Motivating Kids In Sport
What is wrong with them?
If you keep asking yourself this question when you are coaching, this section of iCoachKids may help you.
Kids ain't saints and can be a tough crowd, but the honest truth is that only you, their coach, can create the conditions for them to engage with sessions, enjoy themselves and hopefully learn some handy skills along the way.
Here we will hear what experts in the field of motivation in sport have to say about what is good 'motivational' coaching for kids and present some great resources to help you make your sessions an unmissable event.
Credit: Sergio Lara-Bercial
Quick Reference Resources
Featured blogs
Spain and Real Madrid Legend, Raúl González caught up with iCoachKids last summer during the fast-track coaching course run by the Spanish Football Federation for former professional players. The current Real Madrid U16 B Manager spills the beans on his experiences as a young prospect, life at the top, the future of youth sport, children’s coaching and his transition from player to coach.
We all know that possessing the necessary technical skills, tactical proficiency and physical attributes can still leave an athlete wanting. It is a potent combination but nevertheless an incomplete set and therefore insufficient for reaching your full potential. Fortunately, coaching also has the capacity to help people develop their psychological and behavioural skills by creating an optimal social environment conducive to learning. The interaction and overlapping of all of these constituent parts is what truly transforms athletes into successful performers, and successful people. Dr Tom Mitchell, Dr Andy Abraham and Ben Lazenby showed us how this can be done at the recent iCoachKids International Conference.
We have all been there. Training or Competition is over, we are in the car, win or lose, great performance or below par show... To Say Or Not To Say - That Is The Question... Gordon McLleland from Working With Parents In Sport provides some very useful guidance as to the what, the when, the why. Enjoy!
This literature review is a central piece of iCK. It has provided the necessary evidence to aid the development of a European Coaching Children Curriculum to guide those developing training opportunities for coaches of children and young people in the European Union and beyond. The literature review and the ECCC are also informing the development of three Massive Open Online Courses during 2018 and 2019 that will be the final outputs of the project.
You are a parent, you want to help your child, of course, but is shouting instructions from the sideline the best way to go about it? In this incisive blog, Gordon MacLeland from Working With Parents in Sport makes the case for why there are better ways to support your child than coaching from the stands.
This blog comes all the way from Portugal. Antonio San Payo draws inspiration from Martin Luther King Jr and challenges all of us to look at youth competitions in a different way and to do our bit to change the world of youth sport into a much more welcoming, satisfying and educational environment.
The iCoachKids Pledge: 10 Golden Rules to Create Positive Sport Experiences for Kids
Following an extensive literature review, the iCK expert group has developed ‘The iCoachKids Pledge’. The Pledge provides 10 points of guidance for individuals and organisations wishing to create positive sport experiences for children.
Why do children love to play video games? iCoachKids Director Sergio Lara-Bercial offers some incisive reflections about what children love so much about videogames and challenges coaches to think more like videogame designers to get children hooked on sport.
The long hours, countless sacrifices and dedication to intense training has paid off – your athletes have finally secured that elusive championship. As much as you try to avoid it, almost immediately talk turns to securing back-to-back titles.
Chasing a title keeps athletes hungry and focused. But when a team becomes champion the chase is over, and suddenly it is now being chased. That can make the season following a championship very stressful for athletes and coaches alike. And, as a result, title-winning teams find it very hard to regain anything resembling championship form.
To you and to the many coaches who have sought my advice after winning a title, I offer these informed suggestions.
In this short blog Leeds Beckett University's and world-renown coaching science expert Andy Abraham makes the case for the need to, without making it complicated, embracing the complexity inherent in coaching young children. Thankfully he also gives us key principles that when observed will make it much more likely that kids both have a great time and learn lots.
Have you ever been frustrated, disappointed, or puzzled by your athletes’ behavior? Of course, happens all the time, right? We all experience those moments when we witness one of our athlete’s making a poor decision, showing lack of focus, or just plain acting out of character.
