“What Did You Learn?”
Asking a child: “What did you learn?” gives parents much better feedback about the effectiveness of a coaching session than the question: “What did you do?”
Youth sports coaching should involve teaching and learning. Good coaching is not just about conducting a string of meaningless, time-filling activities. The activities should have a purpose and an outcome.
When planning a session, coaches should ask themselves: “What will my athletes learn today?”
After the session, coaches should consider: “What did my athletes learn today?”
Therefore I encourage all youth sports coaches and sports parents to ask young athletes: “What did you learn today?”
Let me know what you think
I would love to hear if you have asked this question of your child or of the children that you coach and if so, what you have learned from doing it. You can let me know by leaving a reply/comment or by using the below contact details.
If this post helped you please take a moment to help others by sharing it on social media. If you want to learn more I encourage you to leave questions and comments or contact me directly.
Darren Wensor is a sports development professional, coach educator, specialist coach of young athletes, and founder of the blog coachingyoungathletes.com. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, or via email. Check out Coaching Young Athletes on YouTube, the Coaching Young Athletes podcast, and the Coaching Young Athletes E-Book Series.
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