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COACHING

CONFIDENT YOUNG

PLAYERS

Copyright © 2017 Winning Scotland Foundation

Copyright © 2017 Winning Scotland Foundation

COACHING

CONFIDENT YOUNG

PEOPLE

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BUILDING CONFIDENCE TOOLKIT CONTENTS PAGE

SECTION PAGE NUMBER AWARENESS Welcome 3 About this toolkit 4 The value of sport in developing young people 6 Benefits of PCS Plus 8 Creating a positive learning environment 9 Coaching the whole child 10

UNDERSTANDING

Understanding what confidence is 11

Understanding the impact of confidence 14

Developing confident young people 15

The confidence formula 16

Understanding gender differences 17

Age and stage differences 19

Effective communication with young people 22

What type of coach are you? 23

Effective Communication 24

APPLICATION

Developing confident young people 27

Questioning 28

Feedback and praise 36

Body language 42

Child friendly conversations 47

Confidence builders 53

Coaching confident young people 57

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WELCOME ABOUT PCS PLUS

PCS PLUS

PCS Plus teaches how to develop a positive learning environment in and beyond

sport, we educate the key people involved with a young person’s development

through a series of workshops and resources.

The new content will focus on five key areas:

• Mastery

• Confidence

• Mindset

• Life skills

• Values

These are all topics that research tells us are

increasingly important for young people

today and in the future.

As well as new content, we are also working to make materials more accessible by

delivering them in various ways, including online.

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ABOUT THIS TOOLKIT AWARENESS AND UNDERSTANDING

The manual is grouped in three main sections:

✓ Awareness

✓ Understanding

✓ Application

AWARENESS

This section of the manual outlines the benefits of PCS Plus, the value of sport and

the impact that societal changes are having on young people. This section also

includes a glossary of terms that provides a comprehensive list of the terms used in

this manual

UNDERSTANDING

One of the core elements of PCS Plus is coaching confident young people. In this

section you will find the core principles of how to develop confidence in a young

person, along with: further reading, videos and web links

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ABOUT THIS TOOLKIT APPLICATION

We want to develop confident young people who achieve their personal best, not only in sport, but also in life.

Young people who have developed their confidence will:

✓ Try new things and be more open to learning

✓ Relish challenging tasks and risk making mistakes

✓ Say they don’t understand and ask for help

✓ Express themselves as individuals

We help influencers create an environment where they can develop confident young people through their involvement in sport.

Within this principle we teach the influencers of a young person:

• The importance of effective communication when developing young people

• What confidence is, and what it is not

• The differences between self-belief and optimism

• The misconceptions associated with confidence

• To understand how different coaching styles can impact on confidence and learning

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In Scotland, today we are facing a rapidly changing society, one that is likely to transform the world of work, education and community through technological changes. This will significantly impact on how today's children and young people prepare for the future. The value of sport goes beyond the sports field and can have a significant impact on the development of the young person across a broad range of attributes.

SPORT HELPS TO IMPROVE

Education performance: attainment at school through increased commitment to

learning which includes achievement motivation and engagement in school.

Employment opportunities: improved physical and mental Health leads to a positive

Identity which includes feelings of self-esteem, purpose and positive outlook.

Personal standards and behaviour: positive values which entails being caring, honest,

responsible, and disciplined.

Social skills: social competencies which include interpersonal competence, planning and

decision making, and conflict resolution.

Important life skills: through sport young people have a fantastic opportunity to develop

many important life skills such as resilience, communication and teamwork – although these

skills will be learnt in sport, they will be transferable into everyday life.

SPORT HELPS TO REDUCE

Obesity and being overweight: In Scotland 22% children aged 6 years old were overweight or

obese and 31% of children had three or more hours’ screen time on a typical weekday

Anxiety: Young people who take part in out of school sport have much higher levels of

social behaviour and personal and social responsibility than those who do not take part.

THE VALUE OF SPORT IN DEVELOPING YOUNG PEOPLE

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PCS Plus provides a comprehensive package of information and practical tools that can

improve the learning environment in clubs.

The impact on club leaders, coaches, parents and young people can be seen across key areas

and will have a positive impact on their ability to:

✓ Develop a positive learning environment

✓ Increase participation and lower drop out

✓ Improve touch line behaviour

✓ Grow volunteer recruitment and retention

✓ Provide quality coaching

✓ Develop club culture

✓ Deliver fun and enjoyable coaching sessions for young people

✓ Improve sporting performance

✓ Develop young people physically, socially and psychologically

BENEFITS OF PCS PLUS

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The foundation for coaching success is creating a positive learning environment, along with a

positive culture that develops young people.

To create a sustainable learning environment all the key influencers in a young person’s

development must be involved: coaches, parents, club leaders and teachers.

Creating a positive coaching environment is unique in developing young people in three

distinct ways:

✓ Physically

✓ Socially

✓ Psychologically

This is a different approach than the traditional physical only approach

By developing a positive learning environment coaches will intentionally develop the young

persons:

✓ Confidence

✓ Values

✓ Mindset

✓ Life Skills

CREATING A POSITIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

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Traditional coaching tends to focus on the physical attributes of young people, sometimes with some attention given to social skills but rarely includes psychological. Coaching the whole child means developing the young person across all three attributes: Think about your last coaching session – did you intentionally develop the young player physically, socially and psychologically?

COACHING THE WHOLE CHILD

Physically

Physical attributes

Health and fitness

Technical and tactical skills

Socially

Behaviour and

attitude

Values

Character

Psychologically

Confidence

Mental skills

Learning

Concentration

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Confidence is young people having the self-belief that they can achieve what they have set out to accomplish, it is the belief that they can work through adverse times. It is the belief that they can pick themselves up after a disappointment and still perform to their best and help those around them to succeed.

The good news for both people and coaches is confidence can be improved, it is not fixed at the same level all the time. As a coach having the awareness and understanding to pass on to people in certain key areas will give them the highest chance of being the best they can be.

