Integrating High Skilled and Less Skilled Athletes

Reprinted from Coaching Youth Sports newsletter by Richard K. Stratton, PhD.

Dr. Richard K. Stratton, PhD. (Florida State University) has been the motor learning and sport psychology specialist at Virginia Tech for the past 20 years. Between his Masters and Doctoral studies he taught physical education and coached four sports at Appling County (GA) Middle School. His primary interests are the developmental aspects of information processing and motivation and stress in youth sport participants.

Integrating High Skilled and Less Skilled Athletes

What do you do if you are a basketball coach, for example, and have five relatively high skilled players and ten relatively low skilled players on your team? How do you stress fun for all with such disparate skill levels? This is a very typical problem in youth sports. In fact, it is unusual for all the athletes on a team to have the same level of skill. One of the keys to being successful in this situation is to develop a sense of teamwork. Every member of the team must feel that they are making a meaningful contribution to the success of the team. This does not happen on the first day of practice. Actually, it evolves throughout the season. You should begin, however, at the first practice, by explaining that not everyone can be a starter and that there are important roles for each member of the team. Good athletic teams are good not because of their best talent, but because every member of the team works hard to improve the team. Each member of the team should try to help other team members improve. The following are some suggestions for enhancing teamwork:

• stress teamwork emphasizing the contributions of all members of the team;
• encourage positive verbal feedback among team members; watch out for skilled athletes who constantly criticize or make fun of their less skilled teammates;
• use individual skill stations, if possible, to lessen peer pressure;
• emphasize skill learning as your overall goal for the team ;
• use small group drills with one skilled and two less skilled in each group;
• make sure the parents of all your players understand what you are trying to accomplish with your team;
• avoid using the term substitute; name your groups something like Blue Team, Red Team, Green Team;
• don't overlook your skilled athletes in your attempts to help the less skilled; provide challenging practice situations for all your athletes;
• mix up your starting line-ups; this will encourage the less skilled athletes to work hard and also encourage the better athletes to help their teammates improve.