Trick It Out Sports is a company I created 3 years ago, that makes learning the fundamental skills of sports more engaging and fun by breaking them into measurable tricks. Most recently we partnered with the PGA of America and designed our first golf product.

PGA Trick It Out Golf is a backyard skills game for any level of play. Based on mini-skill competitions that are called “tricks”, and a virtual web based scoring system, you can conduct on-going competitions throughout the summer, wherever you are.

This unique and innovative PGA game breaks down all the fundamentals of golf into a series of fun tricks, in combination with a virtual web tool that measures each golfers improvement, while providing everyone the opportunity to compete and rank each of their trick performances among other golfers around the world. In your own backyard!

All tricks are introduced and available on a member’s personal PGA Trick It Out Golf web page, via trick videos, and an illustrated pocket guidebook, that provides step by step instructions on how to set-up, execute, and score each trick. After a golfer executes a trick they download their best score onto a virtual scoreboard that automatically shows where that performance ranks.

For this upcoming holiday weekend you can try it out and let PGA Trick It Out Golf know what you think. All you need is 10 yards of open space, a pitching or sand wedge, 5 short flight golf balls (wiffle, foam, etc), 7 small disc cones (you can substitute with two jump ropes, rope, string, etc), 6 empty shoe boxes or pairs of different size buckets that form 3 different size obstacles approximately 6, 12, & 18 inches in height, an extra club or stick to lay on top of the shoe boxes or buckets.

How to Set-up:
Set-up a 6 foot diameter circle of cones or use jump ropes, 10 yards from a tee area. Start by placing a 6 inch obstacle three feet directly in front of the tee-box. Follow that by placing a 12 inch & 18 inch obstacle three feet directly in front of tee-box.

How to Play
Take 5 consecutive shots with short flight golf balls (using a pitching or sand wedge) over the three different sized obstacles for a total of 15 consecutive shots. Each ball that stays within the 6 foot diameter circle 10 yards from the tee-box is awarded 5 points. Total your points after 15 consecutive shots from the three different heights for your final score. Keep trying to improve your score.

Then go to PGA Trick It Out Golf on Facebook and let them know what you think. If you’re pleased, and want to try more, log onto HYPERLINK “http://www.pgatrickitoutgolf.com” www.pgatrickitoutgolf.com and register for a one year membership.

Anyone can sign-up & join. You can sign-up your kids by age category, as well as register yourself to the open adult division.

A one year individual membership includes:
Access to 10 introductory tricks on video, with more tricks added throughout the year, including indoor tricks for the winter.
A virtual realtime scoreboard that ranks your trick performances among others nation & worldwide.
Tips from the pros.
Download video of your swing, or tricks performed, and link them to a certified PGA Teaching Professional for analysis (your local pro can sign-up and link to you anytime)
A calendar of upcoming PGA Trick It Out Events throughout the country.
All for just $9.95 per year

What’s lost in youth sports is the true enjoyment of participating. Yes, it sounds cliche, but it very much holds true in this case. Sports should be played to enjoy oneself, to socialize, to learn how your body moves, and progress that learning in order to increase & improve an individual’s athletic skills.

Action sport athletes have a culture that focuses on the pure enjoyment of participating, they play & live in the moment. Sports such skate & snowboarding appreciate and celebrate the small individual elements & achievements of what it takes to participate. The very fact that their sports are based on performing tricks provides them an element of freedom that many team sports don’t ever achieve.

Sports such as surfing, skate & snowboarding are essentially not based on winning & losing a game or individual contest. Participation in these sports are purely focused on practice and the joy and reward received through self-improvement. Athletes in these sports are naturally creative due to the fact that there’s no set way any one trick must be performed. Everyone is different, everyone moves differently, our movement skills are our identity, another set of fingerprints that distinguishes us from others.

Action sport athletes are not forced to conform to any particular structure of coaching and competitions. This freestyle nature of participation truly allows a young athlete the opportunity to own and mold their experience.

Sports, through athletic movement & skill development should be thought of as an art form. Through sports, the ability to self-discover how your body and mind work both separately and together provides all of us an incredible educational experience that never ends. Unfortunately, a majority of team sports rarely provide this experience, therefore our kids never truly enjoy or reap the educational benefits of self-discovery and an appreciation of the creative process of athletic development, in comparison to action sport athletes.

Are young action sport athletes better athletes than traditional youth team sport athletes?

Physically in most cases, I can argue that participants in action sports are athletically more multidimensional and creative. For the most part they develop better core strength and balance, and they better understand and are aware of how their entire body needs to work together.

Creatively there is no question that a young action sport athlete has a tremendous advantage over a young team sport athlete. Unfortunately, unlike action sports, team sports don’t emphasize improvisation, where freestyle execution of skills are frowned upon and often not allowed by coaches. Action sport athletes have the freedom to learn and develop on their own, through their own style and creativity. Team sport athletes are robotic, waiting to be told what to do, stymied through a right and wrong way to execute skills.

Does organized youth sports have benefits for kids? Absolutely, it keeps them somewhat active, but it mostly serves to identify who is more talented much too soon in their developmental process, through often untrained amateur methods, organizations, and overzealous adults.

We as adults do more to limit creative development in our young athletes. Action sports have limited adult involvement, and those athletes have flourishing creative experiences and development. Over 40 million kids play organized sports in this country, while millions of adults coach &/or administer youth sports. Hmm… do you see the problem!!??

