I ” Modern Athlete ¢ Cod Fun Tops the Charts Darren Wensor Darren Wensor is @ Level IV coach and is the Special Projects Officer with extensive work in the development area with the Little Athletics Association of New South Wales. in this article he explains that fun needs to be an essential element of a training program for young athletes What do you remember about your athletics involvement When you were young? ‘What a lot of children will mostly remember about a sport is ‘whether they had fun or not. if a child nas fun, they generally want to stay involved. If they stop having fun, they eventually drop out When you think about it, this idea is pretty simple but is one that has enormous application. if athletics training isn't fun, ‘a young athlete isn’t going to improve much over the course of a season. Nor will they continue turning up to training year after year. Therefore, making training “tun” should be a high priority for ‘coach of young athletes. What, however, is “fun" when it comes to training? And how do coaches use this information? What is seen as fun will, of course, vary widely between individuals, and particularly amongst athletes of different ages. For example what makes up a fun training session for an eight year old could be quite different to what is fun for a thirteen year old. If this is the case, then importantly, itis quite possible that the idea of what makes up a fun training session will not only differ trom athlete to athlete but also from athlete to coach. So how do you, as a coach, know what will be fun? The answer: ASK your athletes. ASK them what makes up a fun training session. it could be one of the most important uestions that you ever pose to them, | tried doing this @ couple of years ago with a group of eight athletes, aged 12 to 14 years, who | was coaching at the time. ‘At the conclusion of a training session, | gathered the group and asked them to help me put together a “Top Ten” list of the things that they found “most fun” about training, The athletes were very enthusiastic in providing their inputand the result was insightful and helpful. The group’s “Top Ten” list, of what was fun for them at training is below. The items appear in the order in which they were intially nominated: 1. Being challenged 2. Achieving PBs 3. Measures and Times 4. Games 5. Relays 6. Fun activities 7. Learning and improving 8, Setting goals and reaching them 9, Friends 10. Variety Having received this important insight into what the group Teally found fun about traning, it was then my job to work out how | was going to feature these items in a training session. | ‘ent home and after some thought, came up with this chart Mo-3 ,Fvlg 2008Aiud eee Being challenged ‘Competition + New activities ++ Fitness tests * Get athletes outside comfort zone + Partner challenges 2. Achieving PBs *Timing/measuring ‘ Reinforce technical bests ‘+ Record PBs + Fiiness tests + Video reviews 3. Measures & Times + Fliness/Performance tests © Timed Quickfoot Ladder ‘+ Timed hurdle touchdowns 4. Games ‘= Competitions + Warm up games + Cool down games + Relays: 5. Relays Shuttle relays “+ Medicine ball relays Endurance relays, 6. Fun activities ‘= Springboard for long jump ‘= Partner challenges 7. Leaming & Improving + Teach something new ‘© Use questioning + Provide effective FB + New informationideas/sklis Setting goals & reaching them | Highlight & speak about goals» Assist athletes with setting goals 9 Friends * Provide time to mic ‘+ Partner & group work. + Social opportunities, ‘= Promote conversation * Encourage assisting others 10 Variety ‘= Music during activities ‘Changing warm ups + Changing locations = Changing equipment & drills * Surprises: The first column (“What is fun?") features the group's “Top Ten” list of what they found tun about training. The second Column (“How to include it2") contains my more specific ideas about how | eauld actually feature the “Top Ten" in a training session. | stuck this chart to the wall above my desk at home so it was ever too far away when | was planning my next coaching session. Itremains there to this day. The items on this chart became an important guide for me \When | was planning or reviewing taining session. When panning sessions, my aim was to include one iter from each of the ten boxes of the “How to include it?" column. | soon came to realise that if | could achieve this, | would be virtually guaranteed a successful, high qualiy session ‘When | reviewed a training session, it was remarkable ftow a ‘good session would have contained most, i notall, of the “Top Ten”. Less successful sessions, predictably, lacked enough of the “Top Ten’, In other words, 1 discovered that “fun" was the main eterminant of the success of a session. The itoms in the “Top Ten” chart virally became my oritical success factors. With good planning, | found that 1 could introduce an elernent of fun into every part of @ training session. Using the chart ‘made planning easier and training sessions more enjoyable and effective — both forthe athletes and for me. Sportis supposed to be fun. It's easy for coaches to forget just how motivating fun can be. ‘Try spending some time working out what is fun for the athletes that you coach. You may be surprised with what a big hitittums out to be.