Willie M

 Coaches can help children to develop confidence and self-esteem. Here are some ways you can do it.  Remember:

 1. Greet each child individually when they arrive for each session. Make them feel good about being there.

2. Show confidence in their ability to learn.

3. Offer activities that suit their level of development.

4. Encourage effort without always focusing on results.

5. Avoid elimination games and other activities that may add undue pressure. Create situations where there are lots of  “successes”.

6. Be specific when telling them what you like about their effort or performance.

7. Use a smile, a nod, or a wink to acknowledge them.

8. Praise them for special things they have done. A pat on the back means a lot.

9. Give them responsibilities. Involve them in making decisions and give each of them a chance to be a  leader. You might want to alternate captains, for example.

10. Ask them for their input and invite their questions.

Making sport better for children Sport has many positive benefits. If you accentuate these benefits in your practices, in the ways suggested below, you can help make sport a special experience for children.

1. Friendships

                  • Call each child by name

                  • Have the children learn each other’s names as well

                  • Speak to every child at every practice

                  • Help children who may be shy

                  • Use partner and small group activities

                  • Rotate partners and members

                  • Organize team events

                  • Involve parents

2. Skill Development

                  • “Talk an ounce, practice a ton”

                  • Design activities to minimize waiting

                  • Vary drills

                  • Create challenges

                  • Give children activities to practice at home Fitness

                  • Develop habits of stretching, warming up, and cooling down

                  • Set a good example fun

                  • Make sure every child experiences some feeling of achievement

                  • Scale down your sport if necessary

                  • Provide sufficient equipment

                  • Have a rewards system

                  • Ensure different children win each week

                  • Cultivate your sense of humor, success and Self-Worth

                  • Have realistic expectations

                  • Emphasize performance, not results

                  • Measure and reward individual improvement

                  • Offer specific, honest praise

                  • Provide constructive “try this” feedback

                  • Give personal attention to each child positive Values

                  • Stress teamwork

                  • Play by the rules on and off the “field”

                  • Discourage cheating, reinforce fair play

                  • Be happy but humble in victory, dignified in defeat

                  • Be proud of your efforts

Enhancing athletes’ self image Self-image refers to how people see themselves. It is molded by the reactions of  others - parents, peers and coaches, for example - and further shaped by experiences in life. People’s view of  themselves strongly affects motivation, learning, athletic performance and personal relationships. 

The two most important things you as a coach can do to help athletes develop a positive self-image are to care about them and to manage them positively.

Show you care by:

• Calling them by name

              • Paying them personal, individual attention

              • Asking about them, their interests and families

              • Praising good effort, good behavior, good performance - all the “goods”

              • Encouraging them after a “mistake”

              • Making them feel important as people

              • Feeling accepted should never depend only on an athlete’s performance

Manage athletes positively by:

• Emphasizing their self-responsibility, giving them time to try things, practice skills and show what they

  can do well

              • Showing confidence in their ability to take on and master tasks

              • Encouraging them to ask questions and make suggestions, and by listening to them

              • Making sure tasks are appropriate for their stage of development and ability

              • Encouraging them to give each other positive comments

              • Supporting them during difficulties

              • Applying a clear set of rules fairly and consistently

              • Dealing appropriately with unacceptable behavior (do not use physical punishment like extra work)

   remember, if you expect good things of people, good things tend to happen.

Effective feedback vital to learning in sport, feedback is the information learners receive about their performance. The purpose of feedback is to compare present with desired performance - information athletes must have if they are to improve their skills.

Effective feedback has three main messages:

1. “You’re OK as a human being.”

             2. “Here’s what you are doing well.”

             3. “Here’s what you need to do to improve your performance.”

So, after you have carefully watched an athlete and decided how you are going to help him or her, follow these tips to give effective feedback:

• Make sure that what you say tells the athlete more about their performance than the result already has.

             • First, tell the athlete what she or he is doing well.

             • Be specific and precise about what the athlete should try to do to improve.

• Give direct feedback about changeable behavior. An error caused by lack of strength, for example, is not

   immediately perfected!

• Give feedback as soon as possible after performance.

             • Make sure the athlete understands your feedback.

             • With young or less skilled performers, keep feedback simple.

Here is an example of effective feedback. “Good try, Cindy  (you’re OK). You were tight on the end of the board that time (what you did well). Now, for the next three dives, think of two things: knees up and arms straight specific, precise, changeable, simple). show me here what you are going to do (understood).  That’s it. OK, off you go.”

