Every Kid is Different!

Remember competition is about perception. What we see and believe is possible and our fear or lack of fear of the consequences. This can be very different in different people as it is clearly about someone’s own personal view of the situation. Educationalists often referred to this as the “over achiever” and “under achiever” personality traits, but to keep it very simple we’ll refer to it as the “can do and can’t do” continuum.

Each of us sits somewhere along this continuum in any given situation.

Can Do!                                                                                                         Cant Do!

I am sure that you have players who sit so far at the confident end of this that no matter what you throw at them they are prepared to get on and try and no matter how many times they fail they keep going until they are successful. Equally you will teach young players who are prepared to give up after only a few attempts at a task saying that it is impossible.

Just like our pathway each player will start at a different point and whilst it may never be possible to completely change a player who is to the extreme of the “can’t do end”, a system of incremental challenges at the appropriate level may help more players move in the direction of “can do!”

As with all things most children are not at the extreme ends, both of which incidentally can be problematic with the under achievers afraid to try whilst the over achiever does not have an accurate understanding of their own ability level and may not recognize the process required to get better.

But with younger children you often find that they need more encouragement to compete as they have reservations about playing and also being in the social situation where they may be expected to play with others who they do not know.

Allowing children to develop competence at tasks within a safe and supportive environment and gradually increasing the level of challenge is what is right for most children, and delivered by understanding and knowledgeable teaching pros can mean that many more children relish the opportunity to compete, and really play our game.