There is no wrong style of coaching (with a few caveats). Be authentic you, and the kids will respond.
There are few things in life more fun than walking into your child’s elementary school, the grocery store and having kids call out “Hi coach!” as you walk along. You’re going to be rewarded far more than what you give as a coach. Welcome to WordPress! This is your first post. Edit or delete it to take the first step in your blogging journey.
“Pull” coaching vs “Push” coaching – if you find yourself frequently having to tell kids to sit down, be quiet, pay attention…you’re “push” coaching. Push coaching at this age is like herding cats; pull coaching is like the pied piper. Keep things fun and moving quickly and the kids will follow.
Managing kids is a lot like managing adults – feedback needs to be mostly positive and it needs to be specific. But BE HONEST. Don’t tell a child they did a good job if they didn’t. They’ll know when you’re feeding them a line. Find something, anything positive to give as feedback, and build on that.
The real coaching happens well after the instructions have been given. Granular, 1-on-1.
Kids learn the most when they discover the answers for themselves (giving a fish vs teaching to fish). Guide them to the answers by asking questions during the activity. “Why do you think I’m asking you to (game constraint)?”
Kids have an extremely short attention span. Even shorter than you think. Even shorter than that. Shorter still. So keep your instructions to the absolute minimum and get them playing.
Kids love competing. Against themselves, against their friends. Nearly all of our activities are framed as challenges to win – it creates excitement, and gets kids accustomed to performing in game situations.
It can be a fine line between shouting encouragement and guiding players’ thinking and movement – if it goes too far, it’s called “joysticking” and removes a child’s ability to think for themselves. We want to develop thinkers. Problem solvers. Help them to solve game problems, but in a way that they find the answers themselves.
What kids hate most is being left out. If a kid is unruly, what they often want is attention. Stopping the activity and yelling at them gives them what they want and almost provides incentive to do it again. Removing them from the activity teaches them that poor behavior isn’t rewarded. If you’ve given a warning about an unwanted behavior, don’t be afraid to sit a child down on the sidelines if the behavior persists.
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