(upbeat music) - Hello and welcome to "Prairie Pulse".

Coming up later in the show, we'll visit the alternative arts enclave Parachigo.

But first, joining me now our guest, Dr. Bradford, but Brad Strand, I did that for your mom.

- Oh, thank you.

- Thanks for joining us today.

You're the NDSU Professor of Health, Nutrition and Exercise Services.

So we'll get to that in a few minutes.

But as we get started, tell the folks a little bit about yourself and your background.

- Well, thank you very much for inviting me to be on your show.

I grew up in Mayville, Portland, North Dakota, played high school sports, tried playing college sports for a bit, but obviously size limitations and probably some skill limitations.

That was short-lived.

I became a high school teacher and a coach in Houston, Minnesota and moved from there to getting my master's degree and my PhD.

And I've been studying sports, youth sports coaching, coaching effectiveness for the last 46 years.

- Okay, well, professor of health, nutrition and exercise services.

So what courses do you teach?

- Well, for a long time I've taught methods of coaching for undergraduate students.

I have taught motor learning for undergraduate students.

I've taught sports psychology, sociology of sports.

In the graduate program, I teach a lot of leadership courses.

- Well, of course, I understand you have a new book out and it's entitled "Optimal Sports Performance, Practice Smarter, Think Faster, Play Better."

Well- - Simple.

- Well, simple.

Well, tell us how the book came about.

Why'd you write it?

What's it about?

- Yeah, well really it's about helping people navigate through the process of developing their sports skills.

And we talk about...

In the book, we talk about principles of learning so that you practice smarter using principles of learning.

We talk about technical and technical skills and how you identify perhaps the one thing that can make the biggest improvement in what you're trying to do.

Just start with that, right?

Just one thing, you can't do everything.

And if we're gonna do this step by step, it's gotta start with a baby step sometimes.

The book talks about the mental side of sports and being able to learn to focus, eliminate distractions.

And so it came about because of a struggle I had with sports and not being able to turn off getting mad very easily.

- Well, you say that, I understand it came from a bad round of golf that you- - A terrible round of golf and... Well, I was playing in a tournament and I was playing very, very well.

And the guy I was playing against in the match play was playing music on his golf cart.

And I asked him not to and he kept playing and I kept getting more frustrated.

And although I was winning, I could feel myself start to lose.

And after about the fourth hole, I was up four zero after the fourth hole.

I didn't win another hole and I got beat at the end and I walked off that course so frustrated with myself, so disappointed that I had lost the ability to stay in the moment.

And I said, "I gotta figure this out."

And so I started digging deep and the result of that is this book.

So I hope today I'm a smarter player and can manage myself better.

- Well, okay, so I've got some terms here or some things to ask you about.

And I assume that they're referenced in the book all... What are preloaded responses as it relates to sports?

- Right, so if you think back to the football coach for the San Francisco 49ers, back in their early Super Bowl days- - Sam Walsh.

- Sam Walsh, yep.

And he scripted the first 10 plays every game.

So the players go out there and they're not worrying about anything besides their play.

Right, he's taken away a lot of uncertainty of what's gonna happen.

And so preloaded responses is how are you gonna react when something happens?

We're gonna preload this, so let's just say I'm getting ready to hit a golf ball and I hear some noise behind me.

Well, I can still try hit the ball and call it in anyway.

I'm gonna hit anyway, right?

And every golfer has hit the ball anyway and they step back and go, "God, I shouldn't have done that."

But you hit anyway.

A smarter thing would be to step back, regather yourself and go through what has been your preloaded response.

We're gonna set this up beforehand.

If this noise happens, you're gonna step back.

You're gonna exhale, you're gonna gather yourself, you're gonna step back in and you're gonna hit the shot.

So we wanna preload those kinds of things as much as we can.

We only have so much cognitive bandwidth during a game, and if we're worrying about everything going on and we haven't preloaded some things, when something happens, our emotions are going to dictate what comes next.

And we want to take that outta the equation.

And if this happens, this is what you're gonna do, right.

So this has helped myself become a better in this case- - And I apologize to Coach Walsh.

I think I missed...

I did not get his first name right there.

Just came out.

I get that.

But yeah, 'cause you think about, I've seen Tiger Woods actually take a backswing and stop mid-swing for whatever reason, and he is able to do that and then back up and regroup.

- Right.

- Well, all right, what are action triggers?

- Well, I think it's just figuring out what it is that you have to take care of.

Right, we all have issues and we have to figure out what those are for you.

Like if you're playing in a competition and I wanna know what it is that is gonna hinder you, and we're gonna put some triggers in place to spur you to do something else.

Make sense?

So that's what the action triggers are gonna be.

So we're gonna figure those out for you.

