22/06/2022
Are you having focus?.......I mean fun?
I am now moving into my 27th year of coaching and still evolving.
My early understanding of the concept of “fun” was for kids to be excited by any given exercise and allow them to laugh and burn off loads of energy playing games that resembled tennis as much as possible 🙂
It has become blindingly obvious over time and especially the last 10 years that the secret to sustaining “fun” in an exercise is focus.
They are many components of fun but I would to touch on 3 in this article which are challenging competence, removing self-consciousness and creating clear goals. These 3 components I feel directly link to focus aligned with my own philosophy the Thinking CAP (competence/autonomy/purpose)
Challenge current level of competence
Often if the challenge presented is too easy the child will lose focus very quickly. Equally if the challenge is too hard kids will give up never given the chance to focus. Both of these scenarios the child won’t have fun as focus is not present.
So the key is to match challenges with the player’s ability. Create exercises that you can regress or progress to suit all kids in the class. Many years ago I remember Mike Barrell speaking at a conference mentioning the idea of the number 7 when finding an exercise have start at 4 where you can adapt the exercise by regressing to 3-2-1 or progress to 5-6-7. This concept has worked very well for me over the years.
Removing Self Consciousness
I find the most common hindrance in developing a new skill is emotion not a lack of ability. Nobody wants to look stupid. So if you create an environment where mistakes are normal kids will feel less self-conscious and will be able to focus once again leading to fun. If a coach can support kids through the mistakes and avoid intervening too often it can allow kids to focus on the task and build confidence through achieving process goals.
Creating clear goals
Kids need context to learn and make sure the goals are clear before starting any given exercise. There are potentially loads of tennis goals to be achieved other than out scoring an opponent in a match, especially in the 10 and under space where I spend most of my time coaching. These goals include developing competence, creativity, expressing yourself and understanding the game. Goals don’t need to be just within the session but continued after the session including home practice or achieving certain tasks in practice matches.
So in conclusion by challenging competence, removing self-consciousness and creating clear goals will allow kids to focus which leads to fun! Fun is a major motivational factor for continued participation in sport so if you can create an environment where you can have kids focused they are more likely to have fun
Nick Jacques
