Free Play Academy

Fostering ecologic player development ▫️Home to The Free Game, a sport psychology guide for lacrosse players

[Joy of the People @JOYofthePEOPLE]

Conventional Wisdom <--> Underloading

Work harder <--> Work less, achieve more

Embrace the suck <--> Embrace the trick

Outmuscle opponents <--> Outsmart opponents

Grind through resistance <--> Dissolve resistance

Effort is virtue <--> Efficiency is mastery

The harder path is the better path <--> The elegant path is the better path

[Joy of the People @JOYofthePEOPLE]

Hey 📈🇺🇸U.S. Soccer.

Want to know how to create world-class talent outside the "pay-to-play" grind?

We cracked the code. We have the receipts. The future of American soccer is already happening in a gym in St. Paul. #PlayToWin #USSoccer

[Brian Kelly @Brian_Kelly19]

Upgrade your youth lacrosse long-term development plan by avoiding the trap of chasing status on elite teams and overloading on tournament play before your sophomore year of high school.

Instead, redirect your time, energy, and resources toward proven developmental pathways. Prioritize strength, speed, and overall athletic development—it's the foundation for elite performance. Play multiple sports (but not overlapping seasons to prevent burnout!). And shift your focus: Less structure, more play. Less field lacrosse, more box lacrosse. Less games, more training.

When your recruiting window opens, top clubs will eagerly recruit you. Why? They'll need to replace the players who burned out or plateaued from years of status-chasing and endless tournaments without real growth. Invest smart now for a stronger future on the field.

[Free Play Academy @FreePlayAcademy]

🎯

[Steve Magness @stevemagness]

In a ​new paper​, researchers argue that:

“a primary cause of the rise in mental disorders [in youth] is a decline over decades in opportunities for children and teens to play, roam, and engage in other activities independent of direct oversight and control by adults.”

[Brian Kelly @Brian_Kelly19]

Small goals are a must but I would always try to have a goalie.

I think the shooter/goalie relationship is one of the fundamentally most important parts of the game. @JOYofthePEOPLE

This is why tennis balls & mini goals are so great — you can always keep that relationship with or without pads and you don’t need positional specialization to do it. Kids just rotate in and out during small games.

[Brian Kelly @Brian_Kelly19]

It’s not just the lack of time or space for unstructured play.

It’s also a psychological consequence of the professionalization in youth sports.

Kids begin associating certain environments as being the ‘elite’ pathway, although it’s nothing more than a facade for business building.

The kids then have a very hard time buying into the activities that are actually developmentally appropriate and critical for reaching their potential.

Adult driven attitude shifts that are long term detrimental.

[Jeremy Frisch @JeremyFrisch]

Sports science keeps searching for answers to the injury epidemic—but forgets that generations of athletes have grown up without physical education, recess, or free play. Those were once the foundations of elite performance. Without them, we’re seeing the inevitable result: athletes lacking resiliency.
#LTAD

[Joy of the People @JOYofthePEOPLE]

1/11 What if the secret to human genius isn't working harder, but becoming a better conversationalist?

Not with words, but with movement.

How play, language, and cooperation form an "ascending spiral" that builds civilizations.

🧵👇 #Play #Cooperation #TalentDevelopment

[Free Play Academy @FreePlayAcademy]

Kinematic linguistics in action

[Joy of the People @JOYofthePEOPLE]

While we are not very good at teaching language (think 7th grade Spanish), we are excellent at ACQUIRING language. We ALL learn a native language. And the way we learn this first language holds the key to fluent expertise in sport, education and business.https://t.co/gU4TT8hbf6

[Rob Gray ⚾️👁 @ShakeyWaits]

Hot take: It is way past time we abandon the commonly used "fundamentals first"/task decomposition/isolated drilling approach to teach a movement skill to a new learner! It is not necessary. LP vs NLP does NOT depend.

Evidence reviewed in my new book:
https://t.co/ztjAdcUvOV

[Free Play Academy @FreePlayAcademy]

Bullseye

[Joy of the People @JOYofthePEOPLE]

@stirling_j 5/9 This is a biological process. The real loop is Emotion -&gt; Perception -&gt; Action. The joy of play (emotion) opens us to creative possibilities. This is the engine. We call it The Play Cycle of Mastery.

[Joy of the People @JOYofthePEOPLE]

@stirling_j 9/9 In short: Eco-D explains the mechanics of the conversation (Perception-Action). Kinetic Linguistics explains the meaning and purpose of the conversation (Play, Story, Connection). Together, they give us a complete picture of mastery.

[The Constraints Collective @ConstraintsColl]

To truly optimize training, explore athletes' passions and interests beyond their sport. Understanding their favorite subjects or hobbies allows for more tailored and effective training design. #AthleteDevelopment #TrainingDesign

[Joy of the People @JOYofthePEOPLE]

How do I set up different free play games? The principal is rather simple, imagine you are a kid with a few friends at the park and you all love to play. What games will make it fun? That’s the game that will develop the player.

[Free Play Academy @FreePlayAcademy]

Emotionally dysregulated coaches lead to emotionally dysregulated players. Some ways to become a more emotionally aware, resilient and effective coach.

[Marquette Lacrosse @MarquetteMLax]

Please join us praying for Noah and Scott’s family, teammates, and friends. In moments like this, we come together as one community, supporting, encouraging, and lifting each other up.

#WeAreMarquette

[Jeremy Frisch @JeremyFrisch]

Ideas to keep in mind when working with kids:

Create, don’t control → Build games that teach skills naturally.

Kids thrive in chaos → Random, reactive environments build better athletes.

Fun drives effort → When kids are laughing, they’re working harder than they realize.

Skills grow from struggle → Climbing, hanging, crawling, and wrestling build grit and body control.

The game teaches the game → Set the conditions and let movement solve the problem.

“Play is nature’s strength program, speed camp, and agility clinic all rolled into one.”
— Jeremy Frisch

[Joy of the People @JOYofthePEOPLE]

While modern systems of development, from youth sports to academia, relentlessly pursue expertise through structured, effortful "hard work," true mastery is not forged in the grind of deliberate practice but is instead acquired—often invisibly and joyfully—through the powerful, overlooked, and essential engine of unstructured play.

[Jon Beck @CoachJonBeck]

You learn sports playing with your friends—1v1s, pickup games, no structure. Just love for the game. You play for hours, not for a trainer, not for a camera, but only because you want to. That’s how you really fall in love with your sport. And that love truly changes everything!

[Brian Kelly @Brian_Kelly19]

I’ve touched on this several times in 1on1 parent meetings when I hear, “my kid is specializing and doing a million things because they are just so in love with the game.”

My next question is always, “do they really love the sport itself or do they receive the most attention, love & admiration from you while they are engaging in it?”

Big difference.