Developing Young People & Coaches: A wise investment

Since my last post I have been deep into exploring a variety of views on how best to promote true, LONG TERM ATHLETIC DEVELOPMENT within our community schools and youth sports programs. What seems to JUMP out at me from many of the respected “experts” in both education and coaching, IS THE NECESSITY to provide quality teaching and learning environments.

 

Consider that fact that Physical Education teaching in this era DOES NOT involve “teaching” movement skills and/or developing physical skills to enhance the movement skills. 

Kinesiology has “replaced” Physical Education as a College Degree with colleges turning out “Personal Trainers”, “Corporate Fitness Specialists”, "Strength and Conditioning Specialists” and a variety of OTHER professional endeavors that have sprung up to take advantage of the FITNESS BOOM. Make no mistake, Fitness IS big BUSINESS.

So, where are your children going to learn FMS AND AMSC Skills?  Who will teach them?

Unfortunately, the answer has become participation in a sport or two that is chosen BEFORE any foundational movement skills have been taught. More often than not, this snow-balls into year-round participation in a sport or maybe two sports. Coaches are mostly ex-athletes in the sport with little or no education in "teaching" or "learning" skills that most teachers utilize in their profession. These coaches may be very competent in their knowledge of sport skills but we must remember they are teaching "people" first, not skills. 

 Coaching IS Teaching...but requires no Certificated Education or Degree which is something that should be taken into consideration by High Schools and organized Sport Club Teams. 

Why not develop Coaching Classes through the local College or Jr. College whose aims are teaching the fundamental learning and teaching processes needed to successfully teach all age, maturation and talent levels. 

Even worse, those looking for an edge for their 10-14 year olds, hire a Personal Trainer IN ADDITION to adding to the time their child spends in sport skill practices and competitive contests/games.

It is greatly disturbing to see children under the age of 14 running 10k’s and Half Marathons or competing in Half Ironman Tri-athlons! This is mostly a reflection on the parent's interest in the sport and their influence on their children's involvement in "training" seriously for endurance events.

What is the hurry to specialize, to get bigger, faster, stronger (not that it transfers over to a specifi sport anyway)?

Is there a place for “Creative Free-Play or Movement” in the education of our k-4^th graders? If so, can this be expanded upon with a progression of movements and implements to enhance physical skills like strength and power through Play in a variety of activities?

Why is there such an emphasis on WINNING at such young ages when we need to be promoting the process of learning a variety of skills during elementary and jr. high ages?

So, while I put together my next post, PLEASE READ THE GREAT ARTICLES BELOW (I EDITED ERIKA ANDERSON’S A LOT TO HIGHLIGHT WHAT WAS MOST RELEVANT TO THIS POST) by Erika Anderson and James Marshall.

Before scrolling down to the articles, here is a short dialog between two elite coaches/experts that will to stimulate “thought” on ways to best teach youngsters.

Teaching is Taken, not Taught 

Most will agree, if learning is to occur there must be a 'student' and a 'teacher'.  However, most may not agree on the means by which learning takes place.

Learning does not take place when the teacher gives the instruction to the student.  

Learning does take place when the student takes the instruction from the teacher.  

A student must be among the most active of participants within any educational environment.  Once a student's active participation in learning begins to occur, the lessons can become more difficult and thus more effective.

In order for children to learn, they need to be able to pay attention. In order to pay attention, we need to let them move.---Kelvin Giles

The best 'corrective exercise' is proper movement coaching from day 1---retweeted by Vern Gambetta in response to Giles’ above statement.

 In my next post I will be presenting a list of ingredients necessary for educating coaches, parents, teachers and young athletes on how to best create an environment where learning is THE PROCESS and THE GOAL of coaches, teachers and young athletes. An environment where everyone truly WINS.

LTAD: building young people--- (notes from lecture by Finn Gunderson, instructor at Burke Mountain School).

by  James Marshall

"Life is a process, but it's hard to get through to the kids"---Finn Gundersen

"What is LTAD?" has been demoted to a project question for students, a scientific discussion, or a PDF issued by National Governing Bodies (NGBs).

But, in my opinion, it's about people: coaches, parents, teachers and, most importantly, the children.
Gundersen really brought this to life in this excellent seminar, based upon his work at Burke Mountain School in Vermont.
It starts with a foundation of:

• Trust.
• Honesty.
• Respect.

If you trust the athlete, then you can give them some freedom to act. Gundersen has no "leaders", instead, everyone is a leader: everyone takes responsibility.

I like this aspect, I see far too many youngsters walking around with "sports leader" or "physical leader" t-shirts: what about everyone else? 