THE KEY AREAS TO INCREASING A YOUNG PERSONS CONFIDENCE ARE:

• Self-belief

• Language

• Coach interaction

• Responsibility

UNDERSTANDING WHAT CONFIDENCE IS

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SELF BELIEF

Imparting the awareness, knowledge and understanding of all the areas that will help to give the young person the best chance of being the best they can be in whatever they decide to pursue. In addition, maturing and taking these good habits into adulthood.

LANGUAGE

It is vital that building blocks are put in place to cement good habits – positive communication becomes vitally important. The more optimistic positive language we use the greater chance of improved self-confidence and ultimately success in whatever form that takes.

COACH INTERACTION

Coaches can have a long-lasting effect on any individual they interact with. The positive support and allowing the young person to grow as a human being can have a significant effect not only on their chosen sports, on how much they accomplish, and how long they play for, but on the wider context of the world they grow up in and their confidence levels within this.

UNDERSTANDING WHAT CONFIDENCE IS CONTINUED…

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RESPONSIBILITY A young person’s success usually relates to their own drive and determination, whether they succeed in their own eyes and live up to the standards they have set for themselves that will give them the degree of confidence and success they experience. Coaches can teach them good habits and point them in the right direction by sending them on a path to succeed. All the areas covered within this manual are simple to use and carry out but not necessarily easy. They are explained in a language to allow the coach to understand and pass onto the athletes, however they will take effort, repetition of the learning of the subjects and a desire and willingness from both the coach imparting the information and also a buy-in from the athlete, to allow the best chance of success and progress.

Take some time to think about what you believe a confident young person looks like- how do they behave, communicate, feel about challenge?

UNDERSTANDING WHAT CONFIDENCE IS CONTINUED…

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Confidence levels in a young person are very much like the petrol tank of a car, if the tank is empty, the car does not go very far, when it is full, the car will go a long way.

Confidence levels work exactly the same way!

Research shows that home teams win 60% of their matches – why?

Young people perform better when someone is giving them encouragement or cheering for them, this is what happens at home matches.

There does not however need to be thousands of fans supporting young people to make them feel good about themselves or their ability. When confidence levels are high, young people are open to improvement, are more optimistic, can deal with challenges, have more energy and are willing to learn from mistakes.

Coaches don’t need to be taught how to drain confidence levels - it usually comes naturally, what coaches do need to work on is improving confidence levels.

UNDERSTANDING THE IMPACT OF CONFIDENCE

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Confidence = self-belief + optimism. In other words, confidence is a young person’s belief that they can reach specific goals whilst maintaining a general belief that the future is bright. WITH CONFIDENCE, YOUNG PEOPLE WILL FIND IT EASIER TO:

✓ try new things and be more open to learning ✓ relish challenging tasks ✓ risk making mistakes ✓ express themselves as individuals ✓ say they don’t understand and ask for help ✓ concentrate and not be side-tracked by fear of failure

It is the coach’s responsibility to look for signs of confidence in a young person, and importantly identify any lack of confidence. People with strong self-belief:

• View problems as tasks to be mastered • Develop deeper interest in the activities they participate in • Form a stronger sense of commitment to their interests and activities • Recover quickly from setbacks and disappointments

People with strong levels of optimism:

• Have the ability to look on the ‘bright side’ of life • Believe that if something does go wrong they can recover • Believe that failure is a temporary setback • Understand that when a problem arises – there is a solution

DEVELOPING CONFIDENT YOUNG PEOPLE

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THE CONFIDENCE FORMULA

Whilst understanding what confidence is, it is equally important to understand what confidence is not. Being the loudest person in the team does not necessarily make them a confident person. As previously outlined, confidence is the ability to face a challenge and work towards achieving that challenge. Often coaches mistake confidence as being the loudest, however coaches must appreciate different personalities and learning styles contribute to levels of confidence… not their ability to speak the loudest. In many cases, the loudest often lacks confidence and covers up this lack of confidence by being outspoken. Take some time to think about young people you coach and ask yourself some questions:

✓ How do particular individuals react if I set them a difficult challenge? Confident people will relish the challenge whilst athletes low in confidence will do something different – and in some cases become a disruptive influence

✓ Are there people within your team that only focus on their strengths? Confident individuals will challenge their strengths and weaknesses whilst people with low confidence will only practice what they are good at

✓ Who will keep trying time/squad after time until they achieve a difficult task?

Confident individuals will keep going until a task is achieved (your role as a coach is to help correct the mistakes) whereas people with a lack of confidence may give up easily

✓ Who will let a mistake affect them for a long time and have a negative impact on

their performance? Often confident individuals will recover quickly from a mistake and use it as a learning experience, other less confident people will let it affect the rest of their performance as well as impacting their mood.

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UNDERSTANDING GENDER DIFFERENCES

As a coach, it is important to be aware that boys and girls mature at different stages, both physically and chronologically – this often has an impact on levels of confidence, and as such has an impact on how successful a coach is. Boys and girls mature physically at different ages In early and middle childhood, boys typically are taller and heavier than girls of the same age. By age 10 or 11, girls have moved ahead as a result of the growth spurt associated with puberty. For boys, puberty typically begins two years later, and by age 15, they have caught up or surpassed girls in height and weight. New studies indicate that some girls begin puberty as early as 6 or 7 years of age, creating an even wider gap between girls’ and boys’ maturation rates. Girls’ and boys’ rates of learning differ Recent studies indicate that there are differences in the brain development of boys and girls, beginning as young as 5 to 7 years of age. Girls develop faster and often perform better in school than boys. Some research even suggests that girls have a better sense of hearing than boys, which could, in part, explain girls’ higher academic performance. There are differences in how boys and girls process information Research shows that boys are more likely to use one side of the brain for a given task, while girls use both sides of the brain. Because girls access both the thinking and feeling functions of the brain at the same time, they process information best when it is presented in a larger context. In general, boys prefer information presented in an objective and fact-oriented manner. Girls and boys have different standards and evaluate themselves differently Although girls typically do better in school than boys, they are less confident and more likely to be critical of their own academic performance. Boys, on the other hand, tend to have unrealistically high views of their own academic abilities and accomplishments. Some girls may even hold back in school as they try to fit in with peers and avoid surpassing boys.

