The second webinar of the 2023 Coach Webinar Series, presented by Gallagher was all about Coaching Youth Athletes. This focused on coaching athletes from their first experience of sport to when they leave school/college.
This webinar was hosted by Special Olympics Venezuela Athlete Leader, Alvaro Brochero. Alvaro is a certified CONMEBOL football coach, and he coaches players from the ages of 8 to 12 at the club Futuros Vinotinto. In 2020, he was elected as President of the Special Olympics Latin America Regional Athlete Leadership Council. Currently, he is part of the group of Sports Directors of Special Olympics responsible for planning and organizing events like the Unified Cup that was held in Detroit in July 2022.
Joining Alvaro was Hayley Kavanagh from Special Olympics Ireland. Hayley discussed her research on Young Athletes and how to effectively measure and evaluate children with intellectual disabilities’ functional movement skills (FMS). Hayley highlighted how young athletes with intellectual disabilities are at a higher risk of not developing their movement skills at a young age which will hinder their development as they grow older.
Following Hayley’s excellent presentation, Holly Jacobs and Sean Stake discussed Social Emotional Learning (SEL) and how this can be applied in practical settings. Holly discussed what SEL is and explained its position in education by referring to it as, “not one more thing on your plate – it (SEL) is the plate.” Sean then showed us how to create a positive environment for athletes to thrive and noted the importance of challenge in coaching Special Olympics athletes.
Catch up on the webinar’s recording in languages.
Join us next week for the final webinar of the 2023 Coach Webinar Series. Garrett Utz will host the webinar and be joined by Newcastle United Foundation’s Thomas Graham and Ken Black, co-founder of The Inclusion Club.
Watch back the first webinar of the 2023 Coach Webinar Series on the dashboard, where you will also find resources relating to MATP and Special Olympics Coaching.
Listen to this webinar in: Arabic • Chinese • French • Italian • Portuguese • Russian • Spanish