Fair Play

As a coach, you are one of the most influential persons in a child’s life. When Jack Donohue speaks to coaches he tells them, “As a coach, you’ve got to help young people become all they were created to be. Your job is to produce good athletes, but more importantly, good people.”  One of your greatest responsibilities is to develop your athletes’ sense of fair play. Fair play embodies the principles of integrity, fairness, respect and emphasizes the following:

• respecting the rules of the game

            • respecting officials and accepting their decisions

            • maintaining dignity under all circumstances these principles apply in all circumstances, and they apply to

              everyone in sport - athletes, coaches, officials, parents, spectators.

As a coach, your fair play aims should be to:

• behave the way you want your athletes and the spectators to behave

• respect both the letter and the sport of the game

            • help your athletes understand the reasons for rules and appreciate the job that officials do

• teach your athletes to value opponents, because without them there would be no competition

• teach your athletes to lose with dignity

            • emphasize that doing one’s best is more important than winning

            • help each of your athletes equally

            • keep the fun in sport

The athletic skills your athletes learn from you may be used for only a few years. The attitudes they develop towards themselves and others will last a lifetime.

Being a good listener:

Are you a good listener? Listening is a vital part of communication and is essential to coaching. Of course

you want your athletes to listen to you, but you too can learn from listening. Listen to your athletes, to their

parents, to officials. Listening is sharing.

Here are several listening techniques. They make it easy for people to express themselves in a non-threatening way, and to connect with each other. They also ensure that what is said is heard.

1.      Attentive Listening   Listening starts with attentiveness. You are quiet. Your posture, facial expression, gestures, all indicate attention acceptance.

2.      Paraphrasing: Paraphrasing is saying in your own words what you think the other person said, to see if it is what the person meant. It really helps to clarify understanding.

3.      Bridging From time to time you indicate that you are following what the other person is saying, by

nodding or saying “uh huh” or “yes, I see”.

           4.    Restating you repeat the last portion of what the person said without changing anything.

5.     Inviting Clarification You request the person expand on something he/she has said.

Five strategies for program success  Success in sport is often equated with winning, but success can be defined in many other ways. If success means scoreboard victories, there are always losers. If success means achieving an

objective, there are never losers. Here are five ways to create a successful program in which everyone will “win”:

1. Assess and reward individual progress.  If you evaluate at all, do so on an individual basis. Compare the person to his/her own past performance, and praise any improvement.

2. Set achievable goals. Make goals challenging but achievable so your athletes feel successful. Once achieved, goals should be progressively increased on an individual basis.

3. Scale down games. For children or beginner adults, reduce the demands of your sport by adapting rules, equipment, areas, goals, etc. This way, skills are easier to learn and therefore more fun.

4. Provide varied opportunities. When planning a practice, in-corporate different kinds of  “positive play” such as:

                              • equal time for all participants

                              • the opportunity to play all positions

                              • individual, dual and team activities

                              • non-competitive, self-paced activities

                              • co-operative activities

                              • time for free play with no direction

           5. Encourages self-responsibility. Give athletes increasing responsibility for making their own decisions. Encourage them to:

                              • give you their ideas and advice

                              • make up new games

                              • do their own officiating

                              • make their own rules

                              • organize and lead parts of the practice

                              • help one another improve

              6. Planning a practice

Practices should be well organized, safe and fun. There are seven elements to a good practice. Take some time before the practice to plan all seven.

1. Goals

        Decide what you want the athletes to achieve, based on evaluation of previous practices.

2. Warm-ups

         Prepare the athletes with calisthenics, stretching and simple, familiar drills.

3. Skill Instruction

         Teach skills early in the session while the athletes are physically and mentally fresh. Use short, clear demonstrations, and simple, descriptive key words.

4. Skill Practice

         Consider the number of athletes, equipment, and space, then plan for maximum activity. Progress, in both difficulty and organization, from skill to game-like drills, from twos to fours to eights. Tell the athletes what they are doing right, and give specific comments to correct errors.

5. Fitness

         Challenge your athletes with conditioning activities that are suitable for your sport. Set these up as circuits, relays, or modified games.

6. Fun

            Include several fun times in every practice. Tie them into any part of the practice - warm-up, technique work, conditioning. Ask your athletes for ideas! Always finish on a positive note.

 7. Evaluation

         Review the practice with your athletes. Did you achieve the goals? Why, or why not? What went well? What needs to be worked on? The answers will help you plan for the next practice. Perfect practice makes perfect performance. This applies to         planning too. Make perfect happen - by planning for it.