Championing Child-First Coaching in High-Performance Sports

Included in this article:

• Children should follow their passions not their parents
• Every child should feel heard, understood, and valued
• Connection before correction
• How to motivate children
• Skills for successful mentoring
• Building legacies that last a lifetime
• Values and principles of great coaching
• Download FREE Resource: Child-first coaching top tips

by Blake Richardson

Gymnasts spend an unusually high proportion of the early part of their lives upside down. So, in homage to those dedicated young acrobats who are the central feature of this article, it seems only appropriate to perform a literary somersault and flip the storyline on its head.

Whichever sport you coach, these combined factors ensure athletes become the best versions of themselves, guided by the golden principle that if you develop the person, the performer will follow.

Children's passion vs parental pressure

Gymnasts can begin competing in regional and county competitions from as young as seven and progress to national competitions from around the age of 10 or 11.

Child welfare at such a young age, when gymnasts can encounter regular periods of pressure and intensity, is of critical importance, demanding close supervision from coaches and parents, who must ensure special attention is given to the opinions and feelings of the child.

To protect children’s physical health and psychological well-being, the focus must be on  long-term welfare over short-term outcomes.

It is pivotal therefore that gymnasts on the performance pathway enjoy the sport and are there because they want to learn and develop.

They should not be there to please their parents or, worse still, feel pigeonholed as a ‘gymnast’ at such an early age by parents living vicariously through their children.

“That doesn’t mean to say people are doing that purposely to harm that child, or affect their training potential, but they are not realising that they are setting up a journey for that child without getting their buy-in.”

Every child should feel heard, understood, and valued

It is important to keep listening to the child’s voice through the many transitions that characterise their journey through sport.

In demanding high-performance settings, the motivations, desires, and dreams of children fluctuate and can change over short periods of time.

As Scott says, the difficulty in coaching children is that one day a child may give consent, another day they may just want to mess about with their friends.

“Any materials you can give the parents, any interactions you can have with them – including presentations – can be hugely effective.”

Scott works with the organisation Working with Parents in Sport, who have a comprehensive bank of tools and resources around how to engage effectively with parents and bring them on the journey.

“That may mean that the child is limited to how far they can go in the sport, but that communication and that child’s voice is essential because you then understand where that level is, and you don’t end up pushing a child into an area where they don’t want to be.”

Remember: Connection before correction

Coaches must invest time and energy to form connections with their athletes. Trust cannot be demanded; it must be earned and is rooted in gaining a deep understanding of what makes every individual in your group tick.

Talking – and being sure to listen – to gymnasts in performance settings is vital, as it fosters a sense of belonging and helps to establish a safe and proactive space – a climate of psychological safety – where gymnasts feel comfortable sharing their anxieties and points of view without fear of criticism.

The maxim ‘connect before you correct’ is solid advice for all coaches, irrespective of which rung your athlete is at on the performance ladder. As Scott explains:

“So, when you get to that intense level of preparing for a competition, because you’ve been on that journey together, the gymnast or athlete will not need to be told what to do to reach peak performance, they will know exactly what they need to do.

“Sometimes as a coach, it is a case of advising them to step off the gas a little and maybe have a bit of fun.

“It might be a hard session and you see the child has become introverted. That’s the point when you need to ask, ‘how do you feel today?’ and ‘tell me what it is you want to do?’ and give them a few choices so that they feel empowered as part of the process.”

“Rather than say to a gymnast, ‘you need to do this, and you need to do it again and again and again’, the key lies in setting up a series of small challenges for the gymnast,” says Scott.

“It’s those small achievable goals in that challenge that motivates them. And if a child is motivated, they will work hard and do those repetitions without becoming bored.

“Every time a small target is achieved, they gain confidence, and that fires their motivation. Once you have a confident, motivated child, you almost don’t have to convince them to do the repetitions because, ultimately, they’ll want to achieve the skill that they have set out to perfect.”