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Boys and girls experience adolescence in different ways Self-esteem falls for both boys and girls after primary school, but the drop is more dramatic for girls. Compared with boys, adolescent girls are more anxious and stressed, experience lowered academic achievement and suffer more from depression. Girls also experience more distress over their looks and bodies, suffer from eating disorders and attempt suicide more often than boys do. Girls and boys have different internal motivations Some girls may be motivated by paying attention to the needs of others, while boys might find motivation in doing what is fair or right. Girls at all ages may think more of other people when they make a decision. They also may be reluctant to judge right and wrong because they were raised to be nurturing and non-judgmental. Often, girls place more emphasis on compassion and care, and boys are more concerned with honour and justice.

UNDERSTANDING GENDER DIFFERENCES CONTINUED…

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As previously outlined, gender has an impact on how confidence is developed in a young person, however just as important for a coach is to understand how age impacts on confidence levels. Research has shown that as young people mature this impacts on how their confidence is developed – making is vital that coaches understand this and provide appropriate levels of coaching. A young player’s development is split into four key categories:

✓ Sampling years (ages 6-12 years) ✓ Specialising years (ages 13-15 years) ✓ Investment years (ages 16+ years) ✓ Recreational participation (age 13+ years)

Sampling years (ages 6-12 years) Findings from research demonstrate that participating in a range of different sports and enjoying their sporting experiences are the most important developmental activities during their development. The benefits of playing different sports along with an enjoyable environment have been shown to protect against drop-out from sport by reducing burnout, limiting over-use injuries, increased enjoyment, improved skill development along with learning transferable skills such as communication, teamwork and resilience. Specialising years (ages 13-15 years) Focusing on one or two sports, accompanied by higher amounts of deliberate practice is characteristic of specialising years. The age at which this occurs can be younger for sports in which peak performance is achieved during adolescence (e.g., gymnastics) referred to as ‘early specialisation pathway’. Investment years (ages 16+ years) Greater structure and focus on deliberate practice to improve and reach peak performance in one sport. Recreational participation (age 13+ years) Reflects decisions made to move into recreational participation after the sampling years. Characterised by less deliberate practice compared with those on the specialising stage of participation.

AGE AND STAGE DIFFERENCES

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Research has shown that it is important to understand gender differences, along with coaching that is appropriate to the young person’s age, however it is also important to ensure young people build their confidence levels and enjoy their sporting experiences – even if this means playing more than one sport – research has shown that:

✓ Playing different sports at a young age does not prevent them from reaching an elite level

✓ By playing different sports they are more likely to stay in sport longer

✓ Regular skill development during the sampling years (6 – 12) keeps young athletes motivated as they can see themselves improving, provided the challenge is appropriate.

✓ High amounts of skill development during the sampling years establishes a range of motor and cognitive experiences that young people can ultimately bring to their main sport of interest.

✓ Around the end of primary school (or early years of secondary school; about age 13), children should have the opportunity to either choose to specialise in their favourite sport or to continue in sport at a recreational level.

✓ Late adolescents (around age 16) have developed the physical, cognitive, social, emotional, and motor skills needed to invest their efforts in highly specialised training in one sport.

AGE AND STAGE DEVELOPMENT OF YOUNG PEOPLE CONTINUED…

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AGE AND STAGE DEVELOPMENT OF YOUNG PEOPLE CONTINUED…

Further research has also highlighted 10 key factors that will maintain the confidence of a young person:

✓ Regulate length of season to 3 or 4 months, with a maximum of 6 months

✓ Limit lengthy travel to organised competitions

✓ Introduce ‘grass-roots’ sports programmes that focus on trying different sports

✓ Do not implement a selection process of more ‘talented’ young people until the specialisation years

✓ Provide healthy competitive opportunities, but do not overemphasise winning and long-term outcomes such as championships

✓ Discourage early specialisation in one sport

✓ Allow children to play all positions of any given sport

✓ Promote deliberate play within and beyond organised sport

✓ Design play and practice activities that focus on fun and short-term rewards

✓ Understand children’s needs and do not ‘over coach’

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EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION WITH YOUNG PEOPLE

Communication is the art of successfully sharing information with young people.

Coaches wish to motivate the young people they work with and to provide them with information that will allow them to train effectively and improve performance - this however, requires the individual to receive the correct information from the coach.

COACHES NEED TO ASK THEMSELVES:

• Do I have the young person’s attention?

• Am I explaining myself properly?

• Has the young person understood?

• Does the young person believe what I am telling them?

DIFFICULTIES IN COMMUNICATING WITH YOUNG PEOPLE MAY BE DUE A NUMBER OF ISSUES INCLUDING:

• The individual’s perception of something is different from the coaches

• The young person may jump to a conclusion instead of working through the process of hearing, understanding and accepting

• The young person may lack the knowledge to fully understand what the coach is communicating

• The individual may not be listening

• The coach may have difficulty in expressing what they wish to say

• Emotions may interfere in the communication process

• There may be a clash of personality between the coach and young person

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There are many different coaching and communication styles that impact on the confidence levels of a young person – it is important to understand these styles and ensure that your coaching style improves the confidence levels of young people. THE HELICOPTER COACH The coach that hovers over everything a young person does, continually shouting instructions. THE REMOTE-CONTROL COACH “Pass”, “shoot”, “don’t do that!” The coach that tries to control everything an individual does from the side-lines THE SNOWPLOUGH COACH The coach that clears a path for young people – taking away any chance of making mistakes THE OLD-SCHOOL PUNDIT The coach that sees young people as professionals and demands perfection without taking age and stage into account THE SCREECHER The coach that constantly makes a noise from the side-lines, yet often doesn’t say anything constructive that develops young people THE POSITIVE COACH The coach that takes young people on a learning journey, understands that they may get on and off at different stops, but are focused on making them better people and better players

