10 Take Home Messages From A Graduate Sports Coach. Part 2

  The second part of my coaching review from my first year at Bloxham School.

   

     6.  Develop self-awareness through questions: I tend to use questions a lot with my coaching, both in the gym and out on the field. The main advantage is that it engages the child’s thought process; it is more ''we'' rather than ''me'' coaching. Traditional coaching has tended to sway more towards an authoritarian type manner; using questions with children tends to lend itself into a more democratic style of learning. It is also ignorant for the coach to believe they have all the answers. Sometimes just by asking questions you can possibly find out new ways of completing tasks that you hadn’t thought of before.

     7. Don’t let short term glory cloud your judgement: As a coach, it can be too easy to focus on the score line and the end result. However, especially with young developmental athletes, this should not be your only focus. Instead of being results dominated, try and be excellence dominated. Success can come in a number of fashions, not just on the scoreboard.  This also links into what I commonly see in gyms with young athletes; no focus on the long term or on a target. Instead the only focus is to work on the short term, to ''dominate'' a workout there and then. Everything you do needs to be working towards a collective end goal.

8. Every day is a battle against the x-box generation: Children are becoming more and more sedentary. The desire to get fitter, stronger and better at sport is higher than ever, but the lifestyle is not replicating that desire. It is very difficult to achieve much on the field or court when children are already showing bad habits in the classroom. For example, if you sit with poor posture for 6 hours a day, this will have a huge knock on effect on your chances of having a back complaint. Children are becoming more and more acclimatised to choosing convenience over hard work. It might not mean a lot to them now, but when they complain they are not seeing ‘’results’’ then all those marginal gains will add up. Being an athlete means being an athlete, not just in the weights room or on the track, but in the classroom, canteen and at home.

9. Generalise, don’t specialise: Too many children want to pack everything in and specialise in one chosen sport by the time they are in their early teens. This, to me, shows lack of education on the parents and child’s behalf. If you generalise early and play several sports during the school year, children will be better equipped by the time they reach their late teens and want to specialise. I see this trend especially with young rugby players who want to pack all sports in and live mainly in the gym. This attitude will lead to becoming a paper-thin athlete; highly susceptible to injuries and structurally weak. The more sports you play at a younger age will only increase your physical literacy, and your overall enjoyment of sport as a whole.

10. No one child is ever the same: Therefore don’t treat everyone the same. As a coach you have to be able dip in and out of your coaching toolbox, to accommodate for different learning styles and different personalities. Physically, children cover a wide spectrum, as soon as they walk through the door watch them move and you will start to pick up certain discrepancies they already attain. This also links into different stages of maturation, which have a huge influence on programme design towards a youth athlete. For example, most training and competition programs are based on chronological age. However, same-age athletes between 10-16 years can be 4-5 years apart developmentally. This means that training programs may serve some of them well, but work against the needs of others.

10 Take Home Messages From A Graduate Sports Coach. Part 1

As my first year has finished at Bloxham, it feels right to reflect on what I have learnt and what key messages I can take forward to my next year of coaching

1) There is a difference between Physical Education and School Sport: However, many teachers, pupils and parents believe playing competitive games constitutes P.E. The job of Physical Education is to make a child as physically literate as possible. Every child in this country is taught to read and write, the same is true for P.E; every child should be taught to run, jump, throw, twist, pull, push, squat, lunge, brace and rotate. But many people try to stick a child on a rugby pitch who can’t control his/her bodyweight, let alone other peoples. Without the appropriate physical comprehension, many children struggle to play competitive sport and as a result get injured or just drop out of sport all together. Baroness Sue Campbell summarised this concept very well at a conference I recently attended; P.E is a need to do subject, competitive sport is a nice to do subject.

      2) Always reinforce the quality: This cannot be emphasised enough, especially with regards to strength and conditioning. Many children I have worked with this year feel as though they have earned the right to do certain exercises. If they can’t master the basics, there is no method of progressing up the athletic development ladder. Even with the more capable athletes, the basics can be mastered on a daily basis, through the use of warm ups and cool downs. This is the bread and butter, the fundamentals that all children should be competent in doing. Reinforce that quality from the start, and make your athletes aware that this is what is expected every time they train.

     3) There is more to life than sport: Due to the nature of our school sport structure, all of the children I coach play 3 terms of sport, an attribute which many children fail to complete due to early specialisation. This certainly helps them become more versatile athletes, but it means that Sports Coaches are pulling them in different directions throughout the school year, in order for them to gain advantage come game day. What is crucial for children, parents and coaches to understand is that there is more to life than sport. Sometimes children need to say no; have that afternoon off, catch up on coursework, use their ‘free time’ to learn an instrument or just chill out and be a kid. From my experience, the children that are pulled in these directions either get fed up of that sport or over-train and suffer the injury consequences that are associated with this.

4) You are part of a bigger team: Coaching doesn’t just involve yourself and the athlete. Parental education and support is vital if the child is going to succeed in sport. Communication from their sport coaches is imperative and needs to be constantly updated. You are just one part of a multi-disciplined team, each member can highlight aspects of the child’s life and sport, which has a direct impact on your coaching structure towards them.

5) Everything starts in the warm up: The attitude and direction of the session, whether it be in the gym, outside on the court or field, is dictated in the warm up. Too many of the children I work with thought that the warm up was an opportunity to discuss social agendas while lying down on a bench press! Set the tone and set the attitude for the session in the warm up; it is an opportunity to see how the athlete moves and works and therefore requires your concentration and commitment, as much as theirs. Treat each warm up as an opportunity to get better.