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Exploring sport coaching and psychology
Exploring sport coaching and psychology

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5 Confidence and emotions in teenagers

As you have seen, teenagers often compare themselves to their peers and their identity is often uncertain and evolving. Listen to this example of teenager Rachel, her younger brother Oliver and their mother talking about the ups and downs of teenage life when you start secondary school.

Download this audio clip.Audio player: In secondary school we have a lot more responsibility
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In secondary school we have a lot more responsibility
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This family talked about drawing on determination, humour and confidence in coping with the ups and downs in education, sport and life.

In this next activity, Bradley Busch explains what his main topics are when working with teenagers in sport: confidence features strongly. Keep the voices of Rachel and Oliver in mind as you do the activity.

Activity 3 Bradley Busch’s top teenage topics in sport

Timing: Allow about 10 minutes

In this video, Bradley Busch describes the two most common topics he is asked to address with teenagers in sport. Summarise the two main points he makes, including the practical guidance he gives.

Download this video clip.Video player: Interview with Bradley Busch (Part 2)
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Interview with Bradley Busch (Part 2)
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Discussion

Confidence frequently features in Bradley Busch’s dialogue with teenagers in sport, in a similar way to how Rachel mentioned this in the family audio clip. Whilst adults have often heard about the advice of focusing on controlling the controllable features of performance, this is a new concept for many teenagers and one he says they find particularly useful.

The other common topic is controlling emotions (e.g. nerves or frustrations) in sport. He explained how he encourages people to think about situations as less threatening and framing them as opportunities. This includes encouraging people to have less regard for what other people might think about them and to focus on their own competition routine and performance.

You will further explore psychology, confidence and emotions in Sessions 5 and 6.

Working with young people can be very rewarding due to their variety and rapid progress. Those experienced with guiding teenagers know that they can often call on a powerful tool to help them: the inspirational effect of someone being a model for what is possible. It is this you turn to next.