Personal Feelings

Good coaches want to see everyone participating and hopefully improving but how can you be expected to be able to deal with integrating a disabled footballer(s) into your coaching programme? Perhaps you as a coach will need to identify your own feelings towards disabled players before you can consider your programme. You may need to know some general background which is football specific before you are confident in your approach. So ask yourself the following question:

Why do your players want to play football?

You will have drawn up your own list from your experience and courses, but generally your players will be playing to:

• Have fun
• To express their passion for the game
• Emulate their heroes
• To be part of a group / team
• To maintain and make new friends
• To compete and be the best (or the best that they can be)
• To improve and perhaps become a professional player
• To challenge themselves
• To maintain / improve their standing with their peers
• To feel success
• To improve their fitness
• Please their parents

You may also believe that their self confidence and self esteem benefits and that they learn the important life skills of handling success or failure.
Should this be any different for your players who have disabilities?

They will also want to:

• Have fun
• To express their passion for the game
• Emulate their heroes
• To be part of a group / team
• To maintain and make new friends
• To compete and be the best (or the best that they can be)
• To improve and perhaps become a professional player
• To challenge themselves
• To maintain / improve their standing with their peers
• To feel success
• To improve their fitness
• Please their parents

Certainly improving self confidence and self esteem and the opportunity to gain greater independence as a result of improvements in fitness and mobility can all be added to this list.