As is typical with these sorts of projects life got in the way and I immediately fell off track from my original goals. While I continued reading material along with my plan, the week to week writing about it quickly became very challenging. I think the biggest thing that made it hard was trying to cram way too many ideas into a single piece of writing. Working through a book and a few research papers and then trying to distill those ideas down into something clear was hard. I wanted to avoid what I did (and the voice I was using) in my first couple posts because I did not like how abstract they felt. The big topics and ideas are very fun, but I realized I felt more comfortable trying to point out practical things. Those practical experiences can lead to more abstract topics, and I wanted to be more focused on those shared experiences rather than theory.
So, in the meantime I want to change course a little bit. Recent life changes have given me a wonderful opportunity to spend significantly more time coaching. This has brought me some new questions and problems. Part of this increased schedule is a chance to coach kids on a regular basis, which is something I have been wanting to do for a long time!
I want to start writing more about problems I am encountering, and the specific things and ideas/concepts I am using to solve them. The goal is to keep it grounded in real examples from my coaching practice.
This first problem is a more general idea about managing behavior in a kid’s class, I started exploring solutions after Ellie Beckman of Arte of Coaching talked about it in one of her courses. Check her out here: https://www.instagram.com/thearteofcoaching/
The Situation
Before I get into the problem, I want to lay out the scenario:
You are a coach running a grappling class, you have gathered all the athletes somewhere on the mat for you to instruct them on what the training activity is and what you want them to do. After you have completed your instruction or demonstration, you ask them to break off into pairs to perform it. Once you ask them to go into pairs 2 broad things can happen depending on the age range of your room.
For Adults: They know what is expected of them. They also have years of experience understanding social expectations in different places. They have the internal motivation to self-direct and begin performing the training activity on their own.
For Kids: They sort of know what is expected of them but aren’t necessarily sure when they should start doing it. They are surrounded by other children and depending on their level of development may quickly forget what they are supposed to be doing, or don’t have that intrinsic motivation to do it. They are also still learning how to operate in a social environment, and don’t have years of experience outside of the gym to help them behave. They are kids learning to exist in a structured social environment with other kids.
The Problem
The problem is managing the energy of the room, and the tools you use to manage that energy are directing attention and communicating expectations. This transition time can be unclear to children and can quickly de-rail a class. A child may not understand what is expected of them after you finish your instruction. While this is frustrating, it is important to remember that getting frustrated about the situation does not make things clearer to a child. I also realized I felt a little silly, I was getting upset at the kids for not doing something I expected them to do without communicating exactly what my expectation was.
This same problem can also show up when you are finishing a training activity and trying to bring everyone’s attention back to you. These transitions periods are like radio, you cant have any dead air!
theory-head moment:
Through a CLA lens I realized that I needed a secret “mini” activity set up for those transition times. Creating a set of constraints for a game was only half the job, I needed an additional set of task focuses for that transition period.
The Solutions
I approached this from two different directions, pre-activity and post-activity
For Pre-activity: After explaining what I wanted the kids to do, instead of asking them to break off into pairs I became more explicit. I worked on giving more specific task focuses. In my class we use the typical “one two three CLAP” to signal the end of the instruction. Instead of just doing the clap, I would set up my mini CLA game. “After we clap, you have 10 seconds to get with your partner and get into the starting position I just showed you”. This provided a very clear expectation and direction for the room, controlling the energy and getting them on task for the actual training.
For Post-Activity: For now, I have landed using a sudden and impromptu game sort of like “Simon Says”. When we hit the time limit for a part of training I will call for everyone to stand up and begin copying a physical movement I am making. Sometimes I will switch between a few physical movements while also slowly lowering my voice.
“Ok Freeze! Stand Up! Stand On One Leg! Switch Legs! Touch your finger to your nose!”
This gets the room’s attention focused back on me and gets everyone quiet. After a few seconds of that (or longer if we need a bit of an energy reset) it becomes very simple to deliver directions to the room once I have grabbed their focus.
This has helped me keep the energy levels of the class manageable. It doesn’t capture the entire class every time but makes it easier to identify and address the specific individuals who may need a bit more attention, rather than trying to wrangle everyone at once.
Looking Ahead and Closing
For right now this is working, however I will need to think more about how to address when the kids become a bit more comfortable. As they get used to it, they may want to test boundaries. What if one day they want to see what happens when I count to 10 and they aren’t in position? I have a few ideas on how to handle this for pre and post activity, but I want to save them until I think I need them.
So, the problem for these 2 weeks has been managing the energy levels in my kid’s class. Specifically, I am focused on managing that energy in those transition spaces between activities. To help me manage it, I utilized providing some additional task focuses to more clearly communicate expectations to the class. This prevented me from needing to resort to typical disciplinary actions. The transition times I have been thinking of as “Mini” CLA games to help scale things for kids at different levels of development.
This is my focus right now as I try to learn to coach on purpose.