Coaching young people
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Empower to motivate:
- Let them choose what activities do / what to learn next – give options to choose from. Let them organise part or whole of the session. Make time within your own planning to allow them decide on rules of the competition element of the session can make them feel like they are making their session
- Get to know your individuals and find out what makes them tick. Use this to help you inspire the players
- Show and let them appreciate how sport fits into the bigger picture of life – how it helps you learn life skills/ and lessons
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The right environment:
- Help your participants create an environment they are comfortable in. for example, let them choose music to play and make time for ‘social breaks’
- Reflect on your own experiences to work out what helps you feel inspired and what helped you at that age. Think about the environment you are working in and how you can make this inspiring as well with images and quotes that help create a buzz
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The right activities:
- Challenge with questions, rather than saying “this is an overhead pass”, say “can anyone show me the overhead pass?”
- Technology can play a part with visual aids. Provide some links to YouTube clips for young people to watch and then practice at home before coming to session to continue to work on them
- Let them have fun in their sport, let them learn how to win and lose, and make and keep friends
- Let them be creative and change things in the session.