Many sports have recognised that the needs and abilities of children are different from that of adults and have developed modified sports.

Successful modifications to sports include:

• size of equipment
• playing area and goals
• duration of games
• team sizes and interchanges.

These modified games use equipment that better suits the size and ability of the children, smaller playing areas, goals that are smaller or lower, smaller teams and/or more interchanges.

One of the challenges facing junior coaches is to understand how best to motivate their young athletes.

An effective coach of children and young adolescents is one who:

• recognises the motivation behind a child’s
• involvement in sport
• makes children feel comfortable and happy with
• practice sessions and games
• aims to improve the quality of the experience for each child
• is concerned about relationships formed with each child and between children
• provides children with accurate technical information
  is able to relate to all groups involved in sport (parents, officials, visiting teams)
• is aware that there are many styles of teaching and that children respond in different ways to different styles
• appreciates that children have differing ability levels and organises appropriate skill practices to cater for all levels.