ball handling , missed tackles , missed catches etc . ) . We also focused on the errors occurred during the training sessions , and collected interviews with different kids ( across different clusters , like as an example : by position , by maturity level , by fitness level , … ) . These interviews were aimed to highlight problems of the kids with different fundamentals of the game . Along with a colleague , we then selected Mind Mapping tool in order to explore the data we collected and to identify common threads . Through Mind Mapping we were able to identify some common patterns in how kids learn sports ( observation , listening to , emulation , … ) and translate them into design criteria for the future training sessions . Application We began by using some visuals to display the common mistakes . We invited the kids ( our customers ) to review these common mistakes and identify the fundamentals connected to those mistakes . Individually then , they matched fundamentals with a specific training situations that they had perceived as “ good stuff ” in past training sessions . We then brought all observations back together and identified labels or clusters of observations . Once completed the labeling , we moved into transforming insights into design criteria for the future training sessions . This was n’t a trivial task but we managed to identify what was important with a couple of sessions of work . Insights It became immediately apparent that kids learn fundamentals in different ways , there is no “ one size fits all ” in sport practice . Some kids learn sport fundamentals better through emulation of a famous player that they see on TV , some other kids must hear a clear explanation of the exercise before they attempt it , some must try it for themselves in a safe environment , before they can display it correctly . Above all , we learned that the practice sessions must have fun elements ( like challenges with rewards and fees , … ) . In a nutshell , “ training diversification ” and “ fun elements ” were the 2 biggest takeaways . Approach Next time I would definitely select the same tool , as it is easy to review the findings as in a “ art gallery ” ( as portrayed by Rodriguez ) . One mistake that we initially made was to present common mistakes done by specific kids in real situations . This put them on the spotlight and triggered a defensive behavior . We had to correct this immediately and selected instead a generic representation of common mistakes , to avoid making them too personal .