So we gonna put action triggers in place, and then we're gonna put preloaded responses in place.

We're gonna reduce the number, the amount of cognitive struggles that you're gonna have.

You only have as much bad bandwidth and you're gonna wear out if you don't do some of these kind of things.

So we're gonna do this.

So you don't have to think as hard when you're in the competition.

It's preloaded.

- Does this relate to any athletic- - Certainly it would.

- Or anything you do?

- [Brad] Right, yep.

- What numbers are we seeing these days in youth sports?

- You know, certain youth sports are seeing an increase in participation.

Others are seeing a decrease in participation.

And some of those that are traditionally widely participated in like baseball, they're seeing a decline in the number of kids playing baseball.

Some of the alternative sports are seeing an increase in sports participation.

Lacrosse has a big increase in sports participation.

A lot of the...

I think girls basketball obviously, because what's happening what now, the increase in girls that are gonna play basketball is going to rise significantly just because of Caitlyn Clark and the notoriety that she has gotten.

Sometimes all it takes is one moment like that and you impact a whole generation of kids coming into a sport.

- Yeah, so.. And so participation's up or down in the last few decades, you say some of it depends on the sport and the things that are happening in the sport.

- Yes, yes, and when you talk about youth baseball going down, baseball used to be America's sport, well, it's not anymore.

Football, basketball, other things have replaced that.

So as many kids aren't playing sports...

Playing baseball, and when you really study it because of all the requirements to play youth sports, the travel teams, the tournaments, all that stuff, a lot of kids are just dropping out.

They're not in it for that reason.

And we're getting on different topic with some of this, but it gets to be that, is it for the kids or is it for the parents, right?

- Well, that's what I was gonna ask you 'cause where do parents come, where's their involvement in this?

And what are we seeing now?

- Well, if you talk to any coach, they're gonna say the parents are probably overly engaged with what's going on.

And in youth sports, parents are coaching, they're traveling, taking their kids on travel teams, they're picking select teams.

And so, you know, I ask what do kids want from sports?

And it's the same thing that parents want from sports.

It's the same thing that community wants from sports.

What do each of these groups want from sports?

And for a community, they might look at youth sports as a economic driver and they host these mega tournaments and we can brag about our cities doing this and we want all these things.

What do the parents want from this?

And some of it's to live vicariously through their kids.

Some of them are...

Most of them want the best for their kids.

You know, it's how they're getting the best for their kids, right?

Some of them are thinking their kid is gonna become the next superstar, gonna get a college scholarship.

Well, very few kids get college scholarships, so that should be a non-starter right away, right?

What do the kids want outta this?

Fun, they want fun.

And you can ask almost every kid playing sports, it's about having fun.

- Well, you talked just a little bit about why do kids... Well, kids dropping out of sports.

Can you give us, what are the reasons...

I assume it varies, but there are probably some key things of why kids do drop out.

- That's a very good question.

And nationally, there's the term called churn.

And churn is the churn rate of how many kids drop outta sports every year.

And you want that churn rate to be low.

You want kids to come back, don't you?

If they're not coming back, what's not allowing them to come back?

Why are they quitting?

So that's what your question is basically asking.

And so they're quitting because it's not fun.

Principally it's not fun.

So why is it not fun?

Well, the kids want their parents at the game, but kids don't want their parents talking about the game afterwards.

And you get in the car and you ride home and the first thing the parent does is start telling the kid many times critically what they should or shouldn't have done.

Well, why do you wanna go back again?

You don't wanna go back... Have to go through this again if you're a kid.

So that's one reason.

Some of the, you know, parents getting involved.

Kids signed up for fun and when it's become something other than fun, they're gonna go find another way to have their fun.

- It's hard to distinguish that at a young age especially.

- It is, you know, and kids try one sport, didn't fit.

They tried another sport, it didn't fit.

And sports isn't for every kid.

I like to think that when we talk about sports providing so many positive things for kids, that it teaches responsibility, commitment, leadership, fairness, ethics, all these kind of things.

If in fact it does all those things, we should try to keep every kid in sport for as long as we can.

And I say keep the talent pool as large as possible for as long as possible.

Keep as many kids playing for as long as possible.

And so how do we figure out how to keep them there without quitting too early?

And part of it is feeling safe.

You wanna feel safe in your sporting.

You wanna feel safe from being picked on, from being bullied, from being called names, from being laughed at.

If you're not safe, you're not coming back.

The second thing you want is connections.

You wanna have connection with somebody, connection with the players, connection with the coach, connection with somebody.

If there's no connections, you're gonna go find someplace where there is a connection.

Okay, so I think coaches have to make a very intentional... Be very intentional in helping kids feel safe and feel connected and then the chances of staying are increased.

