Coaching Kids - The Rights and Wrongs

In the Sunday Times today there was a good article about football coaching by David Walsh. As the online version is subscription only, rather than posting all the article here I thought I would post the five Do’s and five Don’ts, while this comes from a football background it equally applies to most sports where young kids are involved, including Skiing;

Five Do’s

1. Create an environment where the emphasis is on enjoyment.

2. Allow kids the opportunity to make mistakes, it helps them learn.

3. Try to give all kids equal play time.

4. Focus on playing good football rather than worrying about the result. Developing technique is more important than winning.

5. Developing better people is more important than developing better footballers.

Five Don’t’s

1. Don’t forget you are there to help kids fall in love with football.

2. Also never forget they are kids, not mini adults.

3. Never, ever, say ‘if in doubt, kick it out’. Learning to use the ball is more important.

4. Don’t tell the kids what to do as it stifles creativity. See if they can work things out for themselves.

5. Don’t forget smaller players also need opportunities.If they are good enough, they are big enough.