15.01.2007

We are a social lot

An interesting read from Athletics Australia’s National Coaching Coordinator Mick Poulton.

A couple of weeks ago, I watched a 12 year-old girl I know arrive at our local athletics track for her first ‘formal’ night of training. Sally competes with the local little athletics club and has, for all her years of primary school, consistently won most events she has entered in the school sports. In 2006 she finished fifth in the triple jump at the State Primary Schools Championships and her relay team finished second in the Zone Championships. Though she is no elite athlete, at the age of 12 Sally is keen to start training for athletics whilst maintaining her other sporting loves of swimming and basketball.

For Sally, her first night of training involved a trip to the track with her father who introduced her to the coach of his squad comprising seven adult male runners, all who trained together for many years. Sally sat in the shade whilst the men warmed up then, after about 30 mins, she was told to jog a lap and some stretching to which she duly obliged. It was one of those training nights we all dread, with a strong and hot north wind blowing. Great for those running 80s with the wind but, for everyone else, every rep was just a slog!

Sally’s session then began with an 800m, run by herself, finishing in the straight where the head wind was most severe. After a recovery period of about 20 minutes, Sally then finished the session with a number of 60m run-throughs with the wind behind her. She then thanked the coach, waited for Dad to finish his session and headed home.

On the same night at the local athletics track, there was a group of young girls aged between 12 and 16 who were training together under the direction of their coach as they have done now for about six months. Their session also involved a warm-up, some long intervals, speed work with the wind and, importantly, lots of laughter and some sharing of the grumbles’that result when the coach prescribes long intervals on a hot windy night.

The remarkable difference between the two sessions was the level of social interaction. I can only imagine the conversation between Sally and her mum following training that night. The wind, the heat, the times she ran and maybe how her legs felt – there was not much else to talk about. 

Compare this to any one of the girls from the other group who would have been full of talk about what their friends had been up to, who is going out with who, what such and such said to so and so, what were the best one-liners in new movie Happy Feet and on it goes!

Essentially, we are all social beings. We are, by our nature, socially constructed. We know this because our very existence relies so heavily on those around us. Our lives are shaped by the influences of our parents, our teachers, our coaches, our friends and our experiences – sometimes negative and sometimes positive. Children are especially social beings. They search for and thrive on the friendships they develop at school, through their local community, their interest groups and through their sport.

Surely then it makes sense that Sally be introduced and encouraged to train with the squad of girls her own age, rather than with the coach of her dad’s group.

We know that a strong driver of participation for junior sport is the social interaction and so, as parents, coaches and administrators of sport, we have a responsibility to facilitate social involvement as an outcome of the sports experience. We should:

• Recognise the importance of the social environment: For so many junior athletes, the social potential of the training environment is an important factor in their decision to begin and continue in any sport. The motivation that comes from being with friends whilst participating in sports is significant.

• Create and encourage social interaction: Athletics, as a fundamentally individual sport, does not have the opportunity that team sports have for social engagement and so we need to create environments whereby positive social interaction is a part of the sporting experience. As senior athletes, how often do we frown at the enthusiastic and playful behaviours of juniors at training because we see it as a distraction to our session?  Let us not forget that once we were also children who also enjoyed playing and squirting each other with our water bottles on a hot night!
 
• Develop and encourage training squads: Herein lies the key to successful participation. Training squads have the capacity to meet not only the social needs of junior and senior athletes, they also have a greater capacity to enhance performance outcomes. I am sure we can all attest to the value of a group of athletes sharing the workload of a tough interval session, giving feedback to each other in a technical session and always pushing the boundaries with our training partners.  

Training squads work even for our most elite, world class athletes! There is no better example of the training squad at work than with our current world No. 1 and 2 ranked pole vaulters Steve Hooker and Paul Burgess. Steve moved to Perth to train with his great rival and others as part of an elite pole vaulting group under the guidance of master coach Alex Parnov. The success is obvious and with astute and careful planning, together athletes can achieve more than any of us! 

Other examples can be seen with athletes such as Craig Mottram and Sarah Jamieson who, as part of their European competition season, travel with a training partner or group. Despite the extra cost of funding training partners travelling to Europe, the coaches recognise an athlete is more likely to train well when they can share the workload and enjoy the social involvement that comes from training and living with others. 

It is interesting to note that at a time when a number of our great cricketers are retiring from the game, they highlight the significance of the squad and the mateship that evolves as being the one thing they will miss the most. 

So what does all this mean for parents and coaches of aspiring athletes like Sally?

For parents: 
• As you investigate the opportunities for your children to be involved in athletics, look for clubs and squads, where possible, rather than pursuing an individual coach who has an interest in coaching your child. (I understand there can be difficulties here in regional and remote areas where choice can be limited)

• Look for a club or squad that has a social make-up that is consistent with the age, interests and abilities of your child. Junior athletes are often intimidated by seniors and senior athletes can be frustrated by juniors who see play, gossip and conversation as an important part of the training environment. The homogeneity of the group is important in anticipating successful participation in the sport.

For the coach: 
• Have the foresight to advise athletes and their parents about the social make-up of your squad in the same way you advise them about the performance make-up of your squad. 

• Understand and appreciate that the social needs of the athlete are crucial and, if your squad’s social features do not match with the athletes’ interests, then despite the performance potential refer the athlete to a squad that has the consistent social features. No matter how much potential an athlete has, we are denying them the full extent of the sports experience if we do not give recognition to their social needs.

• Set the boundaries on acceptable and unacceptable social behaviour at training and know when to draw the line on excessive socialising. Remember it is a positive social environment that we want to create and, as with all areas of life, athletes, especially juniors, need to accept the work must be done.

• When planning your sessions, the first priority for any training session is to ensure the athlete wants to come back to do the next session! This applies to seniors and juniors at all levels of performance.

When we are old and reminisce of our times past, it will be the experiences we shared with others that will rank highest in our memories. Whether this be for a world class athlete or a regular at interclub, it is our social experiences that help shape our sports participation. Kerryn McCann’s finish in the marathon at the 2006 Commonwealth Games will be remembered by so many (including her I suspect), for the fact that there were 85,000 cheering fans sharing that moment together.

Yep, we are social beings!