Top 5 Best Practices when Teaching Early Learners Sports | Dr. Brad Kayden

Teaching Early Learners Sports

Jelly Bean Sports - Early Learning Soccer Prep Program

In a world full lists, there exist many top fives.  Whether you working with large or small groups, this top five, albeit simple, is imperative to follow if you expect to mold sports success among the youngest of athletes.     

When it comes to teaching young children sports, there are those that provide you with what they think you'll need to know.  And then there are the courageous few who have actually worked with early learners and learned, first hand, the value of what they say.  This list comes from the latter, Jelly Bean Sports, Inc., a company dedicated to the development of early learners, children birth to age five.  

Here is our top five:

1. Keep it Fun
2. Make it Simple
3. Roll with the Punches
4. Enlist Parents
5. 80/20 Rule




Jelly Bean Sports - Early Learning T-Ball Prep Program

1. Keep it Fun.  As cliche as it sounds, it is the principle most often forgotten when parents, teachers and coaches work with early learners.  There are times when plans must be thrown out and you must just go with the flow (i.e. the Rome was not built in a day approach :).  The secret to keeping things fun often lies with the experts at having it, the early learners themselves.  Our getting stressed out trying to manufacture fun is not a good equation.  If this is the case, simplify.  Your thinking needs to move from independence to interdependence.  It is important to slow down and see and even discuss sometimes what early learners are finding fun in the classroom.  It is guaranteed you can learn more from them about fun than they can learn from you.  When you give into the fun, the exploration process thrives and left unbounded (keeping safety in mind of course) to discover things like equipment and spaces (i.e. gym curtains, bleachers, water fountains, lines on the floor) you make the next coach's job easier not harder.  By letting early learners explore, they get being distracted by those things, you and I take for granted, out of their system.  
2. Make it Simple.   Sports made simple, learning made fun is something that is neither boring nor over the top.  A play-based learning approach is best.  You can help early learners see just how simple and fun sports can be integrating learning aids like bubbles, rings, noodles, cones, etc.  They are excellent attention grabbers that engage early learners better and allow them to remember more of what they are taught.  The lesson here is--It helps to be creative!! 
3. Roll with the Punches.  When kids divert their attention, try not to make a big deal of it.  If you do, it will draw the attention of other children and snowball.  Early learners feed off all the attention you devote to another child and they will often expect the same attention creating, in the end, a larger issue for you.  Instead, you should remain focused.  When three or more children become distracted, this is your cue to acknowledge it, take some time to talk about it, regroup and return to the regularly scheduled program.  It is early learners' natural curiosity and communicative nature, albeit sometimes interruptive and distracting, that you should expect.  When you hold these qualities against them, it stifles the experience and the learning process.  If you embrace these moments you are, again, sharing the power you have over the sports experience.  Young children get this and often will reward you with their attention.
4. Enlist Parents.  Different than older children, early learners often require more attention than you have to give.  Whenever possible, you should, instead of trying to impress parents, enlist them.  You should embrace the "It takes a village," approach.  The integration of parents into the early learning classroom greatly contributes to the energy and overall success of any early learning sports program.  As a part of the process, it is always important to remind parents of safety and the boundaries they should not cross.  Safety is of number one importance when enlisting parents. 
5. 80/20 Rule.   A study of 168 coaches from youth to college, were given a three page list of athletic attributes--physical, psychological and emotional.  When they were asked to choose the top three that they thought would lead an athlete to sports success, the majority of them considered the following most important:  (1) Love of the game,  (2) A positive attitude, (3) Be coachable.  With this being said, it is safe to say if you devoted 80% of your focus to developing a love of the game, encouraging a positive attitude and rewarding coachability, then it should only require 20% of your time to be devoted to motor skills and sports skill development.   

Edited October 1, 2015

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