Implementing good processes and reaping the rewards of said processes is something that makes me tick. Now that might be one of the most boring sentences you’ve ever read, but it’s why analysing sport and the decision making processes within sport is so fascinating to me.

I wanted to use this blog to quickly share a couple of snippets I’ve come across in recent podcasts that highlight some of these ideas.

Kyrie Irving - The J.J. Redick Podcast [skip to 26:30]


In what was a wildly popular episode for reasons, I want to focus on a small section of the podcast where the Boston Celtic’s Kyrie Irving talks about being taught a new finishing move by his dad. Listen to the pod for a couple of minutes from 26:30 and read on after.

“When you get older…more athletic this move will be effective.”

What I really like about this segment, apart from the anecdote about Irving’s father being adamant that he’s not working on his game, is the consideration for “future Kyrie”. The foresight to work on a particular move that, while it may not be useful now, will be a great addition to his arsenal in the future once he develops physically is intriguing as I feel we don’t hear many similar stories like this one.

This poses the question of what should you be focusing on now with younger players (or any players, as noted in the next snippet). While a lot of focus will be on bettering performance from game to game, season to season, age group to age group - should we not be focusing on ability and especially those abilities that are useful in the sport at the top level?

Thierry Henry - The J.J. Redick Podcast [skip to 23:03]

Note that for any coaches reading this, there’s a practice game that Henry mentions around not allowing any physical challenges to force players to think about the game more (or smell it) which could be of interest.


By this point you might be judging the fact that I listen to the J.J. Redick Podcast, hopefully you’ll stick with me. Again, have a listen to the pod for a few minutes and read on.

“Challenge your coach to develop your brain”

Thierry Henry mentions on the podcast that he was fortunate to have coaches that trained his mind (his “soccer IQ”, for lack of a better term) and not just his physical capabilities. He notes that at a younger age he was very quick, and he could have quite easily relied on these strengths for several years and played at a high level - but that’s no way to future proof your game for when you can’t rely on your phsyical assets anymore.

The parallels between sport and computer science aren’t spoken about often, but I think I’ve found one. In roles which need you to write code to get your job done, you are collaborating with multiple versions of yourself - current Tom needs to consider the absolute state of his code so that future Tom’s life is made easier.

This is in a similar vein to the Henry anecdote. Future proofing your game is a very important consideration, and forces you to consider whether you’re working on something for the long term or for the short term. If it’s for the long term, it might help you stay around longer (and not have to re-write a long and important script down the line, if you’ll let me shoehorn in the computer science reference again).

Ptolemy Coburn - OptaPro’s Three At The Back [all of it]


As I noted on Twitter, this as my favourite episode of the Three At The Back podcast. There’s a lot of great points made around learning from other sports (which I’m trying to do here), youth development and the transition to the top levels of men’s/women’s football.

The main talking point that really got me thinking was again around ability. Just because you can score goals for fun in youth football from 25+ yards doesn’t mean that this is a skill that translates well at the highest levels.

Having a good underlying process that identifies these skills that transfer, and focuses on building them is important, because if you can focus on skills that impact future ability and not current performance then you stand a better chance of crafting an overall game that’s more suited to the highest levels of professional sport in the long run.

How can current you help out future you?