WHAT TYPE OF COACH ARE YOU? UNDERSTANDING DIFFERENT COACHING STYLES

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Central to being a positive coach is the ability to understand all the different communication

EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

Listening and responding to improve

mutual respect

Body language Facial expressions

Physical gestures

What you say and how you say it

Active listening

Non-verbal communication

Verbal communication

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Effective communication requires the coach to engage with young people across different methods that include:

✓ Verbal ✓ Non-verbal ✓ Active listening

VERBAL COMMUNICATION Coaches tend to use verbal communication more than any other method. Talking with young people, rather than to them, can be one of the most effective means of communication. When coaches tell people what to do, they should always consider how they will receive the message. Prior to communicating with young people coaches should ask themselves:

✓ Am I using the appropriate language for someone of their age to understand? ✓ Rather than telling them something, can I ask them a question that will lead to the

answer – this way they are involved with the discussion ✓ What tone of voice do want to use when communicating?

NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION Coaches can say a lot without uttering a word: A frown, a look of disbelief, a disgusted shake of your head, or a smile can communicate a lot. In addition to becoming aware of their verbal communication it is essential that coaches become aware of non-verbal behaviours to fully understand the messages they are sending to young people and how this can impact their levels of confidence. It is important that coaches show young people that they are being understood by using non-verbal body language such as nodding, raising eyebrows, maintaining eye contact, and having an open posture.

EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

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ACTIVE LISTENING The process of active listening engages both coach and the young person. It allows the young person space to express themselves and explore their interests more deeply. This can lead to a feeling of empowerment and a growing sense of confidence in their abilities. Often when young people communicate with a coach, the coach doesn’t listen attentively -they are often distracted, only hearing what the young person is saying. Listening is not the same as hearing, hearing refers to the sounds that you hear, whereas listening, requires focus. Listening means paying attention not only to what is being said, but how it is communicated, the use of language and voice, and how the coach uses their body language and respond emotionally. ACTIVE LISTENING SKILLS CAN:

✓ Increase the young person’s confidence as it shows the coach is listening and cares ✓ Show that the coach values what young person is communicating ✓ Focus the young person more on what they are communicating meaning that they will

feel more confident about gaining new skills, both practical and social. Take some time to think about your own methods of communicating:

✓ Am I effective at verbal communication? ✓ Am I aware of my non-verbal communication? ✓ Am I good at active listening?

EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION CONTINUED…

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This section of the manual is where you find the tools that will help you develop confident young athletes. You will be provided with tools and techniques that allow you to practically apply techniques that develop confidence within your coaching practice. The tools are designed to complement your existing knowledge and support your ability to develop the player and the person.

THE TOOLS ARE GROUPED INTO FIVE PRINCIPLES

DEVELOPING CONFIDENT YOUNG PEOPLE

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QUESTIONING

Page Title Page Number

Importance of asking the correct question 29 Coaches questioning checklist 31 Tools to Encourage Effective Questioning

• 6 C’s of effective communication 32

• Ask rather than tell 32

• Strength and weakness profiles 33

• Coaching styles 32

• Shared development profiles 32

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THE IMPORTANCE OF ASKING THE CORRECT QUESTION

it is important that coaches regularly ask questions and build relationships with young people, however it is also important to understand what to ask, when to ask and how to ask. In some cases, this requires a shift in coaching styles – from directing and controlling to facilitating and guiding. This means moving beyond simple yes/no questions to open-ended questions that foster debate and discussion between athlete and coach, and among athletes themselves – this is the key to learning, improvement and building confidence levels. Questions can be divided into:

OPEN / CLOSED

QUESTIONS

FUNNEL

QUESTIONS

PROBING

QUESTIONS

LEADING

QUESTIONS

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THE IMPORTANCE OF ASKING THE CORRECT QUESTION

Rubbish in, rubbish out, is a popular truth, often said in relation to computer systems. If you put the wrong information in, you'll get the wrong information out. The same principle applies to communications in general and most definitely questioning. If you ask the wrong questions, you'll get the wrong answer, or at least not quite what you're hoping for. OPEN/CLOSED QUESTIONS A closed question usually receives a single word or very short, factual answer. For example, ‘Do you play sport?’ The answer is ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ Open questions elicit longer answers. They usually begin with what, why, how. An open question asks the young athlete about their knowledge, opinion or feelings. ‘Tell me’ and ‘describe’ can also be used in the same way as open questions. Some examples may include:

• What happened at the training session? • How was the game? • Tell me what happened next. • Describe the circumstances in more detail.

Open questions are good for:

• Developing an open conversation: "What did you enjoy most about the competition?" • Finding out more detail: "What else do we need to work on to make this a success?" • Finding out the athlete’s opinion or issues: "What do you think about those changes we

made to training today?" Closed questions are good for:

• Testing your understanding "Do you understand the drill?" • Concluding a discussion or making a decision: "Now we know the facts, are we all

agreed this is the right course of action?" • Frame setting: "Are you happy with the way the team performed?"

Closed questions are then usually followed up with an open question to generate communication. A misplaced closed question, on the other hand, can kill the conversation and lead to awkward silences, so are best avoided when a conversation is in full flow.

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THE IMPORTANCE OF ASKING THE CORRECT QUESTION

FUNNEL QUESTIONS This technique involves starting with general questions, and then homing in on a point in each answer, and asking more and more detail at each level.

"How many people were shouting at the official?" "About ten." "Were they athletes or parents?" "Mostly parents." "Which teams were they from?" "X and X." "What was the trigger that set it off?" "It was a late tackle."