With no peer groups, no heroes, no rewards and privileges "everyone is responsible for the community". The kids have to do chores such as washing up straight away.  There are no gradings of ability such as ABCs and labels are avoided.

"Never underestimate your intellectual and athletic ability" is what Gundersen tells the kids. He tells the coaches "You're not there to pick out a winner, you are there to coach all of them."

He told us "Don't let teachers get away with it." NO LABELS, we have to give HOPE to every kid in the program.

(Compare that to a teacher who said I would never produce a good school gymnast because I was "working with the dregs": how to write off 7 year olds.)

Coaches have to be patient, have belief in what they are doing and be non-judgmental.
This may sound a bit soft and cuddly, but the work at Burke Mountain School was designed to teach the kids desire, and help them to go after things they wanted. 
This requires Hard Work in:

• Community
• Academics
• Athletics

Some of this came back to PTA (Pain, Torture, Agony): they had to run in the rain and cold. They learnt how to suffer. Take “the harder, the better “ approach, not the line of least resistance.
If you think that is harsh, think about the new medical term "Exercise deficit disorder" where kids are put in front of a screen for 3-6 hours a day with no play time.

The reality of LTAD

Gundersen highlighted some of the LTAD issues they face: it's as much a management strategy as it is a science.  

• Sport vs sport conflict: sports trying to get the best kid earlier and earlier, competing with each other.
• 25% of kids in high school do NOT like to compete, 50% like to, 25% can take it or leave it. This must be accounted for when planning physical activity.
• Everyone has a different genotype, everyone therefore has different needs.
• Early vs late maturers: there is an arms race within certain sports such as skiing with a smaller pool of athletes and fewer clubs being able to support good competition levels. This can result in over investment in the early maturer, when all evidence shows that late maturers do better.

The Profession of Developing People

With his vast experience, Gundersen has realized that he is in profession of developing people: it is not about the facilities. Whether the people are the coaches or the athletes, that is where the investment and development must take place.

He looks for certain personalities: do the coaches have an operational mindset? Are they interested in continuous improvement? Do they accept responsibility? Are they accountable? Is there role clarity and acceptance of that role?
If the coaching structure and set up works, then the young athletes will get a better experience.

This was a great seminar, and Finn was available to talk the whole week, so I was picking up lots of tips from him. A very genuine and engaging individual: a lot of sporting bodies in the country would benefit from his advice.
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Want To Be Great? Make Yourself Uncomfortable

By Erika Andersen

In the words of Alan D. MacCormack, faculty head of the Harvard Business School’s FIELD program, “We are talking about the ‘knowing-doing gap. The very first time you put theory into practice, you learn all the challenges associated with applying the theory.”

The FIELD program gets Harvard MBA students out into the real world, to do the leadership equivalent of actually building a cabinet.

FIELD [is] a hands-on experiential learning program that has arguably revolutionized education at HBS more than any development since the introduction of the case-study method 90 years ago. In three modules FIELD teaches students that what they have learned about business in the classroom doesn’t always hold true out in the world.

The students first spend five weeks getting a grounding in the human skills core to good leadership and management: feedback, listening, coaching, emotional intelligence, and team dynamics, among others – as well as participating in simulations geared to take them out of their comfort zone and learn to respond well to unlooked-for situations.  
It’s learning to build cabinets by building cabinets. (OR LEARNING TO COACH BY COACHING) It’s how learning needs to happen – especially now, when the world – and the world of business (and coaching/teaching for that matter!) –  is changing  second-by-second.

And it’s much less comfortable than listening to a lecture or reading a book. McCormack notes that the minute the FIELD students get out into the field, their assumptions start getting blown up. ”Often within that single day, everything they thought was the right answer becomes the wrong answer. Being there on the ground and observing yourself is different from learning something in a report from afar.”

He goes on to talk about how humbling it is for these kids – all of whom have done very, very well all through high school and college, and who think of themselves, I’m sure, as the best and brightest – to get out into the real world and discover that they’re not very good at this and have a lot to learn.

When you’re really learning – acquiring new skills or understanding, behaving and operating in new ways – you’re going to be a novice.  That means you’re not going to be an expert, and you won’t have all the answers.  You’ll make mistakes and have to ask “dumb” questions, and you’ll have ideas that you think are genius that will turn out not to work at all.
And becoming comfortable in that situation – staying curious and open and continuing to explore and improve – that’s the essence of real learning.  

Because the people who become great – no matter their field or area of endeavor – are those who are willing to be uncomfortable over and over again on the way to mastery.  If you can continually challenge your own preference for being good at things, for being competent – and be willing instead to be in that awkward place of “I don’t really understand this right now”…well, then the 21st century is yours for the learning of it.