Scott encourages children and young people to actively seek out challenges to move forwards, because it is in those moments of adversity that people learn most.

“So, when they next encounter a similar challenge, they have the tools in their toolbox to deal with it.

If you do spot a child that arrives at a session lacking motivation, Scott’s advice is to use positive reinforcement to encourage them.

“Don’t dictate to a child that they need to do it again – but better. That is when it becomes negative.”

Let us suppose the goal is to want a child to run faster. Which option would you opt for as a coach? Do you tell them:

A. We want you to run faster, so we are going to do these running drills.

Or might you offer them a choice?

B. Do you want to race against a friend, and we will time you? Maybe we could do some fun games to challenge you, or if you want, I could run with you?

Scott adds: “Because you have created a fun environment, and they have had a choice in what that environment and challenge looks like, they will run faster and push themselves harder. Basically, you will have a more motivated, independent athlete.”

Skills for successful mentoring

South Essex Gymnastics Club has approximately 100 coaches, around 30 of whom are high performance coaches.

As Director of Coaching, Scott operates a top-down style of organisational communication, whereby the club’s values, ethical standards, and other salient information flows from senior coaches on down through the club.

“I will mentor my most senior coaches and they will mentor the next level down, so that the messaging is consistent throughout. It is impossible for me to get around 20, 30 coaches,” explains Scott.

“All our coaches are inspirational, driven, and passionate but some may occasionally become frustrated by a gymnast who has perhaps gone off track and isn’t working as they would like.

“Even at the highest level, coaches can let their emotions take over what they are trying to deliver, which is why it is so important to find good mentors, and surround yourself with good people, to help keep you in check and encourage you to self-reflect.”

We are family! Building legacies that last a lifetime 

Let us end where we began, with some glowing testimony of what real success looks like for performance athletes who have benefited from child-first coaching methods.

Georgia Mae-Fenton struck gold on the uneven bars and in the team event for England at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

After some challenging years, Georgia says she knew within weeks of arriving at South Essex that she had found a club that genuinely cares and that lived their values of putting the needs of the gymnast first.

“My new coach Michelle Flemings wants the best of me in all aspects of life and I can really sense that feeling. I’ve put a lot of trust in her and this is just the start for me.”

Let us end where we began, with some glowing testimony of what real success looks like for performance athletes who have benefited from child-first coaching methods.

Georgia Mae-Fenton struck gold on the uneven bars and in the team event for England at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

After some challenging years, Georgia says she knew within weeks of arriving at South Essex that she had found a club that genuinely cares and that lived their values of putting the needs of the gymnast first.

“My new coach Michelle Flemings wants the best of me in all aspects of life and I can really sense that feeling. I’ve put a lot of trust in her and this is just the start for me.”

“The impact really shows, and not just from our elite side but all the way down to the two- and three-year-olds that join the club every single day. Everyone owes a massive thank you to Scott, especially me.”

The values and principles of great coaching

Scott says he is “immensely proud” of the family atmosphere he has created, and the profound benefits that have resulted from adopting a child-first approach that is now deeply ingrained into the soul of the club.

“As with all families, you have differences of opinion, but you work through those, and by supporting each other and being there for each other, you come out stronger for the experience. It is through disputes and through disagreements that you often find new ways of doing things and discover bits of gold dust.

“It is also important to make sure there is a separation between personal and professional situations during gymnasts’ development because what you don’t want to do is get caught up with things that could influence your decision-making in the gym. I wouldn’t advise that type of friendship until your athletes are fully-fledged seniors, because you have to have those boundaries and that distance.

“Looking back 15 years, would I ever have predicted that Max would end up being my brother-in-law [his wife’s sister is married to Max], that I would be best man at two of my gymnasts’ weddings and godparent to another’s children? Absolutely not.

“It is something that just happened organically, and it does make me immensely proud to know that I have succeeded in establishing the values and principles that I believe define great coaching.”