How can we as coaches create passion, not pressure in age grade sport

I’ve been fortunate to get some grass under my feet this month and get out and discuss some practical ideas with age grade coaches. While I’ve been spending time with coaches in soccer and swimming, it was my time with rugby union coaches last week which got me thinking again as to how the environments offered can enhance or kill curiosity and development in our age grade athletes. Spending time with QLD U16 coach, Rob Riori and Brendon Shields from Rugbycology, who looks at efficiency and confluence analytics in rugby union, Brendon brought some interesting stats to challenge Rob and his desire to develop players IQ; some included Colts/U20 games averaging only 89 passes per game and increasing phase play to 3 passes increases the chances of a line break by over 100%!! However, it was one of his comments towards practice design that really got me thinking; using some of his stats and developing a better understanding of how humans develop skills, we should strive to create a practice environment with variability and player adaptability, focusing on developing creative artists as opposed to rigid programmers.

We all agreed that the learning and practice environment is critical, both in developing good players and good people. At Wests, Rob is working on player autonomy, developing better decision makers both on and off the field while trying to set appropriate measurable markers to build player IQ. What I stressed to Rob was to not be afraid to explore new ideas and concepts; I believe asking the right questions around the clear goals you have collaboratively identified shall both develop the player's rugby IQ and develop engaged athletes with increased decision making skills and ability to transfer under pressure. I've previously written and strongly believe coaches should assist players to identify problems as opposed to solving them, offering ideas and assistance for how to think and act as opposed to offering solutions. Using these ideas or techniques encourages players to ask questions and adopt sub routines as part of their practice in development of mastery; therefore, the players are taking over the structure of tasks and practice while acquiring performance or transfer of performance.

We discussed how the structure and style of environment shall help or hinder player personal development; offering players room to have autonomy, make decisions (and mistakes) while developing accountability for their choices on and off the field shall build better players and better people. This mantra was discussed by James Holbeck, former Wallaby and current RUPA National Project manager this month also. He is talking of James O’Connor and players in general, looking at the importance of developing the person as well as the player (click here):

“ I started going back into schools and speaking around mental toughness or resilience, character development … there was a massive need for [it in] year nine boys. There's a disengagement (in schools) when they get to 14 years of age. Some of it is about masculinity, identity. I was targeting that and then got called to do some work at Classic Wallabies and then RUPA.

We need to be held to account for the standards expected of us as a professional player; but also understanding our people are going to fall over and make mistakes. How do we, as a game, help them understand that the consequences are for their own good and that we're trying to help them become better humans? (Rugby Unions Player Association)’s mantra is: ‘Better People. Better Players. Better Lives.’ How do we create these players so that become better people? As a game and maybe sport, generally, we haven't always held people to account for their behaviours.

Contrasting the ideas discussed at Wests’ and Holbeck’s comments, I shared another article written by Stuart Armstrong from The Talent Equation. He raised the concerns of the pressure applied to age grade athletes and the negative intervention we are having with young sports people by placing them in HP programs and academies (click here)

(Man United Academy) feels that it is totally acceptable to talk about 5 year old children as being part of a 'market' and wants to create lists of 'targets' and a positive 'market identity'. How did we get to a place where this kind of 'commodification' language is publicly acceptable? Professional clubs are using the language of the market when talking about human children!

These are children, they shouldn't be anywhere near anything called a 'Performance Pathway'. They should be playing, they should be developing relationships with friends, they should be given opportunities to create and experiment, to be goofy, to pretend and use their imaginations.

New Australian high jump record holder, Nicola McDermott, who just last week, broke her personal target and new AUS record of jumping 2.00m was quoted earlier this month saying: I keep the focus on making my identity outside of sport – I do sport, but it’s not who I am. That’s been the breakthrough for me – realising that my performance does not determine my identity. Once you do that, you realise that it doesn’t matter whether you win the Olympics or come last, you’re still the same person.” Taking all of these articles and ideas into account, the question I wanted to pose to coaches is: are we creating environments create better people as well as better players, similar to ideas discussed by Holbeck? Are we allowing them to express themselves, try and fail in many scenarios to develop creativity and commitment to their own development? Are we creating psychologically safe environments to explore and test skills for both on and off the field, similar to Armstrong’s comments? Are we as coaches committed to creating passionate artists, willing to explore and test their ideas and skills, or conforming programmers, focused on the perceived correct ideas and techniques, offering standard outcomes with minimal risk?

These ideas and this question ties in with an article from Dr Colman Nortor, written looking at confidence in children and age grade athletes (click here):

Children are being overly ranked according to their achievements. The awards night at the sports club will award the best, the strongest and the fastest. Children are growing up in a world that values performance more and more, and the substance of human virtue less and less, and understandably their personal value systems follow suit. I have met many teenagers who have told me: ’I have spent most of my life being who other people wanted me to be, and I forgot to be myself’.