Perhaps he'll be able to identify the parents causing trouble on the side-line by gaining useful information like this. It is unlikely he would have got this information if he's simply asked an open question such as "Are there any details you can give me?" Tip: When using funnel questioning, it is OK to start with closed questions. As you progress through the funnel, start using more open questions. Funnel questions are good for:

• Finding out more detail about a specific point: "Tell me more about what you think you should focus on."

• Gaining the interest or increasing the confidence of the person you're speaking with: "Have you used the sport app?", "How much did it help you solve your problem?" "What’s your next successful plan with it?"

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THE IMPORTANCE OF ASKING THE CORRECT QUESTION

PROBING QUESTIONS Asking probing questions is another way to find out more detail. Sometimes it's as simple as asking the athlete for an example, to help you understand a statement they have made. At other times, you need additional information for clarification, ‘Tell me more about what happened during the competition’, or to investigate a situation further ‘so what happened next?’ An effective way of probing is to ensure the athlete knows why you are asking so many questions which can help you quickly get to the root of a problem. Tip: Use questions that include the word "exactly" to probe further: ‘What do you mean exactly?’. Probing questions are good for:

• Gaining clarification to ensure you have the whole story and that you understand it thoroughly.

• Drawing more detail from young people who find it difficult to have an open conversation

LEADING QUESTIONS Leading questions try to lead the athlete to your way of thinking. Coaches can do this in several ways:

• With an assumption: ‘How late do you think that you will be to training?’ This assumes that the person will certainly not be on time.

• By adding a personal appeal to agree at the end: ‘Ben is very efficient, don't you think?’

or ‘Robert is better at flanker, isn't he?’

• Phrasing the question so that the ‘easiest’ response is ‘yes’ (our natural tendency to prefer to say ‘yes’ more than ‘no’ plays an important part in the phrasing of questions): ‘Do we all agree that we will meet at 10am?’ This is more likely to get a positive response than "Do you want to meet up at 10?".

Note that leading questions can include closed questions too. “That throw hurt didn’t it? Followed straight away with “Ok so what can do different so it won’t hurt next time?”.

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COACHES QUESTIONING CHECKLIST

Take some time to review your own coaching style and ask yourself: WHAT TYPE OF QUESTIONS DO I ASK?

• Are they open questions that generate further discussion, or are they closed questions that don’t help me improve the young athlete’s ability?

AM I ASKING QUESTIONS AT THE RIGHT TIME AND TO THE RIGHT ATHLETES GIVEN THEIR STAGE OF DEVELOPMENT?

• Are the questions appropriate to the young person’s age, maturity and ability level? HOW OFTEN DO I SIT BACK AND LET MY ATHLETES LEARN FOR THEMSELVES?

• Do I allow mistakes/learning to happen or am I a snowplough coach/remote control coach?

AM I ALWAYS IN CHARGE?

• Learning happens best when young people have input to their own learning journey – am I always in charge of training session content or do I ask the athletes what they would like to work on?

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TOOLS TO ENCOURAGE EFFECTIVE QUESTIONING

6 C’S OF EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION Effective communication contains six key elements:

✓ Clear Ensure that the information is presented clearly ✓ Concise Be concise, do not lose the message by being long winded ✓ Correct Be accurate, avoid giving misleading information ✓ Complete Give all the information and not just part of it ✓ Courteous Be polite and non-threatening, avoid conflict ✓ Constructive Be positive, avoid being critical and negative

Coaches can download a reminder card here that will help ensure they follow the 6 C’s of effective communication ASK RATHER THAN TELL Positive coaches develop a habit of asking questions rather than telling your athletes what to do. Asking questions and listening to young people will help them think for themselves and you as a coach can monitor their learning and understanding. The young person will become less reliant on your feedback and will be able to solve problems for themselves. This way they are taking more active involvement in their learning rather than being dictated to. Ask, “What went wrong? or, “If you are in the same situation next time, what can you do differently?” This again allows the athlete to think for themselves, analyse what went wrong and identify what they need to do to improve.

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When working with young people, putting them at the centre of their own learning allows the athlete to feel part of the learning process. By engaging individuals in their own learning, they will:

• Transfer learning from training into competition

• Understand their own performance better

• Gain experience of making their own decisions

• Become independent thinkers

• Reach their full potential

STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS PROFILES

Evaluating strengths and weaknesses is a valuable process that can help in the planning of training programs and the identification of long-term goals as a focus for athlete improvement.

Ask the young people to complete the strength and weakness profile (downloadable from here) and write down their key strengths across individual areas (technical, tactical, mental and physical). This then presents an opportunity to discuss a plan of how the individual can address their weaknesses – make it clear that having a weakness is a positive, because with coaching, they will improve.

COACHING STYLES

It is important that coaches understand that different coaching styles are required to deal with different circumstances. Take some time to think of different situations where a mix of coaching styles would be required and ask yourself how you would put this into practice.

SHARED DEVELOPMENT PROFILES

By working with young people to establish their development plan, this also presents an opportunity to increase coaching conversations. After competition (or after a training session) ask the athlete to complete their performance profile (downloadable from here) making it clear that the coach will also complete one for their performance. Once complete, this presents an opportunity to discuss performance and plan future developments.

TOOLS TO MAXIMISE LEARNING INVOLVING THE ATHLETE

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PROVIDING POSITIVE FEEDBACK AND PRAISE

Page Title Page Number

Providing positive feedback and praise 35 Praise the process – not the outcome 36 Fixed and growth mindset 37 Tools to Encourage Effective Questioning

• Effective feedback 38

• Buddy system 38

• The praise sandwich 39

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PROVIDING POSITIVE FEEDBACK AND PRAISE

The traditional view of praising young people involves the idea that all praise is good praise, however research has shown that is not always the case.

Praise can be understood as giving positive feedback, with the view that praising a young person will result in increased self-esteem and optimism, increasing their chances of performing well in training or competition.

