Lausanne, 22 May 2008

Coaching young athletes is a big challenge for any coach since they are still in their physical and psychological development stage. Nevertheless, coaching young athletes can be very rewarding if done correctly. Speakers from the world of sports were sharing and discussing their experience with the audience in the MSI in Lausanne.

Anne-Sophie Thilo, Olympian sailor 2008, and Stéphane Bohli, professional tennis player shared their experience when being a young athlete. Both agreed that good communication skills are very important for a coach. For Stéphane good communication from his coach, i.e. constructive feedback was missing when being a teenager. The solely negative feedback not only intimidated him but also created a vicious circle since he did not dare to ask for feedback anymore. Anne-Sophie also pointed out that coaches need to know their limits. As soon as they realise that they have reached their limits they should be honest and support the athlete by handing them over to a more skilful coach.

From a coach and medical point of view, Dr. June Canavan, sport physician for various swimming teams in Australia and at Olympic Games, discovered that the drop-out of young athletes is a big problem in sport participation. Young athletes that do not meet the qualification requirements, for example, to join the national team are left alone mostly without any help or encouragement. Therefore, she pointed out that sport has to be more than just about winning but should be about having fun, making friends and achieving success. Zoltan Jordanov, head coach of the Swiss female gymnastics team agreed with June completely. For him puberty is the most difficult stage when training young athletes. An estimated 60% of gymnasts drop out at this stage. The body changes enormously during this period and a drop in performance is inevitable but has to be explained to the athlete with patience and encouragement. Dr. Nathalie Farpour-Lambert, paediatrician in Geneva, added that burn-out in child athletes becomes more and more frequent and that coaches and parents have to allow the children “the right to be or not to be a champion”.

Prof. Antonakis, expert in leadership at the University of Lausanne, stated that “athletes should be intrinsically motivated” but that the coach has to provide a vision that is morally lifting and ethical for the athletes. Then coaches can help their athletes to achieve more than they believed they could achieve. Chris McSorley, head coach, manager and owner of Genève-Servette Hockey Club, added that next to all technical, communications and motivational skills a coach needs to posses, he also needs to manage his own life successfully since “it is impossible to have professional success without personal success”.

A discussion round involving the audience concluded this year’s “Art & Science of Coaching” conference in Lausanne and left a joyful anticipation for next year.