Coaching u6 Children

A few days ago I reacted to a tweet offered by Jean Côté‏ around key coaching aspects for children, I’ve copied this below:

In this tweet Jean refers to the photo of a slide that suggests there are no key aspects (I'm going to say principles from here) for coaching u6 children. I clearly don’t agree with this as is clear from my response. The issue with Twitter though, is that it is easy to throw stones but without then taking responsibility for throwing them. It is also easy for them to be too critical (and maybe a little unnecessarily rude – damn the reactive reptilian brain!). Indeed, twitter rarely accounts for context, and there is every chance the tweet removes too much of the context that the slide was presented in (my guess is that it has). All the same, I still don't think the message is particularly helpful, I stand by that bit.

Consequently, I thought I would offer a view on some (not all, this is only a blog!) principles that I am aware of from literature and from my own time coaching u6 boys at a local rugby club that I think are key for coaches at this age group. I actually think we (my fellow coaches and I) did ok most of the time. But we also made mistakes. Mistakes are inevitable, but how we reflect on them is important. This is where key aspects are crucial since they offer the standards for reflecting and planning. So, just as a primary school teacher who works with 5 and 6 year olds needs to have principles to plan to and reflect on, so to do coaches.

In the table below I have used the coach decision making model to give myself a coherent way into examining the problem and identifying what I think some of the key aspects are for working with this u6 age group. I do not claim for a second to be an expert in middle childhood, however, the model offered me an adaptive method to do some research and create an informed view of working with this age group. My reference list is below if you want to read further.

So, this is me putting my money where my mouth is. Happy for questions and challenges. Fundamentally though, if we want coaches to make informed judgements about working with children, there need to be key principles (aspects) to guide this thinking. I offer this as a stimulus for feedback and questions.

			Theoretical Principles Summaries	Applying Principles to Reality	Significance for Coaching Young Children		Thoughts for Planning
WHO	Bio		Time of rapid growth. Significant changes in neuromuscular system.	Often poor dexterity. Gross motor movements easier, fine motor movements harder. Large variation across children of the same age	Focus is on patience and working with the maturing mid-childhood person. Avoid overload situations Expect surges in development but with extended periods of limited change. Expect large variations in movement and cognitive competence across group of children. This can remain for several years. But avoid the view of ‘talented’ and ‘not talented’. Typically it is maturation mixed with practice effect. Be aware, if you are a parent coach your child may well struggle to tell the difference between you as parent and you as coach. This can cause frustration and upset (to both parties!) Sharing is low on the agenda when there is a chance for egocentric behaviour (e.g. competition. Children will find ways to short circuit your ideas by ‘cheating’*)		Goal of Working With This Age Group Develop fundamental skills that support transition into playing the sport Crete sense of anticipation for wanting to come back following week
	Psycho		Small working memory capacity. Low understanding of how the world works. Very active imaginations. Capacity to reason begins to emerge. Curiosity about issues of interest is high.	Easily overloaded even with, what adults would perceive as, relatively simple tasks. Opportunity to engage in decision making.			Programme Level Planning Learning Through The Sport NOT Learning The Sport Create a shared view on what is possible in time that children will spend with you (often much less than you realise - we did 1 hour per week for about 25 weeks) Accept progress will be slow and sometimes frustrating – Patience is more than a virtue at this age, it is a necessity. Keep expectations realistic. Plan for what you want in more than just one season Plan for several weeks at a time and do not veer from the plan without good reason. Consistency will be key. Knowing what you are working on helps you maintain your focus and stops firefighting which children just find confusing.
	Social		Seeks and likes validation from adults. Quick to feel guilt. Egocentric in outlook. Willing to be self-sufficient. Starting to learn about who they are in different environments. Knowing that they are competent begins to influence choices of engagement.	Wants their own things but   also wants to be part of a group. Low levels of co-operation. Source of competence and enjoyment typically sought from self and adults rather than other children unless made to feel excluded.
WHAT	Tech	Stability	Work on static and dynamic stability; twist turn		Development of SOL skills and an awareness of competence is seen as being crucial. BUT this does not all need to happen in one session or even one year. Consider curriculum stages over a period of years rather than weeks.
		Object Control	Passing, striking and receiving/controlling with arms/hands feet				Session Level Planning & Delivery Keep activities short (unless kids are clearly enjoying it) Keep activities focused with low complexity and high opportunity. Where possible, give feedback at an individual level. A group task can always continue while you work one to one with someone. If you see a child   disengaged spend time trying to work out why against the WHO WHAT HOW framework.
		Locomotor	Engage in opportunity to run, jump, skip
	Tact/DM		Acknowledge role of rules and ‘cheating’ in task completion. Allow for development of implicit decisions (e.g. dodging in tig game) unless ready for more explicit understanding.		No role for tactics at this age. More about developing an emerging awareness of  how teams and team sports work.
HOW	Game/Task Design		Tasks should be playful but with sufficient structure so as to make learning focus clear to both child and coach.	Scaffolding of tasks is important Offer opportunity to use imagination in completing tasks	At the age of 6 things don’t happen fast. Maintain consistency of playful tasks used. This allows time to learn how the play works before children work out what they learn from the play. Carousels of games allow children to revisit tasks within the same session. Progressions typically happen over weeks not minutes.
	Behavioural Intervention		Guiding learners through patient input. Direct demonstration, instruction and feedback can be very useful especially at times of confusion. Feedback should be honest, accurate (you need to be sure that what you are saying is actually correct) kind and focused on future attempts. Using analogies or connecting with their world examples can facilitate understanding.

* BTW, it's not cheating, it's children solving problems you haven't thought of yet

Bibliography

Abraham, A., Mckeown, S., Morgan, G., Muir, B., North, J., Saiz, S. L. J., & Till, K. (2014). Planning your coaching: A focus on youth participant development. In C. Nash (Ed.), Practical Sport Coaching (pp. 16–53). Abingdon: Routledge.

Burton, A. W., & Miller, D. E. (1998). Movement Skill Assessment. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Côté, J., Baker, J., & Abernethy, B. (2003). From Play to Practice. A Developmental Framework for the Acquisition of Expertise in Team Sports. In J. L. Starkes & K. A. Ericsson (Eds.), Expert Performance in Sports. Advances in Research on Sport Expertise (pp. 89–110). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Davids, K., Button, C., & Bennett, S. (2008). Dynamics of Skill Acquisition - A Constraints Led Approach. Champaign: Human Kinetics.

Eccles, J. S. (1999). The development of children ages 6 to 14. Future of Children, 9(2), 30–44. http://doi.org/10.2307/1602703

Lloyd, R. S., & Oliver, J. L. (2012). The Youth Physical Development Model : A New Approach to Long-Term Athletic Development. Strength & Conditioning Journal, 61–72. http://doi.org/10.1519/SSC.0b013e31825760ea

Mayer, R. E. (2004). Should There Be a Three-Strikes Rule Against Pure Discovery Learning? American Psychologist, 59(1), 14–19. http://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.59.1.14

Mosston, M., & Ashworh, S. (1994). Teaching Physical Education (4th ed.). New York: Macmillan.

Muir, B., Morgan, G., Abraham, A., & Morley, D. (2011). Developmentally Appropriate Approaches to Coaching Children. In I. STAFFORD (Ed.), Coaching Children in Sport (pp. 17–37). Routledge.