Making an impact: expanding the role of peer mentoring in youth shooting programs
Posted On: 10-03-2020
Dr. John J. Picone, MYSSA Board Member
During my career as an educator I have worked with a vast number of students under a variety of conditions. From special needs students in elementary school settings to graduate students struggling toward thesis completion, I have witnessed first-hand the process of student growth across virtually all scholastic environments. Across this diverse field of ability and purpose a constant theme emerged. In short, people learn more readily when they are working cooperatively with peers that share a common goal.
As a special needs instructor at the high school level many years ago I discovered that student performance toward academic goals improved drastically if I paired special needs students with non-disabled peers who were working toward the same goal. It worked so well that we saw a 20% increase across the board in academic goal attainment for IEP students participating in a peer mentoring program. Years later as an adjunct professor for graduate students I found mentoring programs to be essential to assisting grad students along the road to thesis completion. The skills that these two groups were working to achieve could not have been more different. The result was the same however. Sharing goals with a peer mentor improved learner performance more quickly and yielded better results in a shorter period of time than individual instruction alone. The same has held true as I have worked with youth as a shooting sports coach.
Of course there are key factors that must be observed for a peer mentoring program to be successful. The 4 major points are pre-teaching the developing shooter, peer mentor training, goal sharing, and positivity. These 4 factors help focus the mentoring process and direct the collaboration toward a meaningful end.
If peer mentoring is going to be successful then the developing shooter needs to understand that the peer they will be working with is there to help. Pre-teaching him/her about mentoring is a must. Explaining that the mentor has a genuine interest in helping him/her become a better shooter and wants to work with him/her because they care about his/her progress is essential. Once the shooter is reassured that the peer isn’t here to be critical but to work together with him/her for their benefit he/she will be more likely to buy into the mentoring process. This is essential to opening up the door to collaboration. Hold a number of honest discussions that explain what the mentoring process is and how it can help everyone.
Train your mentor candidates before pairing with developing shooters. Mentors are not shooting instructors. That must be clear to the mentors from the onset of the collaboration. The shooting instructor determines the areas to work on and directs the activities to implement. The mentor assists the developing shooter and provides feedback and support during the exercises. Role play scenarios with mentor candidates are a great way to show how this process works.
Goal sharing is very important if this process is going to be effective. Take time to meet regularly with your mentor and developing shooter to discuss goals, review progress, and plan for the next steps. This type of communication serves two purposes. It opens up communication that helps keep everyone focused and eliminates confusion concerning roles or directions taken during practice activities.
Staying positive is a must for everyone involved in this process. A good rule of thumb to follow is to provide 3 positive comments for each correction when giving a shooter feedback. Mentors need to learn this trick as well. It’s a good practice for developing shooters to self-identify what they are doing right before they identify what they need to work on. Shooting sports are about having fun. The more fun you have the more you shoot and consequentially the better you shoot. As a result good shooters are generally the shooters that have the most fun. By staying positive shooters can avoid using the mental fatigue that stress and anxiety bring into the equation. Simply developing habits that promote positivity can make a world of difference in shooting performance. Having a mentor that enhances positivity during celebration and remediation is a sure fire way to build strong habits and self-confidence.
In conclusion, a peer mentoring program can do wonders for the confidence and performance of developing shooters. Using collaboration to build an infrastructure of positive support within your team can build confidence and increase shooter performance. Shooters that support one another have more fun and that’s what the sport is all about.