A Little Gamification Can Go A Long Way

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A little gamification can go a long way.

For instance, simply wrapping a soccer drill in a cool name like “zombie attack” can get kids unreasonably excited.

Jason Roberts discusses ~8:21 in Math Academy Podcast 5, Part 2:

“Throw ins are hard to teach to younger kids. They’re doing all kinds of weird stuff and not throwing it in correctly, but practicing them is boring.

So I [Jason] said, we’re gonna play zombie attack.

The kids are like, what’s zombie attack?

I’m gonna walk up and down like a zombie, and if you hit me below the chin and above the waist, then you get a point. If you don’t throw with correct form, it doesn’t count.

They had so much fun throwing the ball, trying to hit the zombie and really focus on accuracy.

And they’re just giggling and laughing and wanting to do zombie attacks on me every day.

You give it a cool name and it worked, and it was a great way to get the most out of them.

Later during games, they made great throw-ins. And the parents were like, what?

Everybody’s looking at me, like, “what the hell?”

And I’m like, it’s zombie attack.”

(Jason discusses ~8:21)

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