Kids and adults on the autism spectrum tend to engage in individual sports that require less social interaction. These include running, biking and the martial arts, which combine structure and predictability with a focus on repetition.
In a remarkable shift from conventional wisdom, people with autism are participants, fans and even elite athletes. But what do coaches need to know about helping them succeed?
1. Engage the Athlete as a whole.
From the minute your athlete walks in the door, engage them first. This sounds like it should be obvious but many times I’ve seen professionals greet parents or caregivers first. Make your athlete your top priority. Of course if a kid is hiding behind mom or a plyo box then maybe you’ll need to switch things up. Meet then where they are physically, mentally, and emotionally as soon as they walk in
Once you connect, start getting to know them. Find out interests either from them or parents, ask questions, observe what equipment or activities they gravitate to. Watch how they walk, talk, move around the gym and respond to you or those around them. Start looking and listening to everything to build a model in your head of who exactly you’re working with.
Use Clear and Concrete Language: Communicating with individuals with autism in a way that is understandable to them can help improve comprehension and reduce anxiety. Using visual demonstrations and models can also enhance understanding.
Here’s the big one; be mindful of sensory sensitivities: Providing an environment that is quiet and controlled, minimizing distracting noises and strong smells, and offering sensory tools can improve engagement and focus during training sessions. This means getting to know your client and what makes them tic. Using tools like a the Sensory Profile 2 or Sensory Processing Measure can help you pinpoint exact sensory difficulties and help you build your program around those sensitivities.
Many people with autism find that participating in sports alleviates some of their symptoms. Whether that’s through the natural stress-relieving benefits of exercise, or by building self-esteem and a sense of achievement. In addition, exposure to the ups and downs of athletic competition can offer a forum for learning and practicing adaptive coping skills.
2. Engage the Athlete’s Body
While environmental stimuli that would seem minor annoyances to many people can trigger unwanted behaviors in individuals with autism, it’s important for trainers to recognize these and eliminate or mitigate them. For example, those staticky fluorescent lights or music playing in another room could be distracting to some people with sensory sensitivities. Be aware of the surrounding stimuli wherever you are working with your athlete.
Similarly, the repetitive motions associated with some exercises may be unhelpful for people who have trouble regulating their movement. Instead, train them to use the repetitive movements in ways that contribute to their exercise goals.
For instance, if a client with autism has an affinity for running around the gym, rather than fight it, direct it toward locomotion exercises that are safe for them like lunges and bear crawls. Or, if they have a tendency to throw items, use that behavior to help them with functional strength workouts such as throwing medicine balls.
As with other athletes, it’s crucial that trainers encourage and celebrate the progress of their clients with autism. Whether their improvement is small compared to fitness standards or not, it’s still something to be celebrated.
3. Engage the Athlete’s Mind
Many people on the autism spectrum struggle with social communication, which is essential for team sports. Those with ASD can find it difficult to comprehend and interpret body language, facial expressions, and the nuances of conversation. A lack of social skills may be enough to prevent them from participating in a sport.
To overcome this, trainers should focus on building a positive relationship and taking things slowly. They should also be flexible and let go of rigid workout plans. If an athlete with autism wants to run around the gym instead of doing a circuit, let them. Running and throwing medicine balls are both good movements and may be better for their body than sitting on a bench. This can be difficult to manage and requires a shift in conventional thinking on the professional’s part. If it a behavior is not distracting or impeding the participation to others in the room or creating a safety issue then let that kid rip. It’s easy to get caught up in a power struggle and make the athletes do something because “I said so”.
4. Engage the Athlete’s Emotions
As with many people, it can be difficult for someone with autism to interpret and respond to verbal instructions. To help, you can use multiple methods of communication in your training session. For example, you might say the number of repetitions to perform during a set and also hold up a card on which the number is written increasing their likelihood of understanding your instruction.
In the coaches’ relationships in this study there was an appreciation that engaging in sport offered the athlete opportunities that they had not otherwise had: “a sense of belonging, friendships, acceptance, expectations, working as a team and the chance to excel”. These were seen as benefits that could be more than just physical; they also included emotional, social and mental health benefits.
Athletes can be easily discouraged if they fail to progress or have to repeat exercises. To avoid this, it is helpful to build a relationship with the coach and the athlete and understand what their goals are. For instance, a client may not know how to communicate with you about what they need from the workout so it’s important to connect with them early in the session.
5. Engaging Individuals vs Groups
Working with an individual client is so much different than working with a class or team. The principles of engagement remain the same, but management is quite different. It is much easier to cater the session to an individual’s needs than working with a small group where there are multiple needs to meet. Whereas your strategies and programming will differ, the initial meeting and engaging your first day clients don’t really change all that much. The strategies will just be in shorter bursts and over longer periods of time. Having other coaches and/or assistance can make this process easier of course.
No matter the client or the size of the class/team the rules of engagement are important and still do not change. No matter who we are and what we are learning, when a person is invested physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, and wholly, the likelihood of learning skills increases greatly and is more likely to transfer to other skills and stay with a person through their lifetime.
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