It’s important to prepare your members for competitions against other clubs. Here are a few helpful hints that you may wish to consider before you start competing:

• think about how much coaching/training players will need before they can take part in comeptition.  In a sport that is easy to introduce, early competition can cement their love of the sport.  In a more complex sport, a player with little previous experience could be put off the sport if their first competition is overwhelming; 
• make sure your members are well prepared by setting realistic goals;
• promote positive attitudes – taking part in competition is an excellent educational tool for mental as well as physical development;
• consider providing a mentoring/buddy system to help support new/weaker members;
• try to make sure that the training programme complements the competition programme/ calendar so that members are at their peak performance for competition;
• all participants should be encouraged to act in a sporting manner in all competitive situations - see junior members’ code of conduct on the right for further information here (this can be easily amended to also suit senior members);
• attitudes towards fellow competitors should be supportive, otherwise participants may become de­motivated and membership will drop;
• encourage parents and supporters to act in a sporting manner and provide supportive feedback – see parents code of conduct for more information; 
• above all, participants should enjoy competing.