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Special Olympics offers training and competition opportunities in 30 Olympic-type sports for athletes 8 years or older.  For children with intellectual disabilities ages 2 through 7, Special Olympics provides a Young Athletes Program. Special Olympics coaches have a unique opportunity to work with athletes in competitive situations to assist in their training for life. As a grass-roots organization, Special Olympics relies on volunteers at all levels of the movement to ensure that every athlete is offered a quality sports training and competition experience. Individual donors, corporate partners and many others make it possible for Special Olympics to offer children and adults with intellectual disabilities the opportunity to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage and experience joy through participation in the program.
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Basic Guidelines

In addition to training aids, there are some teaching tips that can help.
  • While there are many learning styles (thinking, doing, feeling, watching), most athletes learn best by seeing and imitating movements, and do not learn well from lengthy explanations. When you demonstrate movements, for example, show the important parts in an exaggerated way.
     
  • While explaining new movements, try to show examples.
     
  • Training aids should only be used as necessary to introduce new skills. If you use training aids such as a magic stic or just holding a hand while making a new movement, it is very important to urge the athlete to perform the task without training aids as soon as possible (for example, offering hand assistance during the first two attempts and then having the athlete perform the movement without). The first priority should be to help the athlete feel safe, so that he or she will have the courage to try a new movement! Nevertheless, the athlete must develop his or her own movement experiences as early as possible. It is unproductive for the athlete to become dependent on the training aids. The coach should evaluate each athlete as he or she develops new skills, and use the training aids where appropriate depending on the movement and theskill level, anxiety level and safety of the athlete.
     
  • The main target is to give the athlete many different movement experiences. The more he or she gets, the faster he or she will learn new movements in the future and the more safe he or she will feel on the board. So be creative and find as many different drills as possible for every new movement!
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