Set your brain on fire

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Set your brain on fire

Sam Steele • 5 August 2022

There's no such thing as too many ideas

"The way to get good ideas is to get lots of ideas
and throw the bad ones away."

Linus Pauling

Quantum chemist Linus Pauling knew what he was talking about when he said that the only way to get good ideas is to get loads of ideas and weeding out the rubbish ones. Afterall, he remains the only person in history to win not one but two unshared Nobel Prizes. And if it's good enough for Linus, then we at Sport Sparks are absolutely here for generating lots, and lots, of ideas.

It's not just an idiosyncratic Linus-thing. Research shows that generating many different ideas can also help your brain to make unexpected connections. In fact human brains are spectacularly good at making random connections, and these random pairings are what turn into innovative solutions.

Japan's famous bullet train used to make a terrifyingly loud boom when it travelled in and out of tunnels. An engineer, who liked a spot of twitching in his spare time, fixed the problem after spending a morning watching a kingfisher. The engineer noticed the shape of the kingfisher's beak as it went into the water and applied the same design to the nose cone of the train. His solution not only completely eliminated the tunnel booms, it also allowed the train to travel 10% faster using 15% less electricity.

The Sparks function is designed to help you to come up with lots of ideas, that are personalised to the challenge statement that you enter into the system. When you click on an active challenge and scroll down you will see three different types of sparks:

Explore sparks focus on ideas related to the core problem

Imagine sparks remove constraints, opening the space of possibilities

Solve sparks create motivation by looking to the end goal

The AI can generate hundreds of Sparks, specific to your problem statement, to help you think about your issue from many different perspectives, you can hit the refresh button as many times as you like to see a new selection of ideas.

These statements are built on a hundred years of academic research into how to prompt the most creative responses. Language is structured specifically to engage different types of thinking process.

Watch our video tutorial for some extra inspiration.

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City St George's basketball team in match against Kingston University

City St George’s basketball team bounce around innovative ideas with Sport Sparks

13 August 2024

Sport Sparks helped to boost creativity and find solutions for City St George's basketball team

Case study: Boosting critical thinking and creative problem solving in the classroom with Sport Sparks

23 April 2024

Where can coaches turn to for help when they're out of time, out of colleagues, and out of ideas? THE CHALLENGES OF COACHING A 2020 study by Leeds Beckett University identified 17 main categories coaches’ problems fall into. Problems with player-coach interaction, coaching knowledge and skills, and the coaching workforce were in the top 4. In terms of support networks, the research found that coaches would look “closest to home: to themselves, their family/friends” [1], instead of branching out to find alternatives. These factors can make sports coaching an isolating and challenging environment to innovate in. This case study explores how using an AI tool, Sport Sparks to generate ideas and develop solutions, can be a beneficial ‘coach in your pocket’ tech tool - a source of both knowledge and support.

How Bazball transformed the England cricket team

by Emilia Rolewicz • 3 August 2023

In this blog post we look at the new 'Bazball' phenomenon in cricket and how this creative approach has revolutionised the English team. Bazball has reinvigorated English cricket with creativity and captured the imagination of the fans, which was on full display at the 2023 Ashes. The final test of the Ashes series ended in another England win over their old rivals Australia, and tie the series. Only bad weather in Manchester denied the revived England team yet another series win. Bazball is the new, exciting cricket strategy on the pitch – an approach favouring aggression and fearlessness – and a great example of transformational creativity. Margaret Boden, Research Professor of Cognitive Science and creative theory pioneer, defines this type of creativity as: “a transformation of the search space so new kinds of ideas can be generated.” Coach Brendon McCullum promised just that when he joined the England team in 2022, wanting to strip away the timid English approach to cricket and describing the team as “guys who are maybe just a little bit stuck by the fear of failure rather than the possibility of success.” He also added: “It's just allowing the guys to be able to make good decisions because they're in a clear frame of mind and a positive environment.” The focus on psychological safety and a positive mindset paved the way for the English team to try a riskier form of play with more confidence.

How did first time Wimbledon champ Carlos Alcaraz overturn Djokovic’s decade long winning streak?

17 July 2023

No one really thought that a 20 year old - even one as physically strong as Alcaraz - would have the psychological chops to smash Djokovic. At this level of elite sports, where athleticism is pretty equal, winning and losing boils down to mindset more than muscle. In this blog we breakdown how Alcaraz has developed a number of creative problem solving practices that enable him to conquer the one of the world's most successful players, a tennis Terminator, undefeated at Wimbledon in decade.

How John Curry transformed figure skating

by Emilia Rolewicz • 18 April 2023

"I always wanted to be able to present skating in a way I had not seen before."

How did Sarina Wiegman level up the Lionesses?

10 March 2023

England captain Leah Williamson described Head Coach Sarina Wiegman as the "missing ingredient." In this blog post we explore the creative strategies Head Coach Sarina Wiegman introduced to the Women's England Football team, which lead to their unmatched performance and sterling victory at the Euros 2022.

Is knowledge really power in coaching?

by Emilia Rolewicz • 2 February 2023

“Sometimes our ego takes over and we cease to be curious”

Creative or crazy?

by Sam Steele, Professor Neil Maiden • 24 August 2022

Raducanu's risky strategy is challenging the coaching status quo In this blog post we consider the volatile Raducanu coaching strategy that has been described by commentators as wild, risky and downright trigger-happy. We discuss coaching, the creative process and consider if the Raducanu approach is cutting edge creative or simply cut-throat crazy?