In my career as a coach I have often seen, that children have been called not coachable because they were not controllable.
I applaud a child that refuses to be controlled.
Our job as coaches is to guide . But we should never forget the 3 basic human rights.
1. Right to clear information
2. Right to your own perception
3. Freedom of choice
I do understand that this could be misused or misinterpreted.
My Dad told me the first day I started coaching.
“Uschi you better realize that you will have a large influence on young people, sometimes more than their parents. Do you feel you can handle that.? It is about them and not about you. Always remember there is no place for you on the podium.”
As a coach you have many chances as an athlete you have one career…
We should try to help them stand on their own two feet and eventually take ourselves out of the equation. Remote controlling a student, does not built their strength…
I have and always will put my students first. I hope my Dad is proud of me( he died 26 years ago) I have never forgotten his words…..
Your statement was again an incentive for me to think about my own career as a coach/trainer/teacher. From the very start I had always been sure that I definitely did not want to teach children. Today I know why. The reasons are very personal and cannot be talked about in a blog.
ReplyDeleteBasically, after 35 years of pedagogical work, I dare say that there are no major differences in coaching/teaching/training/accompanying children and adults. They all deserve to be treated with respect, dignity,and empathy. They are endowed with the unalienable right to say NO, even if you as their coach/trainer/teacher think you know better. The only thing you can do is providing them with all the information they need for a reasonable decision.
It is a bit like giving up smoking. A client of mine decided to continue smoking despite his knowledge that smoking was no good for him. As a therapist I have to accept this behaviour.
As a coach and teacher I worked with quite a few people of different provenance (engineers, unemployed people, night school students, soldiers etc.)Sometimes it was really hard to see some of them go astray. But the more satisfying were the experiences with people who I had the honour of helping to find their way.
(Ugh, this was a long one!)