The concept of false praise, however, is a situation where a young person is praised unnecessarily and in undeserving circumstances. The research has shown that this unconditional praise can have negative consequences in the long run, where the young person has less resilience and a distorted self-esteem. By giving false praise the research found that the young person cannot understand what is positive praise and so fails to differentiate between what is true achievement and what is completion of a meaningless task.

FALSE PRAISE

X Distorted self-esteem X Less resilience X Fails to understand

true achievement

POSITIVE PRAISE

✓ Builds self-esteem ✓ Increases motivation ✓ Improves resilience

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Always try to praise the effort, not the outcome. Research has shown that praising a young person’s hard work or strategies when they’ve done well – ‘process praise’ – has a number of positive effects.

Praising a young person’s ability (“You’re really good at this!”, “Aren’t you clever”) conveys what’s known as a fixed mindset – the belief that abilities are fixed and come naturally. Such praise may feel good in the moment, but it makes athletes worried about difficulty and mistakes, worried about losing their ‘clever’ label.

‘Process praise’, on the other hand, conveys to athletes that they can develop their abilities. Research has shown that ‘process praise’ makes young people more likely to challenge themselves and to persist when the work gets more difficult – known as a growth mindset.

When athletes try hard but fail to progress, coaches should appreciate their effort with effective feedback, “Show me what you’ve tried, and let’s figure out what you can try next” or “Tell me exactly what your thought process was when you did it this way, and let’s see if there are other ways that you can try.”

The coach and athlete can then take steps to collaborate on how to move forward more effectively. Young athletes need a range of options when they are confronting difficult tasks. Simply telling children “Try harder and you’ll get it” is often misleading.

PRAISE THE PROCESS - NOT THE OUTCOME

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A young person’s mindset affects how they think and learn, and can determine their level of success in sport and life.

Coaches want all young people to improve, however there is also a desire to improve them as people – mindset has a vital role in this.

Coaches have an important part to play in supporting, challenging and developing young people.

By understanding how to develop a growth mindset in a young person, coaches will be supporting them to become a better learner (in sport and in their personal lives) and how to achieve their personal best in life – in doing so fulfilling their potential.

The graphic below outlines the character differences between a young person with a fixed or growth mindset:

Growth mindset Fixed mindset

Talent is learnt BELIEVE THAT Athletes are born talented

Believe anything is possible EFFORT Athletes rely on their talent

Embrace challenge CHALLENGE Avoid challenge

Persist SETBACKS Give up easily

Learn from criticism NEGATIVE FEEDBACK Ignore constructive feedback

Maximise potential OUTCOME Plateau early and under achieve

FIXED AND GROWTH MINDSET

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EFFECTIVE FEEDBACK

Effective feedback can be the difference between a confident young person who goes on to fulfil their potential and a disillusioned athlete who drops out of sport and missing out on all the positives that sport brings.

Coaches must ensure they use positive language that praises the process and not the outcome:

A positive praise communication card can be downloaded from here.

BUDDY SYSTEM

The buddy system is a terrific way of pairing young people together and giving them the task of keeping their buddy’s confidence levels high. Inform each person that when they see their buddy doing something well – tell them and raise their confidence levels. This does not need to be when they do something spectacular, the important thing is to praise effort or process.

It is also very important that individuals understand the need to give truthful and specific praise – the buddy system gives coaches an opportunity to discuss the importance of positive/ false praise.

TOOLS TO PROVIDE POSITIVE PRAISE AND FEEDBACK

Outcome Praise Effort Praise

Well played, great goal!Well done, it’s clear you’ve been working

on your shooting

You were brilliant todayGreat performance, your passing is

getting better with practice

You’re so talentedYou’re getting better every week through

training

You were the best player todayGreat level of performance, you were the

hardest working player today

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TOOLS TO PROVIDE POSITIVE PRAISE AND FEEDBACK

THE PRAISE SANDWICH

Coaching is about improving a young person’s levels of ability, sometimes this means telling them areas they need improvement in. For a young person having their weaknesses pointed out to them may harm their confidence levels, however the praise sandwich provides an excellent opportunity to constructively criticise a young person without lowering their confidence levels.

Start with a positive comment – something they have done well. Followed up with a constructive criticism that is aimed at improving their levels of ability This is then followed by a positive statement that encourages them to make changes to their technique. A praise sandwich may look like this: “Your passing technique is really improving” “Although your first touch needs to improve as this will give you more time to make a pass. We can work on this during the next training session – do you understand what I mean?” “Have a think about this and we can really move onto the next level”

Positive Feedback

Positive Feedback

Constructive Criticism

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BODY LANGUAGE

Page Title Page Number

Understanding the impact of positive body language 41 Displaying positive body language 42 Tools to Display Positive Body Language

• Positive body language 44

• Review your coaching 44

• Positive reaction to mistakes 44

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UNDERSTANDING THE IMPACT OF BODY LANGUAGE

BODY LANGUAGE One of the most important things for coaches to understand is their body language. Young people will see coaches as their role model, when those respected role models display negative body language, they are sending messages that create a lasting impact on the young person. Coaches need to be fully aware of the power of sideline body language and the detrimental effect it can have on the development of young people. It doesn’t take much – common behaviours such as; hands on the head, a roll of the eyes, exasperated sighing can all have a negative impact on the young person’s confidence levels. When young people see a coach displaying negative body language, they are probably thinking things like “Oh no, I’ve blown it again” or “they’ll think badly of me and be so disappointed”. The term “body language” refers to non-verbal communication, or the unspoken word. Over 50% of communication comes from non-verbal cues. These cues include things like gestures, posture, facial expressions, and eye contact. Touch can also be included in ‘body language’ and includes things like a pat on the back, high five, etc.

