As a coach it is very important to understand the reasons why children participate in sport. As the main provider of sport for children, the coach has the responsibility to meet the needs of children, to ensure they "play and stay with the GAA". There are many reasons that Children take part in sport, but research has shown that Children primarily participate to:
- Learn new skills
- Make friends
- See new places – and have new experiences
- Be part of a team
- For the competitive challenge/winning
- Sport improves their self worth
- To Have Fun
It is very important as a coach of children that your main aim is that the children enjoy themselves while playing Hurling and Gaelic football and not just emphasise winning. There are a number of tips to help coaches ensure that children enjoy themselves while playing:
- Make sessions fun. This can be done by constantly keeping the children active, not spending too long on any one activity to prevent boredom and quickly change over between activities. The activities should be challenging - but doable - so that they maintain the childrens interest. if a child feels that they cannot perform a task they will not enjoy themselves, however, if a child experiences success they will develop self-esteem and enjoy themselves
- Sessions should be set up to allow the child to learn and develop their skills. The coach should try to establish a positive environment where children are not afraid to make mistakes. Success should be seen as the mastery of a skill, not necessarily beating others
- Children see Hurling and football sessions as an oppertunity to socialise with their friends. The coach can organise events within the Club or School that will allow the children to get to know each other
- The session should be exciting - this means that the practices should be challenging and have variety
- Finally the session should also ensure that there is some sort of competition for the children. However, it is the coaches role to define winning as achieving your own goals, not just beating others.
When children do not experience these feelings, they drop out from sport. Some will drop out in favour of other activities where they feel that these needs are being met, while others will simply drop out of sporting activities altogether. It is the role of the coach to create the environment for children to experience the emotions.
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Self Confidence
For any young player, they have to believe that they have the ability to perform the task. Developing the self confidence of the young player is a task that faces every coach. The coach can help the player to develop self confidence through their own actions, and through helping the player to realise their own abilities. Some of the ways that the coach can assist the players include:
When coaching, it is important to create a positive environment for the child to learn new skills. A part of that process can be achieved through Positive Feedback. Positive Feedback is used to encourage children and increase confidence. Negative feedback can be detrimental to a childs skill development and result in a decrease in their confidence in their ability.
If a child makes a mistake in their performance, they should receive praise for the effort or what they did correctly, then they should receive corrective feedback on what they need to do to correct the error. Finally they receive encouragement and praise again.
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Corrective feedback can have a large effect on the childs motivation to play. Intrinsic motivation involves internal feelings of having fun and feeling competent and successful. It is difficult for the coach to provide intrinsic motivation for any child, but by creating the right environment, players can achieve their own intrinsic rewards.
Extrinsic motivators, such as trophies, medals, praise, can be very powerful motivators for children, and can in fact help to create intrinsic motivation. For example, if a child performs a skill correctly and the coach praises them (extrinsic reward), their confidence will be boosted (intrinsic motivation).
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A major factor in children playing sport is that they have a perception that they have the ability to play. This develops their feelings of self worth - their self esteem. A good method of helping children to develop their self esteem is through Goal Setting. Goal setting is the process of outlining targets or objectives. Goals can be related to the process of playing - improving technique, performance related - scoring three points from 4 shots in training or outcome related - winning the game. Goal setting can be a particularly powerful motivating tool for children as goals:
- Focus attention on a target
- Increase the effort and intensity
- Encourage persistence and practice over time
- Promote the development of problem solving skills
The coach can play an important role in setting out goals for an individual player or a team. By helping the player or team set goals there is a comittment from both sides towards realising the goal. By writing down the goals and placing them in a prominent place, the coach can help reinforce the comittment entered into when the goals are set down. The coach should recognise that the targets should be challenging and achievable but also flexible, as the aim is to challenge the child to achieve the goal, not provide an impossible task. By provding regular feedback, the coach can further challenge the children to achieving their goals. Shorter term goals are better for children as often they will not be able to realise how they are progressing towards a long term goal. This can result in a loss of focus and reduced motivation.
When outlining goals, coaches should remember the SMARTER principle - Goals should be:
Specific - clearly define what you want to achieve
Measurable - choose a goal with measurable progress so that you can see the changes that occur
Agreed - the goal must be agreed upon with the player and the coaches.
Realistic - goals should be challenging, but 'doable'
Time Limited - putting an end point on the goal ensures that the player has a clear target to achieve for
Exciting - players should be enthusiastic about achieving the goal
Recorded - keep a record of all of the goals. This also serves to allow the coach and player review any goals - whether they be achieved or not.
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Motivation is that which stimulates and instills in the player the desire to perform to their true potential. Motivation can come from inside the player - called intrinsic motivation, where players play for the thrill of participation, or the feeling that they get from winning, or from outside of the player - called extrinsic motivation, where players compete for the rewards of success.
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Pep talks are talks that are used as a last minute way of motivating a player before an activity or game. Coaches often give pep talks to remind them of the importance of the activity or to reduce any feelings of anxiety or nerves that a player may be feeling.
However, the may not always be a good thing to give to young players. Many players will already feel nervous, or anxious about a game, and may already be aware of the importance of an occasion through speaking to other players or parents. In this case many children do not need a coach to provide a motivational talk, where coaches can often be unfair and demanding in their pep talks. If a child is already anxious or motivated before a pep talk, the talk itself may infact be too much for them and may lead to a decrease in performance. In some cases it can be terrifying for a child who is already aware of the importance of the game about to be played.
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