Nurturing young sporting talent

If your school has a mini Mo Farah, or an emergent Jessica Ennis-Hill, how do you stop that talent from going to waste? Katie Masters investigates...

They’re out there. Scattered across classrooms throughout the UK are the British Olympians of 2032. Look closely and you might be able to spot them…

“There are certain characteristics that children who are gifted at PE all show,” says Dr Lorraine Cale, of LoughboroughUniversity. “They have a strong grasp of the fundamental motor skills. They’re aware of strategies. And they show fluidity intheir movements and are able to link those movements together.”

It’s an analysis that Justin Davies, Premier League 4 Sport coordinator for the Manchester United Foundation, agrees with. “AtKS1, what you’re looking for is the ABC of sporting ability: agility, balance and coordination. How does a child move, what’stheir spatial awareness like, how agile are they at changing direction? You’re looking at their jumping, their throwing, theircatching.”

And, he adds, it’s important to think about how creative they are in the way that they respond to physical challenges. Even atKS1 a child who’s gifted at PE will show signs of using prior learning and adapting it to new situations: like taking the feintthey learned in tag rugby and applying it to a football game.

By KS2, other abilities will be emerging. “By this age children start to develop intrinsic motivation,” Justin says. “There’s a commitment to what they want to do and they’re able to take on board feedback from external sources. The other sign is social ability. Outstanding performers are able to understand the challenges of a physical activity and they’re able to demonstrate to others how to deal with those challenges.”

Differentiation within lessons

One way of stretching a gifted child is to allow them the opportunity to mentor peers who haven’t grasped an activity as quickly as they have.

For Fiona Lee, the acting deputy head of Coulsdon Church of England Primary School in Surrey, the ability to mentor is a keypart of exceptional talent. One of her pupils, 10-year-old Thomas Porter, is a case in point.

“I noticed Thomas as far back as Year 2. Even at that stage he had a natural ability – he could pick up any sport. But it’s notjust about having the motor skills: he also has the ability to see how he can support those around him. In a ball sport, forexample, he would find ways of passing the ball to peers who weren’t confident about catching, so that they could catch.”

Although peer-mentoring has a place, Eileen Marchant, former chair of the Association for Physical Education (AfPE), is anadvocate of putting children into matched ability groups for PE lessons.

“In PE your ability is overt,” she says. “That’s why this is a subject in which it’s good to put children in differentiatedgroups. If mixed abilities are put together both the able children and those with emerging talent feel inhibited, whereas inmatched ability groups children are able to push and challenge one another.”

PE is a public activity. As a result, even gifted children can be demoralised when they – or their team – don’t perform well.John Steele, CEO of the Youth Sport Trust, believes one of the most valuable lessons a child can learn at primary age is how tobenchmark their performance against themselves, rather than someone else.

“Good coaches will often say, ‘Control the controllables’,” he says. “In other words a child should focus on what they canachieve and not worry about what’s going on around them – because they can’t control that.”

Teaching children to focus on achieving their own personal best can be particularly motivating for gifted children, as itprevents them from coasting. 

“Teachers can promote this way of thinking,’ says Loughborough’s Dr Cale. ‘After a lesson or a match, don’t ask, ‘Did you win?’, ask, ‘How did you perform today?’ and ‘What worked?’ By focusing on the student and the processes, rather than the outcome, you’ll teach children to think constructively about their performance and how to improve it.”

Extra-curricular opportunities

Another crucial factor in helping gifted children to flourish may, however, require additional help: exposing them to as many different physical activities as possible.

“You don’t want to fast-track a child into a particular sport at primary school,” says John Steele. “They’re too young. Their physiology is still changing. What you want to do is give them the opportunity to try as many things as possible.”

The skills of a gymnast will be of use to a footballer. The skills of a dancer will be of use to a rugby player. And taking partin a broad range of activities also has the benefit of building all-round fitness, without placing undue stress on particularjoints. The advantages of providing a breadth of opportunities is reiterated by Gail Emms, the British badminton player andOlympic silver medallist.

“What makes a difference is providing after-school clubs. Sometimes children have to try a few physical activities before theyfind the one that suits them. I’ve gone into schools and found children who lacked physical confidence but who turned out to bereally gifted at badminton, because they had great hand/eye coordination. But they needed the opportunity to discover that.”

Different schools find different ways of providing those opportunities. At Kingsmead Primary School in Cheshire, Judith Annells,the PE coordinator, has set up a relationship with a local sixth-form college. The college sends its students into Kingsmead tocoach a range of sports, from hockey to dodgeball.

At Castle Grove School in Wakefield, the head tried, where possible, to appoint coaches as teaching assistants. That, saysEileen Marchant, was one of the best examples of skills transfer she’d ever seen: the teachers benefiting from the specialist sports knowledge and the TAs benefiting from the teachers’ pedagogical knowledge.

At Coulsdon, the school tries to offer as many free sporting opportunities as possible, from lacrosse and Korfball, to rounders and cross-country running. It was this, says 10-year-old Thomas Porter, that turned him from a child who wasn’t particularly interested in sport into someone whom his teachers believe to be exceptional.

It was through trying things that Thomas discovered he loved running. The school encouraged him by providing opportunities tocompete in inter-school and regional competitions. They also signposted him to a local running club, the South London Harriers.

“As well as signposting on to clubs, if a child shows exceptional ability in a specific sport you can contact the NationalGoverning Body of that sport to ask what the pathway for a child is,” says Justin Davies. “At the moment the focus is onstudents aged 14+, but there will be provision for younger children.”

But the key to nurturing talent, reiterates John Steele, is helping children discover that PE is fun. “Part of the trick withtalent,” he says, “is patience. Patience and providing opportunities to explore.”

Thomas Porter’s mother Heidi agrees. “Thomas discovered a love of PE thanks to the opportunities the school gave him when he was younger,” she says. “They provided a huge range of activities for the children to try, which grew his confidence. The schoolintroduced him to cross-country running, which he’s become passionate about.  And now, at 11, he has an in-built motivation to pursue PE, wherever it might take him.”

Watch out, Mo…

Talent spotting

Developing the elite athletes of the future…

• Look for is the ABC of sporting ability: agility, balance and coordination.
• See if they apply skills learnt in one game to another.
• Can they demonstrate to others how to deal with the challenges of a physical activity?
• Provide the opportunity to coach others and work in matched-ability groups.
• Encourage children to benchmark their performance against themselves, rather than someone else.
• Give children the opportunity to try as many things as possible.
• Signpost children to local after-school clubs