Winter is Coming! Keep warm with a great read by the fireplace! The iCK Team have created a Practical Summary of the comprehensive Coaching Children Literature Review and The iCK Pledge to provide clear and pragmatic advice to coaches on the ground.
This literature review is a central piece of iCK. It has provided the necessary evidence to aid the development of a European Coaching Children Curriculum to guide those developing training opportunities for coaches of children and young people in the European Union and beyond. The literature review and the ECCC are also informing the development of three Massive Open Online Courses during 2018 and 2019 that will be the final outputs of the project.
The all too familiar sights (above) at the side of a kid’s sports competition, and the sounds to match. As an interested observer and listener I find it really interesting to watch and listen to these coaches, and I do wonder…which of the instructions, if any, do the players hear or process?...have the kids been supported and prepared for the situation they’re in, if so much instruction is needed?... and is the communication from the ‘side-lines’ helping the kids develop their decision making ability for the longer term?
Athletes perform best when they learn how to effectively handle competitive pressure. This is most evident in defining moments of important competitions when the consequences of mistakes are highest. Failure in these moments can often be traced to a lack of confidence, resulting in poor decision-making.
Kris Van der Haegen, Director of Coach Education for the Royal Belgian Football Association and a visionary for the development of young footballers, encourage us in this brave blog to stop thinking of football as adults, take our grown-up glasses off and see the game for what it looks like and means to 5 and 6 year olds: a fun game! The Belgian FA has done this and thus changed the competition format for U6 to 2v2, yes 2v2!! Learn the full story here!
We now live in an age where it is common to see young athletes being pushed to play a single sport year-round. Why does early specialization persist despite all the scientific evidence and position statements by leading sport organizations to the contrary?
Dr Wade Gilbert explores this more here.
What makes for a good teammate...? And what can coaches do to help their athletes become one? In his first blog for iCoachKids, Dr Wade Gilbert offers a ton of tips and advice to help coaches create good teammates. Are your ready to take the CREDIT?
What does creativity mean for coaching? Nigel Hetherington tries to convince us in his new blog that We Are Not In Kansas Anymore! Are you ready to follow the yellow brick road?
Parents are the biggest resource available to coaches. Yet, they can also become a 'bone of contention' in your daily practice. In this blog Spanish acclaimed author, coach and sport psychologist Chema Buceta explains the motivations behind parents behaviours and encourages coaches and clubs to take responsibility to support and educate them. Priceless!
This factsheet is one of a series, produced by sports coach UK and the Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation (WSFF), aimed at coaches who coach women or who are interested in coaching them in the future. Each factsheet provides insight into the female athlete and her needs, and guidance as to how better to coach and support her.
This PCA 1-on-1 interview features Paul Tough (@paultough) the author of Helping Children Succeed: What Works and Why. His previous book, How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character, was translated into 27 languages and spent more than a year on The New York Times hardcover and paperback best-seller lists.
In this podcast, Tough discusses two different "toolboxes" that help children succeed: the connection toolbox and the challenge toolbox.
Mistakes happen. Children, coaches and parents get upset. In this blog, coach and youth sport researcher Sergio Lara-Bercial opens his heart and soul to us to reveal his own struggles with keeping emotions in check and the strategy he has developed to get better at it.
Professor Jim McKenna, Head of the Health and Active Lifestyles Research Centre at Leeds Beckett University (England) discusses the challenges coaches face to support the drive to increase participation and retention in youth sport: Can we deliver the sport experience kids want, not the one we think they need? And is the coaching workforce ready for that?
In this blog USA-based Changing the Game Project founder John O'Sullivan analyses the current picture of youth sport and takes us back to basics. He argues that if we keep our focus on what draws kids towards sport in the first place - enjoyment - we cannot stray too far from the right path. Wise words.
The amazing gold medal winning performances in the recent Olympic Games at Rio brought to mind a topic that coaches and athletes think and dream a lot about but rarely really understand: Winning it all. And fewer still know how to prepare to do it.
Dr. Wade Gilbert discusses this more here.
