A Positive Environment: Helping Children To Learn

Written By John Scott, FA Skills Coach and reproduced from TheFA.Com

As an FA Skills coach working with 5-11 year old children on a daily basis, I am constantly looking for ways to help them build confidence in their own ability, creating a positive mental attitude towards challenges and problem solving. Creating a positive learning environment, in my opinion, is a great foundation where children can learn and develop at their own pace and in accordance with their own individual developmental stage.

All humans make mistakes. Adults who are trying something new are often brought back down to earth with a bump when things go wrong. It is how we deal with these moments that shape our mental attitude towards the task and even how we deal with other experiences, not just in sport but in life itself.

I should know: I’ve recently taken up golf.

As you can imagine I’m having more negative experiences than positive. If I let the negative moments fill my head with doubt I will quickly lose interest. Instead, I try and take the positive experiences and make them a start-point in my continuation of the game and a foundation to work from as I try to improve with every stroke. Another element to consider is how, where and who I receive feedback from. This in itself will have a strong influence on how I see myself as a golfer, whether I enjoy the game and if I actually want to continue to play the sport. Over time I will begin to recognise my mistakes and learn from them. This process will be accelerated if the individuals I seek feedback from are those with more experience.

So how do we create a positive learning environment which will encourage them to improve and to develop the confidence to try things new? When children play sport they will make mistakes. These mistakes are actually part of the learning process. As long as they are managed to the player’s advantage. If a child makes a mistake or a miscalculation in a maths lesson they can rub it out and start again, maybe trying a different formula next time. This should be no different to our approach to working with children. Letting the players know that it is okay to make mistakes when experimenting with new skills and techniques; patterns of play; types of passes; formations and tactics, will help the players relax and be more creative. It is important to tell the players it is ‘OK if things go wrong’ when they are trying to learn and master something new. By doing so, we will provoke a positive learning mentality. For every mistake made there is a learning point and a constructive step which can lead to a further development in their competency level.

This approach does require many skilful attributes from the coach; not least, observation, patience, the ability to use effective questioning and, of course, a deep and wide knowledge of the game of football. All of which leads me on to learning points. Children know when they have made a mistake; they don’t have to be incessantly reminded or berated. If a player shoots wide nine times out of ten, it is important to reinforce the positives in a way which may result in an improvement in performance.

Positive feedback should be given at the next appropriate opportunity emphasising all the good aspects of performance. For example, ‘What a great run into space. You lost the defender and created a shooting opportunity. Keep making those runs and you will create lots more chances to shoot on goal, not just for yourself but your team mates too’. Turning a negative into a positive and also asking the individual player to reflect on what they might do differently next time will give them the opportunity to access their own performance and potentially come up with solutions.

Giving players the time to ask questions, to talk with teammates and others will provide useful feedback for making tweaks and changes to their performance. Giving the players the opportunity to have a voice will help contribute to a positive environment fostering the confidence to deal with their failures as well as their successes. Of course there is a place within this approach for the coach to show and demonstrate good technique and there are lots of other approaches which will help young players learn. The point here is: should we let them have a go at sorting things out for themselves first? You never know, they might just enjoy themselves when doing so.

Finally, I would like to share something that I read in a book about positive coaching by a man called Jim Thompson (Positive Coaching: Building Character and Self Esteem through Sports). His philosophy on coaching was simply three words put into context, and has stuck in my mind ever since. More, better, longer: More children, having a better experience with sports, and staying with it longer’.

John is an FA Tesco Skills coach with the Dorset team.

As part of the Dorset FA Tesco Skills team, he works with schools and children in the Shaftesbury area.