How to coach life skills through sport
Sports are a great way to develop and coach life skills for both children and adults. They can help shape personality in peoples personal, professional or academic life by developing and building upon skills & mindsets they can use to achieve personal success off-pitch.
Here are some of the ways your club can coach life skills through sport:
How to work in a team
Team sports are an excellent way to coach the ability to work in a team in various settings and the importance of teamwork. Players cannot win club trophies individually, they must work together as a team and play to each other’s strengths to achieve success.
And so, in life too, people need to be able to coexist with others productively and peacefully and put any differences aside to be able to achieve success. Whether it’s school projects or work, they will need to recognise each other’s strengths and weaknesses and use this to communicate, set their goals, delegate responsibilities, and ultimately collaborate towards achieving those goals.
They will also learn to look beyond just their own best interests and look for ways they can contribute and help the team or group they’re working with.
How to overcome challenges and adversity
Sports are full of ups and downs, and it’s guaranteed each player and each club will lose a game or fail at one point or another, no matter how outstanding they are. The key is that coaches encourage players to learn from any shortfalls, get back up and try again. The process of learning and not giving up will eventually lead to overcoming challenges and success.
The same can be said for life, where we all face challenges daily. Using sports to embed the mentality and ethic of learning from mistakes and failures, problem-solving to overcome challenges combined with a thick skin and strong mindset is invaluable life skills that will help the players both on, and off-pitch.
How to deal with authority
Dealing with authority figures is part of daily life in sport, whether that’s the coach, referee or the governing body. Regardless of whether the players may like or dislike the person in the authority position, they will need to learn how to handle and interact with them respectfully.
Being able to remain courteous and professional with people in positions of power who your players may not always agree with, will benefit them off-pitch when dealing with their teachers, professors, managers and bosses, or even their families.
How to focus
Being a part of a sports club or even an individual athlete requires a lot of focus on both the current moment and the task at hand, but also long-term focus and discipline to perform to their best ability and accomplish their goals. This skill will translate over to their off-pitch life, where they will be able to concentrate on exactly what they need to do and how to get it done without losing focus.
How to gain confidence
Sports is a great way of building confidence as players will learn to be confident in themselves and their abilities and skills. They’ll feel even better especially when they can achieve something, win or overcome a challenge - they’ll know they can achieve things they set their mind to and can be confident they can get things done. Once they feel confident in their sports abilities & training, they’ll be able to use that mindset outside the sport and be driven to succeed and remain confident in other areas of their life.
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