Investing in our future athletes – UK Coaching Week

Every sporting triumph is built upon hours and hours of dedication. Not only from the athlete themselves, but from the coaches, trainers and support staff who give up their time, often as a volunteer, to help raise them to the next level.

This #UKCoachingWeek2020, we want to raise the profile of the talented individuals supporting our young athletes to achieve more than they could ever believe.

Steve Jones – Coaching Young Athletes

“Like many people in athletics, I became involved because our daughter, Katherine, competed.  Having taken early retirement from my job in Finance and with a thought that I wanted to do something with young people, I joined our local club, Cannock & Stafford AC.  I started off as a volunteer with the club’s Development Group and soon signed up to take the Coaching Assistant course.

I’m now keen to get to the next coaching level but, having signed up, I was thwarted by lockdown.  I work mainly with 9-14 year olds and specialise in sprints and long jump.

It always surprises me when people say it must be difficult working with youngsters – they don’t pay attention, they’re just come along for a chat and then they decide our sport is not for them.  All that is sometimes true and it might be different to coaching adults, but here are four reasons why it doesn’t matter:

• The look on the face of a young girl with learning and physical difficulties, the first time she reached the long jump sand with a legal jump
• The pride you feel when the first person you helped to long jump walks out with the other competitors at the English Schools Championships
• The satisfaction you feel when your most hard working athlete makes technical improvements and smashes their personal best as a result
• The laughs you have with colleagues and youngsters on a freezing cold night in Stafford

I’m the guy in the blue cap with other coaches and a couple of great young athletes on one such night.

I have found that borrowing ideas from other coaches about how to work with young athletes has paid dividends. The things I’ve learned from others include:

• Trying to make training fun as well as challenging
• Showing athletes you have confidence in them
• Listening to what they tell you about how the session or competition felt
• Always talking about the positives BEFORE the negatives
• Letting the athlete have a good old rant when anything goes wrong!

Actually I reckon all this also applies to adult athletes so maybe coaching youngsters isn’t that different after all.  What I can definitely say is that coaching young athletes has to be the best unpaid job in the world!”