If you are going to take anything away from reading this article, I want it to be this:

Learn more about your participants. Learn more about the people around you. Learn more about what they like, what makes them tick, and where they want to go.

If you can do that, you will show them that you care about them. You will create an environment in which they want to return every single day. Best of all, you can actually implement what they say into your programs. All of this makes their experience more magical.

One of the most common questions I get asked by coaches and leaders learning their trade is this:
“How do I engage an unengaged participant?”

The answer is simple. We all know it! Learn more about them.

Learn what they like. Learn what makes them tick. Learn where they want to go. Help them in that journey. A student in my class asked me just today how to help a hockey player who doesn’t like hockey all that much.

You already know my answer! Learn what they like. Maybe it’s Fortnite. Then we can create a themed hockey practice all about Fortnite. How fun would that be?

Maybe it’s spiderman! I’m the villain, you’re spiderman, try and catch me. If we learn more about our participants and what they like, we can do a better job tailoring our approach, our feedback, and our program plans to suit their interests and desires. We can create an atmosphere in which they want to come back to day after day, year after year. Why? Because their voices are being heard, their interests are being met, and their leader actually cares about their success in life.

I’ll give you another example. In a leadership program I run for grade 5-6’s, I asked them the question “What makes for a good day of After School?” What they said surprised me. But it shouldn’t have. It’s so obvious in hindsight. The number one answer they said?

They love it when the leaders participate alongside them.

We don’t want to steal their touches in a sport or detract from their experience. But participating alongside our athletes and participants naturally enhances the experience. You are such an important person in the life of a young person when you are their leader. They want to be like you. When you play with them, when you ask them questions, when you actually take the time to get to know them and what they like, it makes them feel important to your life too. If you’re like me, chances are, they probably are important to your life.

We all have a desire to feel involved and important. Older participants in that grade 5-6 leadership program told me just today that their favourite part about being in our After School Program is that they can help out. Some of them even come on days that they don’t have to be there, just because they love the feeling of helping others.

They want to feel involved. We all want to feel involved. Asking questions to our participants and taking interest in their lives is a sure-fire way to ensure they feel involved in the process, and that they enjoy their experience. If you do that, you will naturally create more engagement. That goes for participants that hate hockey and want nothing to do with it, to those that love hockey and want everything to do it. The more involved you are as a coach or a leader, the more involved your athletes will be too.

Thanks for reading and see you soon!