We need to change the narrative for our children so that the predominant outcome-focused values or performance and accolades are challenged by effort-focused values such as kindness, meaningfulness and authenticity. This might sound trite, but it is an investment in how we can best protect our children’s self-worth, self-value and self-belief. Remember, the most important relationship your child will ever develop in their life is the relationship they have with themselves, so let’s pay some attention to nurturing that in a meaningful and authentic way,

Vealey (1986) recognised sports confidence as “belief or degree of certainty individuals possess about their ability to be successful in sport”. I believe the progression or development of skills to performance adaptation requires character growth, enabling athletes to adopt a mastery outlook, evaluate their performance and areas for improvement made possible from player confidence. Positive effect and player enjoyment were regarded as most important for the athletes; coaches should pay attention to this theme within player development. As all young people have possessed potential for positive, successful and healthy development, the expansion of core life skills in team or individual sports setting, such as communication, goal setting and leadership or interpersonal skills, can greatly impact the effectiveness of coaching and the volume and impact of successful learning outcomes in adolescent athlete engagement. Youth sports programs similar to one found at Wests Rugby Club Brisbane, can be used to foster positive development, build character and confidence while improving identity development, all deemed to be important in developing Positive Youth Development through addressing areas including interpersonal skills, problem solving, self-efficacy, commitment and achievement. Like I suggested to Rob, age grade programs should look at focusing on enhancing athlete’s existing strengths and personal resources to help them develop these mentioned skills.

So, what can we do as coaches in developing environments to encourage this development? Coaches play an important role in facilitating positive youth development and maintaining motivation and drive within athletes. Vella’s (2011) research results confirmed that coaches see themselves as responsible for facilitating skills such as problem solving, self-efficacy, commitment and achievement alongside development of life skills, positive climate and positive psychological capabilities. Life skills such as goal setting, communication skills, leadership skills and interpersonal skills, were recognised as areas of importance within these age grade sports programs. I believe these skills are currently being avoided or over looked within current age grade organised sport contexts and as a result, the skills are in scarcity when athletes reach adulthood or senior playing ranks. Development of these skills could reduce perceived dependency of coaches for competency confirmation or uncertainty within athletes perceived capabilities.

The measurement of character development in youth athletes can also act as measurement of effective coaching practices. Coaches for these developing adolescents and age grade athletes should act as a mentor for their moral development, showing proper prosocial behaviours and conduct, again acknowledging a sense of morality alongside desire to develop capabilities within sport settings. Having greater understanding of what players value and understanding their motivations for typical behaviour shall allow them to offer increased opportunities for empowerment and engagement and offer reasons towards morality development. I believe the themes of character development and promotion of life skills are important areas for personal and sport specific development and that coaches should be taking greater supporting role in developing these skills as opposed to solely technical and tactical focus. As per Cushion’s research (2003), they recognised coach education as “typically focusing on performance enhancement with overemphasis on technical and tactical knowledge and little attention offered to youth development”. I believe we should be encouraging these young elite players to develop personal and interpersonal skills, which can enable them to have confidence to explore new concepts within their sports and able to communicate and collaboratively develop technical or tactical sport-specific skills.

The challenge of successful coaching is acknowledging social interactive dilemmas within individual and collective development, offering suitable scenarios and choices with all members’ involvement and collaboratively dealing with matters as opposed to eradicating them. All coaches should recognise that 1. its difficult; 2. it’s always changing and evolving so needs to be reflected and reviewed on; and 3. it’s easier by understanding your athletes and having them involved in the steps and processes. Past research by Mageau and Vallerand regards the “actions of coaches as (possibly) the most critical motivational influences within sport setting”. Coaching should be recognised as an educational dynamic relationship, where the coach can satisfy player’s goals (or needs) and development but both sides have an investment of will capital, where human initiative and intentionality are both dedicated to show commitment towards goals and relationships. The role of performance coaches for athletes of all ages is highly important; coaches are “preparing athletes for consistent high-level competitive performance” (Côté, 2009a) through effective tactics such as integration of professional, interpersonal, and intrapersonal knowledge and developing player’s specific competence, confidence, connection, and character needs on regular basis.

Sports coaches of athletes should act as pedagogues and adopt comprehensive and holistic roles in the moral development of their athletes through their adopted and shared practices, languages and beliefs. If coaches are to develop knowledgeable athletes who are willing and able to make decisions, capable of performing learned tasks when under pressure and not under direct instructions, I believe this shall require collaborative transfer of knowledge or greater ownership by athletes of their development, with support from the coaches as “more capable other” in an involved yet scaffolding style approach to their athlete’s development. Research by Kidman (2001) addressed ideas such as coaches developing player’s complex skills and tactical knowledge through encouraging abstract thought processes by asking high order questions, which require athletes to apply, analyse and synthesize information. This style of leadership has the coach steering as opposed to controlling decisions and actions, encouraging player discovery through evolutionary planning and organising of tasks whilst keeping sight of overall objectives and showing empathy to get the best from the athletes.

So, when reviewing your coaching methods and practices while developing your practice environments, ask yourself “Am I creating an environment to develop a quality human as well as a quality athlete?”. Asking questions and understanding the answers and whom they’re coming from will give you a snapshot for what these young people need today yet this needs to be continually addressed and worked on. Please understand, people, personalities and environments shall change. Be willing to change ideas or structures to match what your athletes or players need today and be reflective and flexible to change to what they need tomorrow to better players on the field and better people off the tracks; remember, better people, better players, BETTER LIVES.