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DISPLAYING POSITIVE BODY LANGUAGE

COACHING SCENARIO Your team are attacking the opponent's goal. Your striker has a shot that the goal keeper parries to the feet of another striker. With the goal gaping, the goal keeper on the ground and no defenders nearby – your striker shoots wide of the goal… HOW WOULD YOU REACT? Take some time to consider how you would react to this scenario. Many coaches would instinctively put their hands on their heads in disbelief with a shocked look on their face – this is a natural reaction. Now put yourself in the young players’ position – they will already know they have made a mistake, however when they look at you, their role mode and see negative body language this will make them feel even worse and lower their confidence levels. Displaying positive body language such as a smile or thumbs up can go a long way to maintaining confidence levels.

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DISPLAYING POSITIVE BODY LANGUAGE

GESTURES There is nothing wrong with using gestures to communicate with young people – provided the coach is aware that they are doing them and they are helping to keep or even build confidence levels. POSITIVE GESTURES – thumbs up, smile, wave, applause NEGATIVE GESTURES - holding head in hands, angry finger pointing, stamping of feet, throwing hands in the air FACIAL EXPRESSIONS Facial expressions should always be positive – even when an athlete makes a mistake. Coaches should always remember that mistakes are learning opportunities POSITIVE FACIAL EXPRESSIONS – smile, relaxed, calm NEGATIVE FACIAL EXPRESSIONS – frowning, bored, angry

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POSITIVE BODY LANGUAGE

Always be aware of your body language – this can significantly impact a young person’s confidence levels.

Set a timer on your watch or phone that reminds you every five minutes – use the reminder to assess your body language.

REVIEW YOUR COACHING Ask another member of coaching staff to film you during a match or training session Assess your own body language by:

✓ Looking for the number of positive gestures you make

✓ Highlighting the number of negative gestures you make

✓ Reviewing the impact your gestures had on the young players POSITIVE REACTION TO MISTAKES Mistakes happen, they are a vital to the learning process – after a mistake ask yourself:

What’s

Important

Now

After a young person has made a mistake use this as an opportunity to:

✓ Show support ✓ Applaud the effort ✓ Encourage the young person to focus forward

TOOLS TO HELP DISPLAY POSITIVE BODY LANGUAGE

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HAVING CHILD FRIENDLY CONVERSATIONS

Page Title Page Number

Having child friendly conversations 46 Tools to Develop Child Friendly Conversations

• Teachable moments 48

• Coaching conversations 49

• Learning pit 50

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HAVING CHILD FRIENDLY CONVERSATIONS

It is important to remember that young people are not mini-adults and so how coaches speak to them must reflect this. When communicating with young people coaches must ensure they use:

✓ An appropriate tone of voice ✓ Language suitable to their age ✓ A speed of voice that they can understand ✓ Words that engage them

It is important that coaches effectively communicate with young people however, too often this means that coaches talk and the athlete listens – it is better when athletes also talk and coaches also listen. Adopt a tell-me-more attitude Let young people know you want to hear what they have to say, and then listen – even if you don’t agree with it or like it. Use open-ended questions Some questions elicit one-word responses: “How was school today?” “Fine.” Ask questions that require longer, more thoughtful responses - “What worked well in the game?” or “What did you learn that can help you in the future?”

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ASK ABOUT LIFE-LESSON AND CHARACTER ISSUES Coaching is about developing the young person physically, psychologically and socially and so it is important to relate what they have learnt in sport to other interests. You may ask a question like: “Any thoughts on what you’ve learned in training this week that might help you with other parts of your life?” SHOW YOU ARE LISTENING Many young athletes see coaches as their role models, make the effort to ensure you listen to them – this can have a huge impact on their confidence levels. Make it obvious you are paying attention through use of non-verbal actions such as making eye contact and nodding your head or making “listening noises” (“uh-huh… interesting,” etc.). LET THE ATHLETES SET THE TERMS Forcing a conversation soon after a match, when emotions may still run high, is often less successful than waiting until the young person indicates they are ready to talk. Open-ended questions may prompt more substantive conversations, but they need not always be lengthy to be effective. Forcing longer conversations will lead to the young person avoiding them - and don’t be afraid of silence. Stick with it and the young person will open up.

HAVING CHILD FRIENDLY CONVERSATIONS continued…

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TOOLS TO DEVELOP CHILD FRIENDLY CONVERSATIONS

TEACHABLE MOMENTS

High profile sporting events often provide a wonderful opportunity to teach young people lessons that are valid for sport but also in their everyday lives – however these opportunities are often missed by coaches.

Teachable moments can be both negative and positive – for example a high-profile athlete behaving in a disrespectful manner, or more positively an athlete helping an injured opponent. Having these high-profile opportunities provides a great discussion topic during your next training session.

High profile events are not the only time a coach can recognise teachable moments, they may also occur during training sessions or matches.

Seize these moments and use them to create discussions with the young people, but to also generate discussion amongst the young people themselves, ask questions such as:

• Tell me what you thought about the athlete’s actions?

• What example do you think that set for young people watching?

• How do you think the athlete’s teammates would have reacted?

• How would you have responded if that was one of your teammates?

Starting a discussion with a question doesn’t mean that coaches can’t join in the conversation – it may be that the coach disagrees and needs to guide the conversation, however it can be very powerful when the young person concludes their own thoughts and recognises either positive or negative behaviour.

The most important factor is for the coaches is to recognise a teachable moment and discuss this with the young person – teaching them right from wrong and instilling positive behavior’s both in and beyond sport.

Take some time to think about teachable moments you may have missed – what would you do differently next time?

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TOOLS TO DEVELOP CHILD FRIENDLY CONVERSATIONS

COACHING CONVERSATIONS

Having regular conversations with young athletes is an opportunity to make them feel part of the learning journey, but also provides an opportunity to build a coach/athlete relationship – vital for learning to occur.

Coaches may set themselves a challenge of speaking to every athlete during a training session, this may only be a short conversation. It should be a direct interaction with the young person, talking face-to-face about how they are, how they are improving, what they should be working on or what may be preventing any progress.

Coaching conversations can also be held after a performance to enhance the learning process. Having a positive debrief conversation helps young athletes to embed what they have learnt during a training session or match.

