This article should only be one sentence long, really, because the importance of holistic development can be summed up in eight words. These are: because it is the right thing to do.
Here’s the reason why.
Regardless of the level you may be coaching, whether you work with new players to a sport or at a high-performance level, developing the whole person is what coaching is about.
In fact, it is probably impossible to do a coaching session that solely focuses on technical development alone. Inevitably there will be some level of thinking going on by the participant, some degree of engaging with other people (the coach or the team) and normally, elements of physical movement.
However, the most important thing is that ultimately, we use sport as a vehicle to develop human behaviour and we are wonderfully lucky that we can do such a thing. We encourage young people to develop a lifelong love of sport and physical activity and, regardless of the level of performance they achieve, they will be citizens of this country.