Coaching Children and
Young People
sports coach UK
Develop Your Coaching
Workshop
Workshop outcomes
By the end of the workshop, coaches
should be able to:
• establish safe and effective coaching
environments to meet the needs of children
and young people
• describe the LTAD model
• identify the critical periods of trainability within
the LTAD model
• describe the acquisition of skills as children
develop
• modify coaching to meet the needs of children
and young people
OHT 1
Coaching Children and Young People
Information required
• Social/psychological factors
– motivation, needs, ambitions, attitudes,
behaviour
• Physical factors
– ability, fitness, stage of physical development
• Skill factors
– stage of motor development, information
processing
OHT 2
Coaching Children and Young People
Principles of coaching
children and young people
• Make it fun
• Avoid specialising too early
• Put performer first
OHT 3
Coaching Children and Young People
Principles of LTAD
• Athlete-centred
• Promote long-term participation
• Maximise full potential
OHT 4
Coaching Children and Young People
LTAD model
Stage 1: FUNdamentals
Age
6-8
(girls)/
6-9
(boys)
OHT 5
Key Points
• Performers need to sample wide range of
fun and creative activities
• No sport-specific specialisation
• Emphasis on development of basic motor
skills, not competition
• Parents involved and supportive
• Tasks/groups set by biological rather than
chronological age
• Speed, power and endurance developed
using fun games
• No periodization
Coaching Children and Young People
LTAD model
Stage 2: Learning to Train
Age
Key Points
• Performers begin to apply basic skills
and fitness to preferred activities
8-11
(girls)/
9-12
(boys)
OHT 6
• Performers begin to reduce number of
sports/activities
• Emphasis on learning how to train, not
on outcome, but element of competition
introduced (eg 25% of training
programme)
LTAD model
Stage 3: Training to Train
Age
Key Points
11-14
(girls)/
12-15
(boys)
• Individualised programmes based on PHVs
• Teams split into groups of early, average
and late maturers
• Girls and boys may begin to train separately
• Regular height checks to identify key
periods for maximum training benefit and
avoid injuries
• Regular medical monitoring and
musculo-skeletal screening
• Excessive, repetitive, weight-bearing aerobic
work should be avoided –
non-weight-bearing exercises recommended
OHT 7
Summary of LTAD
• Acknowledges different development
rates
• Development of individual
programmes
• Uses critical periods of trainability
OHT 8
Coaching Children and Young People
Developing skill
Recognising:
• ability to process information
• reaction time (neural development)
• body control
• coordination
OHT 9
Coaching Children and Young People
Stages of learning
Stage 1
Cognitive
Stage 2
Associative
Stage 3
Autonomous
Children just
getting to grips
with how limbs
coordinate to
perform action
Children now have
to think less about
movement and can
shift attention to
adapting
movement to
conditions
Children have
mastered full
movement – it is
consistent,
dynamic and fluent
Coaches should
provide good,
effective feedback
to help children
alter movements
Coaches should
delay feedback to
allow children to
identify and correct
own errors
Coaches should
encourage
performers to focus
on external cues
relating to outcome
rather than process
OHT 10
Coaching Children and Young People
Physical literacy
• ABCs:
 Agility, balance, coordination, speed
• RJT:
 Run, jump, throw
• KGBs:
 Kinesthesia, gliding, buoyancy, striking
• CPKs:
 Catching, passing, kicking, striking
OHT 11
Coaching Children and Young People