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Positive Coaching Scotland the choice of a new generation...
15/10/2009
PCS broke new ground in early October when it delivered a workshop to distinctly youthful audience at Williamwood High School in East Renfrewshire.
Positive Coaching guru and programme Director Tommy Boyle spoke to a crowd of burgeoning coaches from the local area, and introduced them to the values of double-goal coaching – where the first goal is to win, but the second and more important goal is to teach life lessons through aport.
The workshop was held in partnership with East Renfrewshire Council Education Department. And David McLeish, the Senior Sports Development Coordinator, was keen for his up and coming coaches to start out in the right manner.
“These young coaches have a fantastic opportunity to become an integral, influential part of a child or young person’s life, going beyond sport and activity, which can be extremely rewarding.
“If they focus on delivering around the needs and desires of the young person, utilising the tools provided from the PCS programme and make their sessions fun, vibrant and exciting, then the journey towards becoming a coach will become a lot easier and they will be changing our sporting culture. They can make a difference!”
The coaches who attended had identified themselves as wanting to work as a casual coach with sports development in East Renfrewshire.
There were coaches from sports such as badminton, hockey, swimming, basketball and golf, as well as those who were just starting out on the wonderful journey towards becoming a coach.
Feedback from the young coaches was very encouraging, to the extent that, according to David, we may have also identified some potential new Positive Coaching tutors within the group.
“PCS has made the people at East Renfrewshire Education Department step back and look at sport and how it’s impacting on our children and youth,” added David.
“We have now highlighted the problems that we know exist but have chosen to ignore. But now we are showing our coaches, club leaders, teachers and parents that it is not about winning. It is about respect, effort and the young person’s experience, and how that builds character and lifelong skills.
“The workshops bring to life these issues in a realistic manner that is easy to understand and relate to.
"Sport is a classroom for life, because it is full of teachable moments. If a player does poorly, we use that to teach resilience and bouncing back.
"The only way we can continue to do this is to continue working closely and strengthening our partnership with PCS!"