This is part one of an ongoing series of blogs where I’ll be exploring, “Creativity in Sports”, the importance it plays in your child’s overall development, how to incorporate it into the organized sports experience, and what you can do at home to supplement the process.

Let me know your thoughts

Why this love for watching sport yet no desire to play or be active? Many people I spoke to here mention the heat as a reason a majority don’t engage in an active lifestyle. Granted summer brings average temperatures between 105 and 110 degree fahrenheit, combined with high humidity, and no real relief in the morning or evening, does present a problem for being outside. Yet that argument puzzled me with the beautiful weather (80 degrees , bright sunshine and low humidity) they were having now, and have approximately 6 months out of the year.

The other disturbing trend that many in Abu Dhabi have witnessed is the culture of laziness. Many kids sit at home with all the amenities of technology, and little desire to be active. Add to that the overall school system’s lack of emphasis on physical education, which has lead to over 50 percent of all people in the UAE considered to be overweight or obese.

Hmm…. sound familiar? We are trending in a very similar path.

Is there an answer to the obesity issue? Yes, but it doesn’t get solved through public service announcements on television or professional sports leagues telling kids to go and play 60 minutes every day. It happens by proactively updating the fitness industry and providing more creative alternatives for kids and families, de-emphasizing organized sports participation 12 months out the year, and rebuilding playgrounds and parks nationwide to appeal to kids of all ages.

So this trip to the Middle East got me thinking and inspired to make a difference in the lives of kids in our country. Let’s be the first country to actually do something about creating more access to an active lifestyle. Let’s begin super sizing our kids active lifestyle with less fast food and more creative thought and leisure products for the future.

My next destination – South Africa. Stay tuned.

Today’s topic of conversation – who’s fatter? United Emirate or U.S. Kids? I actually found myself, with my American competitive nature trying to convince people we were fatter!

The problem is, it’s universal, we’re all heavier than we need to be, and on a statistical whole, kids are worse.

Both press interviews today (Shape Magazine & 360 Sports), and a past one I did with Abu Dhabi’s “Time Out Magazine”, wanted to know the solution to solving inactivity among kids.

No matter where you live the solution to getting kids interested in an active lifestyle is straightforward. In order to better engage kids we need to create interest in sports & fitness and make it more contemporary to meet their lifestyle. Let’s face it, with all the advancements in technology, science, and communications that have become staples in our children’s lives, we still present sports as a one dimensional experience similar to what we and our parents did in our childhood.

Kids today have grown up and are wired to take in information & entertainment differently than we did. They want information at their fingertips with speedy interaction with others. Despite the fact that we complain that our kids sit around too much, the irony is they actually despise being bored and waiting for things to happen. Unfortunately that’s exactly the experience they’re receiving through today’s organized sports and fitness programs.

So what’s the solution? Let’s look at where sport participation and an active lifestyle thrives among kids. You’ll find it at any skate or snow park. Kids with passion, that want to be outside learning, improving, and experiencing without a coach or a organized practice. Yet they’ll spend hours upon hours working with their peers or on their own on just one aspect of a trick.

The sport & fitness program (Trick It Out Sports) I’m introducing and installing throughout this trip in conjunction with Fairmont Hotels & Resorts to the Middle East, South Africa, and Egypt is modeled similar to how a skateboarder, surfer, or snowboarder participates in their sports. We introduce 6 basic elements of athletic development (agility, balance, coordination, speed, strength, & stamina) through tricks that are self-measuring and allow for everyone to cumulate points, an element that appeals to this video gaming generation.

So my mission on this trip and throughout the United States is to introduce kids to sports & fitness in a new and contemporary way that appeals to how they want to play rather than miniaturizing the same things we do as adults.

As you read this I’m off to Dubai to introduce kids to Trick It Out Sports. I’ll let you know how it goes!

Despite the fact that I feel like starting my day rather than finishing it (Abu Dhabi is 9 hours ahead of NY), I’m settle in with room service and channel surfing to see what people from this region of the world, United Emirates, watch for sports every night. Here were my choices:

Six different European Soccer matches
Rugby
Horse Racing
Men’s Tennis
Darts
Team Handball
In other words, I thought I was watching “Old School” ESPN, the only thing missing was arm wrestling!

Abu Dhabi is an interesting place, located only 90 minutes by car from Dubai, it’s home to the Sheikh Zayed mosque, the largest in the United Arab Emirates – and the sixth largest in the world. It also houses the world’s largest carpet, which measures 60,500 square feet, and weighs 51.8 tons!

Tomorrow, we start introducing the Fairmont Hotels & Resorts “RU Ready?” youth athletic/fitness program and how the Trick It Out Sports concept will work in the Middle East through a series of press interviews.

Shape Magazine – Middle East bureau, to discuss best workouts for Moms to do with their families, and why fitness does not have to stop while you’re on vacation or a business trip.
Sports 360 – a newly launched sports newspaper to discuss the growing epidemic of health issues due to the increasing number of overweight kids.
Emirates 24, an online portal of the former Emirates Business 24/7, will have Arts & Life Editor, Bindu Rai, to ask about how young Fairmont Hotel guests can take not only memories home but also useful athletic & fitness performance tips.
Stay tuned for more updates from my trip!