Coach for a Day: Warm-Ups, Whistles and Feedback That Helps
🎯 Today's mission briefing
We are learning to lead a movement session — designing a warm-up that does its job, and giving feedback that is specific, kind and small enough for the other person to act on straight away.
You'll know you've got it when:
- I can design and lead a warm-up with the three jobs in the right order: raise the pulse, move the joints, rehearse the skill
- I can give feedback using the coach's move — name what worked, show the one thing, give them the next go
- I can name at least four leadership behaviours that have nothing to do with being the loudest person there
- I can adjust an activity on the spot when a participant is struggling, bored, or left out
Two captains, one Saturday morning
Connects to what your guest already knows and makes them curious. Activating prior knowledge is one of the strongest predictors of new learning.
Two under-9 teams, same park, same 8am start. Captain One is loud. He calls the whole warm-up from the middle of the circle, tells three kids they are doing it wrong, and picks his mates first. By the second half, two of his players are sitting on the grass pulling out weeds. Captain Two says less. She gets the cones out before anyone arrives, learns the new kid's name, starts the warm-up with a game rather than a lecture, tells one player exactly what her feet did well on that last kick, and swaps the rules halfway through so the shortest kid gets a touch. Same age, same morning, same skill level. One of them will be asked back to help next season. Here is the thing nobody tells you at eleven: which captain you become is not a personality you are born with. It is about six behaviours, and every one of them can be practised. Today you practise them.