Coaching Multi-Level, Multi-Age Teams and Clubs
By Fred Griffin, NENSA Executive Director
I hear it from both sides.
I hear it from coaches frustrated working with athletes of varying ages in middle school/high school programs, or from BKL Leaders in despair over dealing with the even wider BKL age group, 4 – 13.
"Some want to race. Others just want to socialize. What do I do?”
“I can deal with the committed ones, but it’s so hard to motivate the others…”
I hear it from parents and kids alarmed by coaches who don’t run a program that meets their needs or their children’s needs.
“Suzy doesn’t want to race! She joined BKL because she loves to be outdoors with her friends and ski. She hates this…”
“I want to be the best skier I can be. I want to race in college. Coach is making us all do the same thing. It’s too easy. I need more! But he says it’s for the good of the team”
What is sad is that everyone wants the same thing: kids to have fun in a rewarding sport they love. So how do we get there? How do we please Mom, Dad, coach, athlete?
For many years I’ve been coaching clubs and schools with kids ranging in ages from 10 -19 in the sports of tennis, running, and cross-country skiing. Quite honestly, we don’t have this problem. Below is my philosophy.
1. One Size Does Not Fit All.
A team is an aggregate of individuals. Each athlete has his or her needs.
Maybe it is my years of teaching handicapped kids, or maybe a lifetime
of being an unrepentant misfit—but it is very clear to me that when
it comes to sports, each athlete deserves to be on his/her own IEP: Individual
Exercise Program. Shift your thinking and stop fitting the kids to the
program-- fit the program to the kids! I know this goes against “old
school”, ball-sports theory, but do anything less and you are diminishing
the chance for every child to succeed.
On our middle school/high school team we have kids who are loose-limbed bundles of tender growing plates, not ready for hard training physically or mentally. We have kids who show up tentative, who can’t look past just wanting to be more fit. Competition and hard workouts are a terrifying prospect unless and until they slowly transition into new bodies. We have kids who are highly motivated but who don’t report in shape. They have to be let off the leash gradually or they will injure themselves in their zeal. And of course, we have kids who know the drill, who come in fit, hungry, ready to eat raw meat.
In BKL groups this translates into first year skiers tentatively checking
out a new sport on borrowed fishscales, fit kids who have no interest
in racing but can live n the woods, and children of current or former
racers who arrive on top end gear looking for high-powered action
If every child is run through the same program it is either too hard or
too easy for those on the other sides a relatively narrow cross-section.
The fit and motivated kids become bored and frustrated and act accordingly.
The less fit are unable to keep up, and feel shame or dislike for themselves.
They tend to be scorned or patronized on some level by their more fit
teammates—that is, if they don’t quit after two weeks. Meanwhile
a coach goes crazy trying to see some kids don’t slough off and
trying to keep other kids in line. Clearly, one size fits all thinking
creates unhealthy dynamics up and down the roster. The good news is that
there is a way out of this mess. Read on.
2..Have the Kids Set Goals.
Goal-setting is at the heart of the coach/athlete relationship. The expectations
the process creates in both parties constitute an informal contract. The
terms of that contract take form in athlete’s training program and
in the coach’s part in implementing it. We make this a formal process
on teams I coach. An interview follows. For BKL kids it is most often
only an interview. I give older kids a deadline for return of the goal
sheets. After that, no sheet, no practice. I make them focus on what they
want to learn or to change—not on where they think they should finish,
or who they should beat. We race with our teammates, not against them.
When I know what they want from the sport, the season, I know how to
coach them. Where to push, where to pat. Practice time is too precious
to spend forcing square pegs into round holes. It’s also painful
for the pegs. After all, I’m there for them—they aren’t
there for me. Right? And a team is an aggregate of individuals, right?
I find the Success Chart we offer to BKL Club Leaders is an excellent
goal-setting template for BKL kids. It also provides a seasonal lesson
plan with multiple tracks offered each day. It binds a club program with
a sense of purpose as well.
3.Set up different programs, or “pathways” for each practice.
From the goal sheets I learn how the team settles out and I correlate
this to what I have seen of the kids fitness-wise. For this year’s
group of thirty kids ages 11 – 18, I started with five 5 groups.
I posted a list of who was in what group and hung it on the wall. If anyone
was unhappy we would have gone back to goals sheets and talked it out.
No one was. Each day while the kids were dressing I posted the day’s
schedule on the blackboard thusly:
Everyone: warm-up, stretch, double pole lessons; afterwards
by group
Wolverines: ski through the woods trail and double pole the two small
hills of on backside; total ski 30 minutes then you are on your time.
Jaguars: 15 minutes dble pole only; ski 30 minutes more.
Finish with 6 x 40 second dble pole repeats superfast, on soccer field
Civet Cats: dble pole 30 minutes; ski 30 more; 6 x 20
second dble pole repeats on the hill beside the soccer field
Bobcats: 30 minute dble pole, 10 min single stick,, 35
minute ski afterwards; 10 x 20 second power pole on soccer field hill
Everyone: British Bulldog at 4:45 on soccer field
For a BKL practice I prefer not to place kids in groups but instead to
offer elective activities.
Everyone: warm-up, stretch, game; lesson on dble pole
Activity #1: ski tour looking for animal tracks; , remember
to dble pole on flats
Activity #2:dble pole relay followed by free ski with
lots of double-poling
Everyone: finish with game
I add in specific activities from the Success Chart. I expand on Success
Chart offerings
4. Provide Freedom to Change Workout Groups
This is the beauty of the program. Recovering from a cold? Drop down one
group or two. Feeling frisky? Go up one and try it on for size. The only
rule is you need the coach’s approval. If a person is not performing
to a chosen group level, I take the athlete aside and ask if his/her goals
have changed. They move to an easier workout if they desire. This almost
never happens. Movement is upward, just in the direction you as a coach
want it to be. Wolverine Suzy will ask to be a Jaguar for a day, then
another. Pretty soon Suzy is a Jaguar. Most years if I start with five
groups, I end with three.
Granted, this is an athlete-centered as opposed to a team-centered model,
but year after year it produces a community, a tight-knit caring team,
second to none. Because each athlete is judged by his/her own criteria,
every child has respect for every other child who makes an honest effort.
The program is performance-based, and not outcome-based. It’s not
what we do but how we do what we do that is the focus. As a coach of a
performance-based team you are making it possible for each of your athletes
to pursue personal excellence. You are creating a nutrient environment
in which kids can grow. Team excellence follows organically. This may
translate into one child losing ten pounds and skiing 5k without stopping,
or it may result in another being state champion or making the Junior
Olympic Team. It may mean a BKL Club that succeeds as a group because
its skiers succeed as individuals. You have made room for both children
and both visions—and the point is that there must be room for both.
You might just end up a satisfied coach of a thriving program with excited
kids who have pleased parents.
