ADHD is a psychological disorder that many parents, coaches, and
athletes have heard of, and perhaps have experience with. There are
more and more children being diagnosed with this disorder each year,
resulting in more and more information floating around about how to
“deal” with ADHD in the school. However, specific information about how
to work most effectively with athletes who have ADHD is hard to find.
In order to help coaches deal with ADHD in the athletic domain, the
following suggestions may help:
Signs that you may have an athlete with ADHD:
○Consistently missing information
○Trouble following directions
○Not able to focus on the task at hand
○Inability to memorize plays
○Being disruptive
If an athlete is diagnosed with ADHD, there are certain approaches that may be
more successful for coaching him/her. When working with an ADHD athlete, a
coach may want to consider alternate methods of instruction for these athletes.
In particular, technical information (such as drawing up plays on the board) may
be difficult for an ADHD athlete to follow. Instead, a coach may want to rely
on more kinesthetic methods of teaching, such as physically putting players into
the required positions, and then walking them through the plays. Active,
kinesthetic approaches may help an ADHD athlete stay focused and learn the
material. It also will be helpful for a coach to remember that there may be a disconnect
between what the athlete says and what they do. An ADHD athlete may say “I get
it” when asked if they understand a play or instruction, then proceed to do the
exact opposite. During these times, it is important for a coach to recognize
that this disconnect is not a sign of disrespect or ignoring what has been said,
but rather the result of an athlete not wanting to say “I don’t get it”.
Difficulty with learning is often experienced in multiple areas of an ADHD
athlete’s life. A coach can have success by rewarding enthusiasm, and
correcting mistakes, as opposed to punishing mistakes and ignoring enthusiasm.
(Some information taken from Rhodius, Bernstein,
Carlson, & Sugarman, 2006 AAASP Conference, Miami, FL)
At the Center for Sport Psychology and Performance
Excellence at the University of North Texas, we have a dedicated staff
of sport consultants who can help athletes, teams, and coaches learn to
work more effectively with symptoms of ADHD. For more information
please call us at 940-369-7767 or visit our website at
www.sportpsych.unt.edu or email us at
sportpsych@unt.edu. As always, we leave you with our sport quote of
the week:
“Success is the ability to go from one failure to
another will no loss of enthusiasm”
-Sir Winston Churchill
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