気ままなリライト４４

子どものスポーツ、怒鳴らぬ指導

More and more leaders of youth sports and coaches of young sports teams are focusing on what matters most to children doing sports by challenging the conventional mindset that victory as the outcome matters most, and whatever it takes to win is justified, however seriously children’s mental and physical health are impaired in a frenzy of winning. Taking account of how the trend of emphasizing too much the difference between victory and defeat is causing emotional stress among young athletes, many coaches are playing a leading role in encouraging young athletes to find the motivation and devotion they need within themselves without falling prey to the work ethic enforced by a win-at-all-costs mentality.
 
The downsides of making winning the ultimate aim are emphasized on the youth sports scene where the opportunities to have fun, socialize and acquire new skills are given to children. A win-at-all-costs mentality shared by the hyper-competitive coaches and parents of young athletes makes a pressurized atmosphere in which young athletes are more likely to be hit with the emotional bombardment of harsh words, scolding voices when their play falls short of the coaches’ expectations. Overcoming the pressure is too demanding for most youth athletes vulnerable to the intimidating behavior of their coaches to improve their sense of self-worth and bring them one step closer to achieving their ambitions. Most young athletes shrink away from the situation in which they feel pressurized and straitjacketed before experiencing psychological damage or staying on the bleeding ground for mental breakdown while losing ownership of their own vision of what the games they are playing are meant to be.
 
The role of a coach in youth sports is changing to go in tandem with a mentality providing fertile ground for children to find pleasure in the process of what they are playing and individualize the way of developing themselves through sports. Coaches in a rugby school targeting elementary school kids in Saitama Prefecture are putting on the sidelines the quest for greater achievement in both practice and games to suit the ideal image they expect young players to be. In the school, how happy players are to play is more focused on than how they perform. The coaches believe that shared emotional connection through team play deepens children’s interest in rugby.
 
Anger management-themed volleyball tournaments for elementary school kids held across the country have played a part in shedding the image of an angry, manipulative coach with a win-at-all-costs mentality. The tournaments organized by Naomi Masuko, a former member of the Japan’s national female volleyball team are being held as “take-it-easy” tournaments from 2015 with a special rule designed to prevent a coach from being swallowed up by uncontrolled anger by giving a red card to the coach whose anger is not under control. An anger management-themed female volleyball tournament held in the end of September in Kochi Prefecture gave the coach of a local team an insight into how a coach should recognize and interpret what each player performed. The special rule forced the coach named Takashi Nishimura to turn the mind of a warrior into the mind of a saint to diffuse tension. By putting a judgmental and critical attitude aside, he tried to handle what’s ahead without getting irritated in a positive way. He said, “What I saw was a different picture from what I used to see. My team members’ performances encompassed more than what I assumed them to do. Each move each player made showed me how diligently each player committed to her role in the game.” The image of a manipulative coach melted into the tears of euphoria leaking from team members' eyes when Nishimura said to them, “I felt proud of what each of you demonstrated in your own individual way. It looked like you were hatched from an egg. When an eggshell is broken by an inside force, not by an outside force, the inner power shines out. You have taught me it takes patience to see that happen.”
 
The thinking of youth baseball coaching is also shifted from prioritizing winning and individual results towards developing healthy, well-rounded children in a fun environment. A youth baseball club in Osaka Prefecture called Sakai Big Boys, with a glorious history decorated with the crown of national baseball championship is receiving the message making the coaches rethink a big picture of why kids play baseball. Ryunosuke Seno, club manager says, “When the idea that nothing else besides winning matters was instilled in kids’ minds, the line between healthy motivation and harmful pressure was blurred. They were put under pressure to do extra training and practice at the cost of physical and mental health. Long hours of hard practice made children with fragile minds and bodies feel stressful, burnt out with unnoticed warning signs of overuse injuries.” The club members are encouraged to value how to spend time before, between and after practice to nurture all areas of child development. The club is prohibiting breaking-ball pitches leading to damage to the elbow of the pitcher. With voluntary self-practicing hours following reduced all-hands practicing hours on weekends, the club members are motivated to figure out what to do by themselves while honing their problem-solving skills. The joy of baseball is being rekindled on the diamond where almost of all the newly-registered club members are enjoying the challenge of hitting the ball and getting to the first base without losing passion long after joining the club in which the footprints of Yoshitomo Tsutsugo with a major league experience and Daiki Irie with the contract with Rakuten Golden Eagles are marked as a beacon to the aspirations of the younger generation.