THE COACHES GAME PLAN

Courtesy of:

The Coaches Association of Canada (1997)

Recognize This

· Physical activity stimulates growth and leads to improved physical and emotional health

· Highly active children are less likely to suffer from high blood pressure, diabetes,

cancer of the colon, obesity, and coronary heart disease later in life

· Exercise is also known to relieve stress in children

· Sport, not just exercise, gives a child more than physical well-being; it contributes to a

child’s development both psychologically and socially

· Children don’t see winning as the only kind of success. In fact, winning is most often cited last when children are asked about their reasons for participating.

The 10 Most Important Reasons Why Children Play School Sport

1. To have fun

2. To improve my skills

3. To stay in shape

4. To do something I’m good at

5. For the excitement of competition

6. To get exercise

7. To play as part of a team

8. For the challenge of competition

9. To learn new skill

10. To win

· Young children are more concerned with mastering their own environment and developing

skills than with beating others – at least until some tells them that it is important to win.

· Children play sport because it makes them feel good. They need to feel wanted, valued and

joyful. But if he or she is suddenly benched or pulled from the line-up because the team needs to win, a child might feel incompetent and rejected.

· Children don’t join a team to sit around and do nothing. Sport is not enjoyable if they

don’t get much opportunity to play. Studies have shown that children would rather play for a losing team than be members of a winning team and sit on the sidelines. If they’re not playing, they’ll lose interest very quickly.

· The reward comes from competing against your own potential and goals, not from a

competition over which you have little control.

With proper leadership sport provides the opportunity for children to:

· Acquire an appreciation for an active lifestyle

· Develop a positive self-image by mastering sport skills

· Learn to work as part of a team

· Develop social skills with other children and adults

· Learn about managing success and disappointment

· Learn respect of others

Children and Winning

In general, children tend to keep sport in perspective. At the end of a game, many children don’t know if they’ve won or lost. While parents and coaches may dwell on the result of a competition, a child will go home and forget about it. According to a USA Today/NBC poll almost three out of four children age 10 to 17 years said they wouldn’t care if no score were kept during a game

The tendency to value winning above all else has been recognized as the cause of many problems in children’s sport. When winning is kept in perspective, the focus is more accurately placed on striving to win and the pursuit of victory. Successful coaches recognize that teaching children how to master new skill and strive for excellence even if they risk an error will produce children who can complete against others and feel good about themselves.

If children are given many opportunities to succeed in sport, they will more often come to see themselves as ‘winners’ rather than ‘losers’ – they will grow up to be better adjusted, more confident, and better able to cope with stress and new challenges

Children and Early Competition

· Children who specialize in sport and experience a great deal of success at an early age

may have difficulty coping with athletic failure later in life

· Research shows that at age 12, there can be a four-year difference in the physical

maturity of children. An early maturer can be a foot taller and weigh 30 or 40 pounds more than a late developer. In sports such as hockey or basketball which require strength, power and speed (and size), the more mature child will usually perform better and fitness levels will be greater than in less developed peers. The uneven spread of early and late developers creates a difficult challenge. Many coaches with no understanding of this phenomenon choose certain kids to play on their teams for the wrong reasons. The early developers may have a lot of success in sport. They are picked first for team sports and receive much of the coach’s attention. This may cause late bloomers to develop low self-esteem and many drop out of sport.

· Parents and coaches must encourage and nurture late developers to keep them in sport

long enough to benefit from their eventual maturity. Towards the end of adolescence, late developers often surpass and become better athletes than early developers.

· Pre-competition anxiety is greatly increased when adults pressure children to win.

· Helping youngsters develop high self-esteem is one of the most rewarding gifts that

adults can give to children.

The Coach (The Adult)

The Coaching Association of Canada has developed the central theme that a good coach “is someone who creates an environment that allows athletes to succeed – good coaches build the confidence needed for athletes to believe in themselves so that they can perform at their highest level”.

A good coach makes encouraging comments to the group. Coaches should encourage their charges by praising their efforts. Children like to be told they are doing a good job and working hard.

1. A good coach provides specific instruction to individual children.

2. A good coach provides opportunities for feedback and questions from the children. Children should never be discouraged from asking questions.

3. A good coach lets everybody play. Sign up with a coach who believes everybody should play even if it means missing the playoffs.

4. A good coach has happy children. Children who enjoy working with a good coach leave practices happy and satisfied, ready to come back the next time.

Adult involvement in kids’ sports is deeper and more influential than it used to be. This deeper involvement has resulted in a shift in emphasis from helping ‘where they could’ to a pretty clear domination of kids’ sports by adults.

Today’s children should primarily be having fun in any sport they play, with winning and losing a by-product. Whatever the role of adults, it should always be encouraging, supportive and positive.

Let us not as adults take the game away from children and mould it to adult standards. Let us encourage children to enjoy being active through enjoyable play and appropriately designed competition that meets their needs. If we do this, we will have made an important contribution to their development through sport.