Keeping it interesting !

A few weeks ago now I arrived at a session intentionally unprepared. Usually I would see this as a negative step immediatley to my session. Not that the players have come to expect or know a certain routine as I like to ensure my sessions are not repetitive or predictable , but for once I thought lets not go in with a set plan and instead see what happens.

I had back up plans in my head as a coach you always have a session you can pull out that you know will always work well and the children will enjoy. But on this occasion I asked them what they would like to do , rather than me asking them to do something. Before they could all say it though I made it clear that we had to do something constructive before we played a match. As happy as I am to let the children play a game as it helps them figure things out on their own (see Games based approach http://ali-thomascoach.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/games-based-approach.html ) They had a game in two days time and letting them play an hour of football was running the risk of injuries and fatigue.

So the children decided on races. They wanted to race each other , so accepted , setting up an obstacle style course , with hurdles , shuttles , cones , ladders and pole. It was basically an extended agility course. As they are still fairly young it is good for them to practice using their agility and balance , as well as giving their co-ordination a test , all whilst under the pressure environment of a race. But overall I wanted them to enjoy themselves. Previous studies have shown enjoyment in PE to be an important psychosocial variable linked with increased PA (Garcia Bengoechea,Sabiston, Ahmed, & Farnous, 2010; Pate, Ward, O’Neill, & Dowda, 2007; Papaioannou et al.,2006; Wang, Chatzisarantis, Spray, & Biddle,2002) If the children enjoy today they will be happier to come back and thats what I want. I don't ever want a child to go home and say I don't want to go there again.

The session went really well and after a while and several variations of the course they had forgotten all about wanting to play a game. They were enjoying themselves and laughing , whilst getting a good level of exercise and by still incorporating the ball into some of the games keeping up practice with the football.

This suggested to me the importance of variation and sometimes surprises  Obviously I wont be doing it every week as we have other areas that need to be developed , but as an occasional inclusion in the schedule it was an enjoyable session for all.

This I felt showed a development in my confidence as a coach , a few months ago I probably would not of taken on a session like that and instead tried to stick more to the book and be a more structured session. Developing my understanding of coaching however has allowed me to improve my confidence and relax my style. Repetition can kill create boredom as well as a number of other problems , structured sessions even from personal experience as a player , if your playing the sport for years , you soon get frustrated with training sessions that you feel you have done 10 times before. So now as a coach I try to ensure my sessions are fun , entertaining and engaging first , everything else will follow if the players are happy.