I love to learn and as a coach I love to read about subjects like psychology, Human anatomy, Body movement, Neuroscience, child development... From reading and from my 27 years experience of coaching I have learnt 3 things about children:

1. Children are not mini-adults; children’s minds and bodies work differently than adults'.  They process information, pay attention, move and exercise in distinctive ways.  Many of the sports principles that create good practice simply do not apply to children.  - For adults it is known that benefits of exercise come from sustained activity above a certain threshold (repetition).   - But for young children, physical activity reveals that it is stop-start, and of great varying levels of intensity.
2. Children are not mini-adults; movement development is different for children.  - With a few exceptions, adults practice a small number of physical activities (predominantly sports such as tennis, football, golf, judo, netball...) that require quite specialised motor skills. - Children are still laying down the foundations of their movement competence.  Much of the pre-adolescent phase is taken up with the development of fundamental movement skills (running, jumping, twisting turning, stopping, starting …). These skills are necessary for subsequent physical activity, are best developed in an atmosphere that could be characterised as ‘play’, and are intrinsically motivating (kids do them for the love of the movements themselves).  Also, importantly, these basic movements are best developed through engagement in a wide range of activities that are adapted to reflect the distinctive needs of children.  In terms of early movement development, variety really is the best practice.
3. Children are not mini-adults; - whilst us adults play sport for lots of different reasons (weight loss, elite competition, socialising...) – the vast majority of children play sport for only one reason – FUN.

That was the short version. 

For the longer version just keep on reading.

So how can I put into practice what I have learned about human development?  If I want children to enjoy sport and to continue to do it throughout their lives, I'd better look at some of the basic facts of their development.

1. Chronological age DOES NOT reveal the true Biological age

There is a strong tendency in youth sport to rely on chronological age as the main criteria for grouping children, but this is an extremely poor measure.  At any given age, there will be children of the same chronological age who are up to 2 years older or younger in terms of development.  The easiest way to see what this means look at a group of half a dozen ten or eleven year old boys and girls together.  What will be obvious straight away is a stark variation in height.

2. Coaches must be adaptable in terms of stages of development

The child’s developing body and brain alternate between periods of rapid growth and stability.  This pattern has huge significance for coaches because learning complex skills can be tricky if the body is rapidly changing.

Developmental Markers and Characteristics

• 3-6 Years: Relatively rapid physical growth, Rapid brain development. THEREFORE Young children need time and space to move. Physical activity should primarily have the character of creative play and experimentation. Activity should be a part of the child’s daily life. Boys and girls should play together
• 6-12 years: Relatively slow physical growth, Steady brain development, Improving memory, decision-making, and attention-span, Reasoning abilities are limited. THEREFORE Children should try several sports, as well as non-sporting physical activities. Games ought to be simplified or modified to reflect developmental markers and characters. The emphasis ought to be on fun / enjoyment and skill learning. Enough time for the skills to be properly learned. Children are capable of learning basic rules and strategies of sports. Competitions should be fun. Adults ought to reinforce the principles of fair play. Consistency in messages from coaching is vital. Training load needs to be increased slowly and gradually. Emphasize aerobic training. Boys and girls should play together.
• 12-17 years: Relatively rapid physical growth, Initially rapid, followed by steady brain development, Physical and psychological maturation rarely occur at the same pace, Young people start to identify and commit to one or a small number of sports, Abstract thought becomes well-developed. THEREFORE Temporary worsening in performance can result in drop-out. There is a need for on-going communication between child, parent and coach. Guidance of lifestyle management (school-sport balance; importance of rest; etc.) will often be needed for serious athletes. Fundamental skills need to be applied in diverse settings. High quality practice with feedback helps automatise core skills. Competitions should become progressively more serious and frequent. Scope for greater personal goal-setting and responsibility in training. Introduce moderate anaerobic training. Emotional support is important
• 17+: Relatively slow physical growth, Steady brain development, “End of the Beginning” - physical and emotional development continues, although at slower rates than before; preparing for adulthood. THEREFORE Young people need to be led to take on greater responsibility for decisions and aspirations in sport. Increase training volume and intensity. Training and conditioning become highly specific. Athletes should become more aware of basic sports science that relate to their training. Development of aerobic capacity is vital. Progressively increase the volume and intensity of anaerobic training. High quality practice with feedback help generalize skills. Psychological skills training should become a central part of training. Guidance of lifestyle management (school-sport balance; importance of rest; etc.) will often be needed for serious athletes

3. Performance is a poor indicator of ability

Each governing body believes that the identification of talent in children is a relatively simple matter.  The LTA for example observes the young players in practice and in competition, direct comparison with peers and occasionally some sort of sciency testing.  Those who perform best are the most talented. The US chooses the players based on their physical attributes (tall, strong throwers...).

It is almost impossible to make valid and reliable assessments of children’s sporting performance that can be translated in terms of talent.  Organisations have simply ignored a host of factors that undermine the whole childhood talent enterprise.  For example:

• Relative Age Effect – every age-based group of children will include those who are relatively young and those who are relatively old.  The older children will have spent up to a year longer than their younger peers developing their bodies and practising their sport.  It is not surprising that children born early in the selection year dominate.
• Social and economic factors are massively significant – generally speaking, children are unlikely to develop high-level sports skills if they’ve never learned that sport and had the opportunity to experience high quality coaching. This means having:

1. Ability and willingness to financially support participation and specialist support (private coaching, S&C coaching, competitions abroad, etc... on top of the usual group coaching)
2. Ability and willingness to invest high amounts of time to support the child’s engagement in the activity
3. Relatively small family size
4. Two-parent family
5. Attendance at Independent School (FACT: half the UK’s gold medallists at the last Olympics were privately educated, even though that group made up just seven per cent of the population. King's school Ely is a leaving proof of this fact: Nick Pope (Current goalkeeper at Burnley FC - Premiership), Goldie Sayers (Bronze medal in Beijing - Javelin) and currently Rebecca Daniel (Team GB under 16 - Hockey)).  It takes nothing away from the extraordinary achievements of elite athletes to suggest that they have benefitted from a system that confuses opportunity with ability.

In conclusion, children need to have fun to enjoy sport. They need to be in an environment that will nurture their development but if you want your child to have a slight chance of becoming a professional athlete then be prepared to make a lot of sacrifices because "Great achievement is usually born of great sacrifice" - Napoleon Hill.