- And maybe you just said that...

So how important is coaching?

'Cause I think that's what you're talking about right now.

And what's your advice for coaches?

- Well, coaching is very important, of course.

The problem is in youth sports, most of the coaches are parents that are more than willing to help out.

Many of them, well-intentioned, many had been good athletes, but being a good athlete doesn't make you necessarily a good coach.

If you go through coach training, you learn about appropriate practices, appropriate development for age, ethical practices, how to structure practices that fit the needs of the kids.

You learn about arousal levels, you learn about the zone of development, you learn about teaching kids how to do stuff in context.

There's so much that you learn in coaching education that you just don't learn by playing a sport.

And so it would be great if we could get all volunteer coaches to go through some sort of coaching education program, but I'm afraid we'd lose a lot of volunteer coaches if that was something that was mandated.

- So really how has coaching changed over the years in terms of how coaches actually interact with or treat their athletes?

- Well, you know, in the past, you got coaches like Bobby Knight, for example, who were a shining star.

And people would model Bobby Knight's behaviors.

And today you don't get away with that, right?

So, you know, whatever... College level is different than high school, which is different than youth sports of course.

And you treat athletes differently in each of those levels with what... You know, what you can expect from the kids.

But I think coaches have become a lot more approachable by athletes.

I mean, athletes are asking for things today from their coaches that they didn't in the past.

And communication is one of them.

Transparency, one of them.

Vulnerability is something.

You can't just say, I'm the coach, you do this because I'm the coach.

Kids wanna know the why behind doing some of these things.

So in one sense, coaching has become more humanistic than in the previous day where you had the dictator coaches and you couldn't question them.

So I think that's been the big change.

- Yeah.

Well, let's turn to you.

Can you talk a bit about some of the speeches you give and, you know, what are they centered around?

- Well, mostly my whole career has been centered on positive youth sport development for kids.

My whole focus has been children and kids, from the moment I started coaching little kids and I was 18 years old, I coached little kids and it was about ensuring that they have positive experiences.

And so I became a professor.

I started doing research, started doing writing, and that's what I researched forever, appropriate coaching practices, something I talk about ethics in sports, gamesmanship in sports.

Now gamesmanship is one of those things where it's not illegal to do something, but it's questionable.

And so a lot of the work we do is we ask athletes, coaches and so on, do you think this action is okay?

And then you see it's okay by the rules, by the spirit of the game, you go, "nah, not so much."

But coaches are teaching these behaviors to their players because we have to win.

So I talk about that.

I've talked a lot about just positive youth sport development and leadership.

- Okay, so even though you teach and talk about optimal sports performance, one still has to be athletic... Have some athletic ability to compete.

How important is that?

But also, it's not the only reason for success.

- It isn't, you know, innate ability certainly gets you in the door and it gets you so far.

And after that you better work hard at what you're gonna do.

I say effort squared.

It's not just effort, but it's effort doubled that gets you further along.

You think of Tiger Woods and many of us think we love to play sports.

Tiger Woods is a whole different level of loving to play sports and I might put in some effort to get better, Tiger Woods is putting in double the effort.

So I'm saying effort squared in order to really become good at your trade.

But there's also the intangibles that people have.

How badly do they want it?

How smart are they relative to the game?

How big is the heart?

There's a whole bunch of intangibles.

The passion, persistence is a huge thing 'cause it's not easy.

And when you become an athlete, you have these ups and you have downs.

And when you have the downs, it's easy to wanna quit.

And that's where perseverance comes through, and you just slug through it and you keep on going.

So there's lots of attributes that you look at in trying to help someone become the best they can be in sports - And people... A lot of people have different levels of natural ability, I'll call it, but how important is routine in sports?

Having a routine, practicing, getting sleep, eating right?

- It's essential.

I have a website and it's called 3CT sports performance and the 3CT, the three Cs stand for consistency, confidence, commitment, and then trust.

And so the first thing, consistency.

Consistency obviously in your skill performance.

And you have to do this routine over and over and over again to get better at it.

But consistency in sleeping, consistency in eating properly, consistency in showing up and training.

So there's lots of aspects of routine relative to consistency.

We have confidence and if you can develop a consistent pattern, it gives you more confidence for when you have to do the event.

And if you're confident, you can commit yourself to whatever it is you're gonna do.

I've practiced this a million times, I am committed to this, what's gonna happen now, I'm very confident and I just trust it's automatic.

I trust the practice, I trust the process, I trust the discipline, and now I perform.

And then what happens happens.

- Only got about a minute left here, but why do some people perform better in big time pressure situations?

- Some of it is they have a mental toughness that's been fostered over time.

And we talk about mental toughness in the book too.

