The Development Years - a vital but ignored layer

This is why I have listened to and communicated with this bloke for the last 30 years.

“Think about your average 10-year-old. What gets them engaged, excited and interested?

·???????? Things they can do with their friends.

·???????? Things that are fun.

·???????? Things where they can change the rules a bit - and make it a reflection of themselves.

·???????? Things where they feel a sense of belonging.

·???????? Things where they experience learning and an attitude of "I am getting better at this".

·???????? Things where they get immediate, positive feedback that helps point them in the direction of improvement.

OK. So, we ALL know this. We've all been 10 years old. And many of you reading this have been parents / carers of 10-year-olds or have coached or taught 10-year-olds.

So please explain why so many sports believe that the best way to engage 10-year-olds is to train hard 6 times a week, focus on building an "aerobic base", a strong stable core, "perfect" technique and movement literacy - then wonder "where have all the kids gone?"

My friends - you already know how to increase participation in your sport and how to grow memberships in your Club. Make it fun. Make it about them. Leave the physiological adaptations and quest for biomechanical perfection for another day. When they love what they do - they will do what they love.

Think like a 10-year-old and watch your numbers flourish.” Wayne Goldsmith

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Always hard to follow these encouraging and thoughtful words of guidance with anything that is as good, but these remarks always send my thinking to the strategic and practical elements. I look inside sports and PE teaching to try to find the ‘how’ do we move the decision-making adults of the world to a plan that will work where it should work – at the coach/athlete, teacher/student interface. I remember nearly four years ago applying to UK Athletics to head the Coach and Coaching Development sector as part of a new initiative. I had over the decades had to develop a syllabus that shifted those attending my workshops and courses to the principles that Wayne is presenting. To create a pathway that built the athlete from the ground up in preparation for lifelong physical and emotional well-being AND, if required, to give them the tools to seek out ongoing personal ‘high performance’ in their chosen sport.

And we still don’t get it. Check out the content of coach certification courses and there will be nothing practical that deals with this apart from a few slides hidden amongst the huge commitment in time to “Diversity, Equality, Inclusion and Safeguarding”. Check out the support, respect and caring that NGB’s have for the thousands of volunteer coaches that glue the sport together – you will need a microscope to find them. While coach certification remains as a cash cow for the NGB little will change.

Any investment in appropriate ‘change’ at the coalface must start right there, at session level. Unfortunately, many of the supposed ‘changes’ that the NGB present (usually every two years or so when their support is waning or there is some crisis in their ranks) starts with investing heavily in the administrative ranks with a new Director of this or Manager of that. After more investment in heavily promoted, whiz-bang announcements and fanfare their imagination and enthusiasm wanes, the hard fought for financial elements get used up on administration and the ‘new’ strategy folds.

Time to start with a bottom-up plan where the coach/athlete, teacher/student interface becomes the centre of all action and investment. In the case of Track and Field Athletics (modify these ideas for your own sport) the first thing is to create a vast array of activities (general, related and specific [running, jumping and throwing]). They should appear as progressive individual and group activities and contain games and relays all centred on developing physical, mental and behavioural competence and quality.

The keystone component that allows these activities to create the required long-term outcomes is LEARNING – an exposure of the coaches to the entire explicit to implicit learning continuum. The coaches and teachers responsible for the delivery of this vital cultural service to the sport and to the nation must be taught the skills required to do the job effectively. The curriculum that surrounds the coaching styles and instructional techniques is critical to the activity curriculum outcomes being sought. Certification courses and subsequent local and in-house workshops must continually expose the attendees to such things as task creation and manipulation, observation skills, feedback skills, etc.

These two components (activity curriculum and learning curriculum) are the first steps that must be taken. I can safely say that once you have the first one (activity curriculum), the second one is much easier to navigate for one very important reason. The courses and workshops are 99% practical! The attendees are out of their chairs coaching. They work in pairs or groups on solving practical puzzles in front of their peers in the presence of a number of mentor coaches.

The final part of the strategy is the quality control that follows the introductory certification layer. With each Club having a Coaching Director in place the process is ongoing at regional, local and Club level. It will require a population of mentors operating nationwide. A totally different administrative mindset is required with appropriate coaches and master coaches running everything.

I first presented this concept the Football League Trust in the UK in 2009, and it was progressed to the direct planning phase. I am indebted to the late Graham Hawkins who had the vision and bravery to give this a really good shake. I got to the stage of creating the initial activity curriculum and had started the scheme of work for the creation of the regional mentor coaches including the content and the timetable for their recruitment and education. Such a pity that the bureaucracy failed him at the 11th hour. Here we are 15 years later with immense investment in the ‘whistles and bells’ Academy structures yet the philosophy and content has hardly changed.

As stated in numerous similar articles it is a forlorn approach to expect or wait for any NGB to provide such a service. The key is at Club level. There is nothing stopping, for example, an Athletics Club appointing a Coach and Coaching Development chief to set up this scheme. Start with the two keystones (activity and learning curriculums); seek out the means of containing them in hand-held devices for easy reference and use in the coaching session; set up a workshop series for all the current coaching staff; offer the course structure to the next generation of coaches in the local area; consider sharing with other Clubs in your region.

Anyone brave enough?