Sports leadership. In this unit of work I am going to look at what a sports leader is and what they do.

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Unit 12 – Sports Leadership

Sports Leadership

In this unit of work I am going to look at what a sports leader is and what they do.

What is a sports leader and what do they need to do?

A sports leader communicates, organises and motivates a group of people and promotes participation for the involvement within sport.

A leader needs to set examples for others to follow, young children look up to leaders and follow their ways so good examples being set are always important.

All sessions need to be organised this way the leader can keep on top of the session and new skills and be learnt so both improvement and enjoyment can be achieved to the maximum.

Leaders help with development and involvement within sporting activities they have to have good social skills understand the level that participants are at and how they can improve and have good motivation so the participant wants to participate and improve to harder skills.

How is a sports leader different from a coach?

A sports coach is different from a leader as they work with performers and help to teach the harder skills. Whereas leaders work more towards getting participants involved within sport and making sure they have a good time and want to continue with the sport.

One of the characteristics of an effective sports leader is empathy. Empathy is showing an understanding of how the other person feels when participating in sport. Young children need encouragement and praise when trying new skills so putting yourself in their shoes helps you as a leader to understand how the participant is feeling. An example is leading a netball catching session and one child can’t catch well. You should put your self into their shoes and to consider how they are feeling and to ensure you don’t upset them or embarrass them. Explaining and going through the skills step by step with the child encouraging them throughout will give the child confidence and help them achieve what they want to.

Confidence is a characteristic of an effective sports leader. Confidence is feeling comfortable in the activity you are carrying out putting in maximum effort to engage all participants.

If you are confident leading your session this will show and participants will pick up on this if you aren’t confident and your participants realise then they will push boundaries more creating a harder session to run.

An example of this is if you are teaching a young restless group and they realise you are a bit wary of what you are leading they will take advantage and the session and take things into their own hands, such as playing with equipment when they should be listening and not following all commands.

Another example is when leading a group that is good at sport they will need to be pushed and given activities that will make them work hard. Being confident means you will be able to try new and more complex games keeping the participants interested and motivated.

Being approachable is important if you are going to be an effective sports leader. Participants need to be able to approach their sports leader with confidence knowing that they will listen to then and help them out. Different people will need help in different ways if a participant is struggling and wants ask for help then the sports leader needs to be approachable otherwise the participant will not want to ask for help. A sports leader needs to have boundaries they need to be friendly and approachable but they can’t have to good a friendship especially when working with young children as there are many laws and regulations that can effect leaders.

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An example of being approachable is if a child finds a skill hard but doesn’t feel confident in front of everyone to speak up he/she may want to speak to the leader quietly so they can have extra support.

A characteristic of being an effective sports leader is being enthusiastic. Enthusiastic leaders come across as showing great excitement and interest in the activity.

Being enthusiastic will get the whole group excited, interested and ready to be involved in the activities taking place.

An example is if you enter the room ready to go and getting every body’s attention ...

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