Maintaining Clear Boundaries with Athletes

As a coach of T2T athletes, I rely heavily on relationship building to help engage and support athletes.  Kids this age are monsters of relationship - keyed into peers heavily and significantly connected to social environments. 

For many years I worked as a camp director at a summer camp for kids - in that setting, fun was the primary focus - and the relationship building skills of my staff was something that we really worked on - we wanted kids to feel safe, to grow and learn, and to have fun.  To do all of these things, we needed to establish clear boundaries and expectations about things like roles, routines, and social expectations.  In coaching the need for clear expectations is also helpful.

Think about engaging T2T athletes in a conversation about your expectations of them, and their expectations of you.  Then going on to talk about creating some social norms by engaging kids in a conversation about what should be normal.  Then further, going on to thnking about what should happen if norms and expectations are not met.  In our coach training, as part of the new NCCP coaching programs, we are asked as coaches to adhere to a set of ethical conduct guidelines.  This is nice starting place.  But to really create a culture where kids feel safe and can flourish, there is a need to do a bit more than that. 

This year, in my role as lead coach with our club's Train to Train 1 and 2 groups, I plan to do this - to make time for a conversation early in the fall training season to talk about what we want our team to be, how we can help each other be our best - to talk about what kids can expect from me and our team of coaches, and to hear what kids expect of me, and for them to have an opportunity to share what they expect of themselves and what I can expect from them.

These things are all pretty simple things to do - but in a world where we have lots of demands on our time and only so much time to use on physical and technical training it really can be a challenge to find the right time and the right amount of time.  For me, a cold, rainy practice is a perfect time for this 10-15 minutes discussion, maybe while we are stretching.

CCC recently included a great article which got me thinking about boundaries and how I go about setting appropriate boundaries. http://www.cccski.com/Programs/Women-on-Skis/Useful-Links/Power-and-Ethics-in-Coaching.aspx  This article got me thinking that I should address these things as part of our parent/athlete meeting early in the season.

For me, the balance is around maintaining an approprate coach-athlete relationship with maintaining an environment that is full of fun, socially engaging for kids, where the coach-athlete relationship is a key positive factor in giving kids another reason to come to practice and to do the at home workouts that are part of their training program.  The reality is that kids need to be self motivated - but the fact is that very few kids are highly self driven at 12 or 13 years of age - most participate because its fun and because they have a positive, social peer group doing something they enjoy.  It is important to remember that as coaches, we have a huge impact on the culture that gets created in the teams that we lead. What the culture looks like will be different with every coach and group of kids.  I have come to realize that for me as a coach, its important to be freindly, fun, approachable, and supportive/caring, where athletes know I have high expectations of their capabilities and where athletes are challenged to be their best.

Athlete Recognition - what is needed for T2T athletes to optimize athlete development?

Athlete recognition - what's needed for T2T athletes?

Last year when I was volunteering as the Youth and Athlete Development Director on the CCA board, I advocated for and worked to create a new initiative called the Alberta Midget Talent Squad.  The idea here was to recognize kids for their accomplishments as a provincial sport organization - and to try to recognize alot of kids.  The fact is that kids need positive recognition - for some kids that might be a 'way to go' or 'good job' but this type of recognition only goes so far.  Participation recognition is also good at a certain level (often entry level skiers) for a certain type of kid - something that says 'you did it' - but after awhile that type of recognition gets old and loses meaning for some kids.

By the time kids have been at this sport for a couple of years, they need something that says 'I am doing a good job, I am improving, and I'm good at this.  This usually happens to kids as they gain some independence from their parents during early adolescence - the T2T age.  At this same time, if a kid is reasonably active, they begin getting asked by all of the activities/sports they are involved with to ramp up their involvement.  Coaches in all sports recognize that 12-14 is a crucial age in retaining and developing performing athletes.  Kids then choose the sport that gives them the best feeling about themselves, about who they are, and who they want to be.  Its the space their in.   That is why it is crucial that kids this age have a good reason to stay involved with cross country skiing.  This is why I feel that we have to do more than token recognition for kids this age.

The Talent Squad was meant to do this - to recognize kids based on merit - and to expand the recognition outwards from the small group of kids who usually receive the recognition at organized events.  I certainly am not saying that recognition based on results isnt needed or important - it certainly is important for each of those kids who recieve that recognition   Our sport in Alberta is not that big, and an experienced observer could usually pick the finish order of any given race based on the kids who have entered. The fact is that when you have a field of 30 kids in an age category, only some of them are going to be recognized.  After all, the competition is about who can go the fastest.  But it doesnt take a PhD in sport science to recognize that the early developers in the T2T age have huge advantages (muscular, hormonal, skeletal) over later developing T2T athletes.

Much has been written about how athletes entering and experiencing Peak Height Velocity need to have some mentoring and coaching around 'being patient', 'working hard', 'taking advantage of windows of trainability'.  And there are efforts to expand recognition in some ways.  As coaches, we need a carrot.  Something that is achievable if you work hard.  I certainly have talked with many coaches around the province all of whom have ideas about this.What would it look like, how could it be done? 

In subsequent blog posts, I'll explore some these ideas.  In the meantime, I encourage you as a coach to find ways create and provide meaningful recognition to your T2T athletes.  There are a few kids who seem to be able to withstand limitless amounts of very little positive attention when higher performing peers stand on the podium each race.  For others they just say "I think I'll be a mtn bike racer, or a triathlete, or play volleyball".  

A couple of years ago I was at some conference and Istvan Balyi shared his response to a minor hockey coach who disagreed with Balyi's assertion that even Hockey needed to change their practice to improve performance internationally and domestically.  The hockey coach responded with 'why should we change, canada has been the world junior champions for 6 years in a row'.  Balyi's response was something like - if you have 100 eggs and you throw them at the wall, 3 of them wont break - and that is what is happening in hockey in canada'  In cross country skiing in Alberta there is lots of great things happennig, but we do need to make sure that we arent throwing eggs against the wall.

Roy

About "The First 1000 Hours" blog

About this blog - There just isnt very much out there for professional or volunteer coaches about 'best practice' in the world of coaching adolescent cross country skiers.  This blog will pull together ideas from a number of sources including club programs from around the country, universities invloved with research in biomechanics and phyisology of cross country ski racing, iniatives aimed at advancing competitive cross country skiing all with a focus on optimizing what we do as coaches to best prepare young athletes (12-16 year olds) to be the best they can be in a positive, supportive, and challenging environment.  I invite you to read and contribute to this blog aimed at creating a space where coaches as a community can share, learn, collaborate to advance competitive cross country skiing.

About me - I am coach working with train to train (12-13 year olds) cross country ski athletes in Canmore, Alberta, Canada with the Canmore Nordic Ski Club

Cheers
Roy Strum