Coach by Design

The old ways of coaching young athletes are failing them - and playing it safe is making it worse.

Most youth sport environments are designed for control, not curiosity. For compliance, not creativity. For the coach's convenience, not the athlete's development.

Dr Craig Harrison believed he was doing it right until the athletes he was supposed to be developing started walking away. Through that struggle, and a chance encounter at a skatepark, he discovered that the secret to developing better young athletes wasn't in the programme at all. It was in the environment around it.

The environments we design shape who young people become.

Because young athletes aren't just developing as players. They're developing as people. And the environment you create either supports that or works against it.

Coach by Design is a manifesto for anyone working with young athletes - from the parent taking on their first team to the Academy coach preparing athletes for the next level. It shows us that when we change our relationship with control, we don't just change what our athletes can do - we change what they believe is possible.

Stop prescribing. Start designing.