Effective Strategies for Managing Challenging Behaviour

Every coach sets out to create a positive coaching environment for each person involved in their session, but even the best-laid plans can sometimes come unstuck.

Adolescence is a psychologically and emotionally charged time of life. Young people can feel marooned in this rite of passage, as they grapple with how to regulate their emotions and feelings. During this stage of development, they are still orientating themselves in the complex nuances of social understanding and interaction.

Now and again, this period of emotional upheaval can give rise to unacceptable behaviours.

Coaches who work with young people will have been made fully aware of the need to arm themselves with a set of tools and ideas for managing any flare-ups.

But what about coaches who work with so-called ‘hard to reach’ youths, whose challenging behaviours, mood swings, and impulses can be more extreme? For young people who have faced discrimination, poverty and childhood trauma, the root cause of their unruly behaviour runs far deeper than merely haywire hormones.

It is vital that, alongside developing a deeper understanding of prevention and intervention methods for managing challenging behaviour, coaches also have a deeper understanding of those issues young people may be experiencing on a daily basis.