Pathway for older athletes to demonstrate leadership and give back to the Community

In the 2014-15 season, FAST’s Head Coach instigated a pathway for older Little Athletes (U13 – U17) to demonstrate leadership and give back to the Community, by volunteering as a Junior Coach with Ginninderra Athletics Club.

At the beginning of the season, participating Junior Coaches were taken through several sessions of athletic coaching techniques by Sprint and Hurdles Performance Coach Steve Dodt before being rostered as mentors and coaches.

The objective of Junior Coaches is to assist the younger ages groups at Saturday morning meetings. Concurrent with this program, the Saturday morning athletes are split into younger groups and begin their training an hour before the older groups. This allowed Junior Coaches to work with their younger “team mates” before going on to compete themselves.

Each coach is paid for coaching work with funding coming from extra sponsorship.

Specific training in inclusion and support is given to all junior coaches. The way an activity is delivered can have a significant impact on how inclusive it is. Strategies and advice given to junior coaches includes:

• being aware of all the participants in your group
• ensuring participants are correctly positioned (for example, within visual range)
• using appropriate language for the group
• using visual aids and demonstrations
• using a buddy system
• using appropriate physical assistance — guide a participant’s body parts through a movement
• keeping instructions short and to the point
• checking for understanding
• helping to minimise distractions in the area

In its inaugural season, it has become very noticeable that Junior Coaches identify with the younger athletes and take ownership of their role in the club. It is the hope that the more community responsive Junior Coaching is then the greater the benefit that will follow for all involved. The achievement of this objective has been a very important element in the inclusive success of Ginninderra Athletics.

The 2014-15 Junior Coach cohort includes the following FAST members:

• Cameron Best
• Grace Miller
• Maja Dodt
• Rebecca Jarvis
• David Power
• Mitch Foster
• Lamin Koroma
• Santal Tacconi
• Matt Walters
• Lucy Ferry
• Casey Baker
• Karla Dodt
• Nathalie Cerritelli
• Tori Hopkins

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“Another recent innovation in the club has been the introduction of the junior coaching program. The program encourages inclusion and my daughter will be a junior coach next season. This will help her confidence.

The junior coaching program has also made it easier for families new to athletics to participate – parents can come along with little knowledge of athletics knowing that there are coaches on hand who will teach their children about how to participate in the sport correctly. This frees the parents and carers up to pro- vide support and fill the other volunteer roles, which don’t require detailed knowledge of athletics.”

Kirsty Leslie

“Each week junior coaches are assigned to go with the younger age groups to help them with support, advice, and assistance in all their events. Being a junior coach has been the best experience. I have absolutely loved working with the younger kids and their parents. I feel I have been able to really help them, really inspire them and really make them happy. I love seeing their smiling faces and I have loved being able to show and share my love for athletics with them. Being a junior coach has built my confidence, helped me define what I want to do as a career and made me realise how much I want to give back the community. I have completed a Level 1 and 2 coaching course and am hoping to do more in the coaching world.”

Rebecca Jarvis

“In the past 6 years, I am privileged to have volunteered alongside him (Steve Dodt) and learn from his positive outlook on absolutely everything. He is the motivator for motivators and can make something of out of nothing. The way he invented, implemented and developed our junior coach, on-track and tiny tots programs was amazing to say the least. Steve gets an idea in his head and no matter the complexities he is faced with, he will follow through in what he believes and make sure the community benefits from his ideas.

Fee Knights

“Steve Dodt brought junior coaching to Ginninderra athletics, where senior athletes coach junior athletes between the ages of 5-9 years old, which inspired me and encouraged me to become an athletics coach with Athletics Australia.”

Nathalie Cerritelli

“Any kids who finds themselves having a giggle and a run or giggle and throw at the age of 35, 25 years into the future will be enjoying their sport in part to the tireless work Steve has done over the past few years and into the foreseeable future.”

John Hynes