Make It Fun And They Will Come

“I think trainings are really important, so if trainings are fun, I enjoy go to trainings and being with the boys and stuff. If you can make trainings fun then more people will play sport I think.” (18 year old boy)

We hear time and time again… ‘young people have changed’ or ‘they’re not as committed as we were’ or ‘they’re more interested in gaming and playing on their phones’ bla bla bla. Now let’s be honest, not everyone turned up to trainings ‘back in our day’ and we had a dabble on the Playstation, Nintendo or Sega 64 (probably at the neighbours). Now if young people have truly changed, then have we kept up with that change?

One thing is for certain, young people don’t like turning up to run laps, doing drill after drill and standing in queues waiting their turn. They want training to be fun. Sport is supposed to be fun. If it’s not fun, then what’s the point? And it is actually possible to make training fun and help them get better to perform at the same time.

Now....what young people hate:

1. Running laps

2. Standing in queues

3. Doing repetitive drills

What young people love? Opposite of above!

So, throw in some games (for the majority of practice please), team challenges, ice-breakers, dancing competitions, tik toks, jokes, team building…. Success to measure at the end of practice is then…

1. Did we laugh with our mates?

2. Were we active the whole time?

3. Did we get better at something?

Now, isn’t it obvious... if we make it fun, then they will come!