It is the time of year when large numbers of children sign up for winter sports and thousands of parents - many for the first time - find themselves involved as coaches.
Dennis Slade, a senior lecturer in physical education at the Massey University College of Education, has some tips for coaches on how to develop skills without letting children get bored during training.
Mr Slade says many volunteer coaches will be in sports they have little or no personal experience in; others will be familiar with the sport but the only thing they know about coaching is what they remember their coaches saying to them several decades ago.
"They do their best to encourage, up-skill and nurture the budding sporting careers of the young charges in their team, but as early season excitement wears off, traditional practice structures can lead to a drop in motivation and the plea from the players of "when can we have a game, coach?".
"Practicing skills is important but so is the ability to develop techniques through play."
Mr Slade has been researching coaching methods used by volunteer coaches and has found that many apply the same structures: using warm-ups, followed by a skill rehearsal, and then a game if time permits.
He says that by placing more emphasis on the game itself, children not only have more fun, but are able to develop their skills through play.
"Watching a demonstration of swimming technique, standing on the side of the pool may resemble swimming, but you won't know if the learners can swim until you add the context of swimming - water," Mr Slade says.
"You see two lines of netball players standing still passing the ball back and forth to each other. They look like they've got that mastered but it isn't netball and you won't know if they can pass in netball until you ‘add water' - in this case, a game of netball."
The scenario fits for all sports. "Coaches can capture that same atmosphere and still develop player's techniques by employing a games model method. Practicing within the context of the sport you are coaching and not isolating the technique from the game is important.
"Start practices with a game - modified to suit the ages and experience of the players to teach the players the ‘shape' of the game and its basic strategies. Playing five versus three in soccer or hockey while requiring the three defenders to defend two goals is fun, requires the techniques of the game and the strategy of a zone defence. Modifying a rugby game so that it is an infringement to receive a pass while standing still is fun but it requires players to adjust their movements to receive a pass and changes how passes are given.
"Spend a little time in drills to teach the basic technique but quickly return to the game to place the techniques in the game context. Have ‘technique incentive schemes' to encourage the players to play at home or at school." Understand that it is the children you are coaching that are at the centre of the practices - not the parents and not the short-term results of wins and loses.
Mr Slade has published several texts including Teaching attack and defence in team games: A TGfU approach, which has had four reprints, and Transforming play: Teaching tactics and game sense, which is currently in press.
