Last week Jen Hogan wrote an article for The Irish Times that shone a light on how some coaches of children’s sports are putting winning ahead of the welfare — both physical and emotional — of the children they train.
Despite the fact that all large sporting organisations have very clear guidelines that stress that coaching at under-age level is first and foremost about fun, inclusion and improving skills, with winning taking a back seat, the experiences of parents and their children suggest those guidelines are not always followed.
Hogan’s article also highlighted the damage a win-at-all-costs approach to children’s sport can do to young people.
Many were left demoralised and distressed — some were physically sick at the thought of having to face their peers after another weekend being left on the sidelines. Children’s confidence and self-esteem suffered at a particularly crucial time in their development. Others simply wanted to walk away from sport altogether because they had been left behind by their coaches who wanted first and foremost to win.
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The response from readers to the article was massive, suggesting that the problems run deep in underage sport.
In the wake of that article, Hogan talks to In The News about what happens when the fun is taken out of sport, why some coaches have such a strangely skewed notion of what it is they should be doing and how we might make things better.
