Turning Sport Into Education and Chaos Into Clarity
All invasive sports soccer, basketball, hockey, rugby, and lacrosse are governed by the same tactical laws: width, depth, support, balance, compactness, and transition. Recognizing and codifying those shared principles puts me among a rare group of thinkers who see sport not as separate games, but as one universal system of understanding.
Most coaches teach within a single sport. I teach across them. I don’t just teach drills I teach systems. My approach, called Cognitive Systems Coaching Intelligence, translates the chaos of play into a structured, measurable framework of learning. It’s coaching built on cognition the ability to perceive, decide, and act within time and space not on slogans or repetition.
This philosophy bridges sport and education. Just as math builds from arithmetic to calculus, or language evolves from words to poetry, the game can be taught through a hierarchical progression of understanding. My eight-level taxonomy one of the rarest frameworks in education organizes how players learn, when they learn it, and how it connects across a 13-year developmental curriculum (ages 5–18).
It’s a complete ecosystem:
• A 13-year curriculum (ages 5–18) grounded in developmental science
• An eight-level taxonomy that structures learning
• A five-phase model of play based on Dutch methodology
• A cross-disciplinary link between sport and core academics
At its core, this is higher-order thinking operating at the synthesis and creation levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy. It unites sport, pedagogy, and cognitive science into one coherent system. It’s not about drills or trophies; it’s about building understanding.
A true coach isn’t just a motivator they’re a cognitive architect. Their job is to construct comprehension, shape perception, and develop decision-making.
Bend It With Bickham™ is more than a book. It’s a blueprint for coaches who want to teach the game as a discipline, for players who want to master its patterns, and for educators who see sport as a form of intelligence.
It’s time to turn sport into education and chaos into clarity.
My Life Is a Ball
From Player to Pioneer in Coaching Education
From my earliest playing days in Federal Way to my years as a professional, I’ve been surrounded by coaches who modeled excellence and demanded understanding. You can’t teach what you don’t know—and too many in our system are doing just that. My mission is to change that story, one coach, one player, one framework at a time.
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"Bick" is a next level thinker and operates at high conceptual levels down to individual player fundamentals. He has a distinctive approach that breaks down the game of soccer like no one before him. I've personally seen drastic turnarounds with his teams. Also, an easy guy to like and work with!
Steve Lewis
Tournament Director - Cascade FC
Chris Slatt
Executive Director - Starfire Sports
Mark is a creative and passionate soccer coach and visionary. His commitment, vision and determination led to the development of Starfire Sports over 20 years ago and his continued involvement on the board of directors has helped guide Starfire from the beginning. You will not find a more intelligent, creative, and passionate soccer coach/professional than Mark Bickham.
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