Interview with Jamie Johnston, Athletic Director, ACS International School Egham
John Wooden, the late and great American basketball coach, once said: “A coach’s primary function should be not to make better players, but to make better people”. Now, more than ever, I believe this rings true – particularly when it comes to school sports.
There can often be a tyranny within competitive school sports programmes where the results of the team are the most important thing. It tends to be all consuming, and, despite the best intentions, students end up going from the pressure of academia to another pressure, which is the school sports team. While there is much research pointing to the important benefits of exercise and sports for young people’s wellbeing, there is also evidence to suggest that overly competitive sports programmes can have a detrimental impact on a young athlete’s mental health, including low self-esteem, anxiety and stress. I am not in any way opposed to competitive sport, but balance is important - competition should be healthy and instil positive values, as opposed to the unhealthy win-at-costs behaviours sadly exhibited often by professional sports stars. In a world disrupted by a global pandemic causing uncertainty and anxiety every single day, performance in sports is not a stress that young people and need. Teachers and parents must avoid piling on.
In 2020, while the pandemic has resulted in an awful lot of tragedy and hardship, it has, in a strange way, also presented us with a valuable opportunity for a reset. In the absence of upcoming tournaments and fixtures, we now have a rare moment to step back, go back to basics, and think what it is we really should be doing with the sports programme. This is the moment to realign our extra-curricular offering, putting students well and truly at the centre of the programme and asking what is it we are trying to achieve?
One thing that we can be certain of, in this uncertain world, is that sports for young people should be approached in a way that is fun and enjoyable. When this happens, sports not only support physical health, but mental health too, and also offer important opportunities for students to grow as individuals. Not just as athletes, but as people. At ACS Egham, since last year, and now in an accelerated fashion, we’ve being making a culture shift to more ‘transformational’ coaching, where ‘courage’ has become the key word. For us, participation is the number one priority. We want students to be courageous and to try out whatever sports they wish.
Once we’ve got everyone involved and having fun, we can then look to develop what they can do, building on their athletic ability but also championing key skills like team work, gratitude and empathy.
Healthy competition is still valid, but performance only comes into the equation for those students who choose this path and have a real drive for it. What we find is that the majority, at a school level, take part because they love it and because they can have fun with their friends outside the classroom. Particularly in 2020, sports and exercise are providing an escape for all of us in more ways than ever! In reality, for most it’s not really about winning games and results, it’s about having fun and enjoying the activity and this is exactly what we want to encourage.
With this approach, what we have seen so far is a surge in uptake right across the board. Two years ago, for example, as a relatively small school, we didn’t have a girls’ varsity team for football, now we’ve got 21 girls coming along to training. Again, three years ago we couldn’t raise a third team for High School boys’ football, now we are recruiting another coach because we’re inundated; we’ve got over 60 boys coming along. In our Middle School we’re seeing the same thing.
There isn’t so much pressure now because we’ve said “what we’re looking at is you and developing your skills, just come along. There are no matches to play, so let’s just have fun and focus on what you can achieve”. This has really encouraged young people out of the wood work who would never normally play and I have never felt prouder.
Though I feel a pause in formal competition is positive for the wellbeing of our school community, I did anticipate that our top tier players who ultimately play to win may lose interest but this just hasn’t been the case. Many are still coming along and are revelling in the opportunity to play without pressure.
Sports are an incredible thing. For young people, they can offer a new way of connecting with friends inside and outside of school.
For adults it can be a way to get out and about and gain a sense of freedom, when it feels life is restricted in so many other ways. At a time when things are upside down, sports and exercise can provide us with some degree of positivity so, as parents, students and teachers continue to navigate this unusual ‘back to school’ period, I hope we can all take solace in the fact that the very basics of what make school great are still there and we want everyone to get involved.
After school activities continue
Despite the pandemic ACS schools have managed to keep many after school activities going, ensuring that students can continue to enjoy both a healthy curriculum and extra-curricular activities. Some sports have been replaced by others but all schools have developed creative ways of ensuring some school activities continue. Local competitions were happening before the second lockdown and will hopefully be re-arranged in future so that student athletes can continue to enjoy a full experience of school sport.