And I think a lot of people confuse mental toughness and physical toughness and they're two separate things and I think coaches many times view physical toughness as kids being able to take whatever they wanna dish out.

Well, that's not really mental toughness.

And so guys like Tiger Woods, his dad trained him from when he was a little boy in all different kinds of ways to be mentally tough.

When I played high school sports, that was not a thing.

Sports psychology really wasn't a thing.

And now it's become a huge part of sports preparation and sports training.

I talked to a world champion racquetball player, won many world champions and I said, "what's the secret to winning at this stage of a tournament?"

And he said, "you gotta get there enough times."

That's part of it, right?

You gotta get there enough times.

And when you look at NBA champions and Super Bowl champions and so on, many of them were there one year and didn't win it and came back the next year and won it.

Almost the same people, yep.

- I'm sorry, we are out of time.

If people want more information, like to get a copy of the book, where can they go?

- Well, they can buy it at Amazon online, Barnes and Noble online, downtown through Ambrose, West Fargo and Ferguson's.

I have a Facebook page 3CTR Sports Performance and... Yeah, there you have it.

- Well Brad, thanks so much for joining us today.

- [Brad] It's been my pleasure.

Thank you very much.

- Been great to have you.

Stay tuned for more.

(upbeat music) Parachigo is a nonprofit art and music venue in Fargo offering a space for alternative artists to create and sell their art.

They also offer an all ages music venue to support Fargo-Moorhead musicians and allow audiences to experience shows.

(bright music) - [Anjali] Parachigo is...

It's an art collective dedicated towards getting local artists away from the algorithm, away from commercialism and just being able to make authentic art around other artists and for other artists.

I am an Anjali Karna and I am the coordinator director of Parachigo.

I coordinate the events, I manage our money, and I just kind of direct the team.

Parachigo started because I'm an artist myself and there's just a need for local art to exist around here and it's dwindled since the beginning of quarantine really.

I think when you're just like a solo artist, especially in a state that doesn't have that many arts pushes or arts programs, it's very easy to feel like you need to shift and you need to conform into something that's more suitable for your future, even though art is the thing that makes you happy.

So when you're in a space like this, it kind of reminds you that other people exist out there who also are kind of forever playful and forever dedicated to the act of creation as opposed to like assembly.

- I'm Vita, full name is Vita Ghoste.

You can call me Vita or Ghoste or V, either's fine.

I tattoo.

I do all sorts of different kinds of styles, but I really like doing traditional style and ignorant style.

I also do a lot of different kinds of art.

I'm a multimedia artist, so I like to crochet, I like to use clay.

I make bracelets, all sorts of different kinds of things.

Ignorant style is taking away from the actual meaning of a tattoo and turning that into the design.

So instead of focusing so much on perfect of what goes where, it's a lot more in the way that it's tattooed and the way that you create those designs.

And then traditional style is American traditional style.

So that style has really bold lines, a lot of specific colors.

So there's about three to four colors that you'll use in traditional style and you'll see a lot of like snake and daggers, some skulls, you'll see the roses, those kinds of things.

Safety comes in multiple different aspects when we're talking about this space.

It's only open to the public when we allow it to be open to the public.

Since moving into Parachigo, My space has felt even more safe on the acceptance area of things too, where all LGBT, chronically ill, black, indigenous people of color, anyone is welcome.

It feels even more so that because of Anj.

Anj creates this area that everyone is welcome, everyone's pronouns are respected.

And so for my work, it has formed this bit of confidence in myself and in my clients that everyone knows they have a safe space here to work, to be, to get tattooed.

And it's been really, really nice to be able to like move into this more comfortable area of my life and my job too.

It's been really stressful lately.

So getting into here has just been kind of a... What's the word?

It's been comforting.

It's been very, very comforting.

- The reaction's been really positive so far.

The Fargo-Moorhead music scene has really needed a space where people can have their first show for a very long time.

Local artists appreciate having a space that's centralized to sell art.

And when people come in, they're specifically interested in buying local art.

It seems like it's been kind of universally a prosperous endeavor for the art scene so far.

Sustaining is the primary goal for Parachigo's success.

That's very difficult for DIY spaces.

They pop up and they come down.

We have faith in this one though.

But ultimately I think the personal success for me would just be like a space of universal joy.

It's very hard in an oppressive state to feel free.

And I think art spaces for like for trans people, for queer people, for a lot of people of color, just for creatives that don't fit into the norm, this is the only kind of space that they can truly be themselves without feeling ashamed of not fitting into what you're supposed to fit into.

(upbeat music) - Well, that's all we have on "Prairie Pulse" this week.

And as always, thanks for watching.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Funded by the North Dakota Council on the Arts and by the members of Prairie Public.