Featured videos
This video produced by the Child Protection in Sport Unit of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in the UK shows several children involved in different sports describing how the behaviour of parents/spectators deteriorates when they wear their 'magic sports kit' -- i.e. when they compete. They talk about a range of bad adult behaviours and how these negatively impact on them. They then describe and promote positive behaviour. We must listen to them and act accordingly!
This video developed by Sport England has inspired thousands of women and girls to become physically active. Worth every second. Spread the word (images we mean!)
This short fun film was developed by sportscotland, the national sport council for Scotland, to help young athletes, their coaches and their families understand what 'talent' is and how you can get good at sport - it's more of a choice than you might think. For more information about talent, visit their website - sportscotland.org.uk
In this terrific clip produced by Sports Coach UK, the national lead agency for coaching in the United Kingdom, coaching children experts Alan Williams, Alison Tootill, C.J. Lee and Pete Sturgess, tell us why they got involved in coaching, why coaching children enthuses them and what they think children get from taking part in sport and coaching. Really inspirational stuff!
Downloadable documents
Another great infographic from Believe Perform offering wise advice for parents turned coaches. At your own risk!
Part of the new Coaching Children 4-workshop series developed by Sport Ireland Coaching and Leeds Beckett University, this 16-page factsheet contains highly applicable knowledge and coaching tips designed to help coaches understand how children learn best and what it means for our sessions.
Part of the new Coaching Children 4-workshop series developed by Sport Ireland Coaching and Leeds Beckett University, this 16-page factsheet contains highly applicable knowledge and coaching tips designed to help coaches understand what children want from sport and how to give it to them.
sportscotland and the Winning Scotland Foundation, in cooperation with the Positive Coaching Alliance, have developed a national programme called Positive Coaching Scotland (PSC). PSC aims to culturally transform the way coaching is delivered to create a more positive environment and to support the development of life-skills through sport.
Featured links
PsyTool is an Erasmus+ co-funded project led by the Universidad Pablo de Olavide (Seville, Spain) using Sport Psychology as a strategic tool to promote integrity and to tackle violence, discrimination, intolerance and match-fixing among young practitioners of grassroots sports. It will do so through the face-to-face and online training of a network of Agents of Change that will then work on the ground to support safe grassroot sport. Please visit PsyTool to learn more.
The best to describe Sports Coach UK is in their own words:
We're the UK's technical agency for coaching, established as the National Coaching Foundation more than 30 years ago to 'promote for the public benefit the education of sports coaches, youth and community sports leaders, physical education teachers and other people engaged in the teaching and encouragement of sporting skills in the fields of physiology, biomechanics, psychology, sociology, philosophy and other sports-related subjects'.
If all that sounds rather formal, just browse our website to see how we put coaching at the heart of physical activity and sport.
We don't mind whether you call yourself an activator, coach, facilitator, instructor, leader, teacher or trainer.
Whatever the badge you wear, you'll still be using some of the same core skills of coaching and we have lots to offer.
We hope you find what you need.
Canadian Sport for Life (CS4L) is a movement that promotes quality sport and physical activity. It is led by Sport for Life Society, a federal not for profit society that incorporated in September 2014, and comprises experts from sport, health, recreation and academia who are employed as independent contractors, yet work cooperatively to promote the movement’s goals.
On their website, coaches, coach educators, parents and sport administrators will find a fantastic bunch of resources on topics such as:
- Long-Term Athlete Development
- Physical Literacy
- Community Engagement
Empowering Coaching TM is a theory and evidenced-based approach developed by Professor Joan Duda of the University of Brimingham.
Its goal is to help grassroots coaches foster quality motivation... making youth sport more engaging, health empowering and enjoyable!
This Girl Can is a celebration of active women who are doing their thing no matter how well they do it, how they look or even how red their face gets. Developed by Sport England, This Girl Can wants to help women overcome the fear of judgement that is stopping too many women and girls from joining in. Visit their website www.thisgirlcan.co.uk for ideas an inspiration to celebrate female sport participation.