Using ‘why not?’ is a great way of involving athletes in a post-match discussion. They will often state that ‘I can’t do that’, by asking ‘why not?’ this provides an opportunity to discuss their weakness and the steps required to overcome it.

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TOOLS TO DEVELOP CHILD FRIENDLY CONVERSATIONS

LEARNING PIT

When coaching young people, challenge is the greatest way to improve an athlete’s knowledge. Research has shown that where the challenge is just beyond an athlete’s current capacity but not out of reach, the greatest improvements can be made.

Young people have been identified as having a comfort zone, where the level of difficulty, challenge, and frustration vary considerably. Successful learning depends on a coach’s ability to sustain the athlete’s enthusiasm by setting appropriate challenge.

Discussing the learning pit with players is a great way of explaining that challenge is a good thing. It takes them out of their comfort zone, into the courage zone, through the mistake-making zone, and into the learning zone. Discussing challenge with the athletes and setting specific scenarios during training sessions lets individuals understand the learning process, that mistakes are inevitable and with coaching they will improve. A graphic of the learning pit can be downloaded from here.

COMFORT

ZONE

COURAGE

ZONE

MISTAKE MAKING

ZONE

LEARNING

ZONE

IMPROVEMENT

ZONE

SUCCESS

ZONE

THELEARNING

PIT

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CONFIDENCE BUILDERS

Page Title Page Number

Building confidence through positive coaching 52 Tools to Develop Child Friendly Conversations

• Positive charting 53

• Winners circle 53

• Fun activities 54

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BUILDING CONFIDENCE THROUGH POSITIVE COACHING

Confidence is not a constant. It fluctuates. It comes and goes. It can be easily gained but also easily lost. Young people become more confident when they are more comfortable and have less fear – research has shown that much of learning to be confident is learning to overcome fear. Fear of failure can be detrimental to a young person’s level of success. As a coach, there are ways to identify if this is happening. A confident individual will push themselves out of their comfort zone and take risks, even if those risks could result in failure. Taking too many risks is not necessarily a good thing and they do not always pay off, but it is a fundamental component of confidence. For some young people, the thought of making a mistake in front of their coaches, teammates, or parents is so terrifying that they prefer to stay in their comfort zone and do as little as possible to avoid the risk of embarrassment. So, if an athlete is not taking any risks than it may be a sign they are experiencing fear of failure. Coaches can help to build a young person’s confidence levels by engaging with them, making them feel comfortable in the environment and crucially making them feel involved. Some simple actions coaches can do are to:

✓ Shake the hand of every athlete as they arrive ✓ Use the athletes name regularly ✓ Ask them questions that involves their input ✓ Praise them for what they have done well

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TOOLS TO DEVELOP CONFIDENCE BUILDERS

POSITIVE CHARTING

Positive charting is simple – but not necessarily easy. It requires effort, the effort to observe.

Coaches can add value by finding things that are done incorrectly and improving them. But it is equally important to find things that are being done correctly to reinforce them.

Positive charting is a method of increasing the number of ‘right things’ that young people do. It also creates a wonderful positive atmosphere in which individuals are more receptive to being corrected because they feel appreciated.

Positive charting works by selecting a young person to watch and identifying positive elements of their performance – this then gives an opportunity for coaches to discuss their performance, outlining the positive elements as well as areas for improvement.

It is very difficult to observe more than three people at any time; however, this is also an opportunity to involve assistant coaches, injured players and even parents.

A positive charting template can be downloaded from here.

WINNERS’ CIRCLE

The winners’ circle is a great way to reinforce what has went well, build confidence and develop team spirit.

After every training session gather the young people together and encourage them to discuss:

✓ What went well ✓ How they have seen improvement ✓ What they enjoyed ✓ What they can work on next time

Importantly within the winners’ circle, all comments are positive and come from the young people themselves – coaches may need to start the discussions; however, the aim should be to develop an environment where young people are building each other’s confidence levels with truthful specific comments.

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TOOLS TO DEVELOP CONFIDENCE BUILDERS

FUN ACTIVITIES

There are times during training sessions when nothing seems to be going right, individuals are making lots of mistakes, coaches are getting frustrated and the young person’s development is being negatively affected.

In this scenario, a coach has two options:

✓ Carry on to the end of the session and hope that things will get better ✓ Be proactive and use fun activities to change the coaching environment

Being proactive and changing the coaching environment is how a positive coach would handle the situation – why take the risk that the session might get better?

The coach can stop the session and use fun games to:

✓ Re-engage with the learning process ✓ Improve concentration levels ✓ Re focus on the aim of the session ✓ Forget about previous mistakes

Fun activities should get the young person laughing and enjoying the break in routine – it may be that the session is only stopped for 5 – 10 minutes before going back to the original session plan however by changing the focus for a short period this creates a positive learning environment – increasing the chances of the young person learning from the coaching.

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COACHING CONFIDENT YOUNG PEOPLE REVIEW

Developing the confidence levels of young people is not an easy thing to do, it takes time to build confidence levels, and importantly takes commitment from coaches. Coaching is about improving young people, physically, mentally and socially – if the young players do not have high confidence levels the role of the coach becomes much harder.

Developing confidence in young people requires:

✓ Positive communication ✓ Involving athletes with their learning ✓ Developing growth mindsets ✓ Clear definition of what success is ✓ Recognition that mistakes are a learning opportunity ✓ Support from the coach

COACHING CHALLENGE Take at least one tool from the confidence materials and embed within your coaching For further information on the Positive Coaching Scotland programme visit www.winningscotlandfoundation.org, here you will find further information relating to:

✓ Create a mastery coaching environment ✓ Supporting young people to have growth mindsets ✓ Understanding how sport develops positive life skills in young people ✓ How sport can develop positive values in young people

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For further information on PCS Plus and our other programmes visit:

www.winningscotlandfoundation.org