Concept
"High performance sport and adolescence", pedagogic and psychological concept for building and coaching a stable senior national team.
The challenge of adolescence doesn't stop for highperformance athletes
It is a time where the different goals of all
involved (athlete, trainer, federation, parents) often clash and lead to a working crisis
van der Hout Coaching supports the development of the young athlete to independent young adult with a pragmatic, and pedagogic coaching.
To form the necessary supportive environment the following 3 requirements need to be met.
First requirement:
Two principal thoughts:
- Federation and trainer need to be aware that their responsibility for the gymnasts reaches much further than the set goals in sport alone.
- High level gymnasts should be supported in their growth to adult young women.
Second requirement:
When there are problems, name them.
What surprised me time and again was the restraint of all persons involved in "getting to the point".
Often the problem had been recognized but out of fear for the consequences, the core of the problem was
not openly mentioned.
In my experience, the cooperation between gymnast and trainer is the crossroads where most accidents
happen.
It should be the highest priority to optimise this cooperation.
Federations often expect every technical professional trainer to also have the expertise to work in
the difficult field of adolescence. By no means is this an automatism.
The fine art for the federations is therefore to position the right person at the right place or to
support them with professional coaching.
This can only succeed with an equal support of both gymnast and trainer:
The supporting coach should be chosen based on his/her experience in the sport and in the practical field
of coaching.
It is not the aim of the coach to position himself/herself between gymnast and trainer,
but by his coaching, to improve the working environment and cooperation for both gymnast and trainer.
For the federation the aim is to have a wider choice of senior gymnasts available to participate
in the next Olympic Games.
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Third requirement:
Coordinating a "team player" attitude.
To secure a constant flow of gymnasts to the elite class, it is of utmost importance to form,
enhance, coach and coordinate a "team player"attitude among all trainers, throughout the nation and regardless
of the gymnast’s level.
The person whom the federation assigns to this task should be chosen not only on account of his/her
technical merits but also on his/her high social competence.