Staying Positive Step 0

Staying Positive: The ability to use tactics and strategies to overcome setbacks and achieve goals.

Step 0: I can tell when I feel positive or negative

Outcomes

To achieve Step 0, learners will be able to recognise when they are feeling positive or negative.

This is the first step in the skill of Staying Positive - the ability to identify emotions that are mainly positive and those that are primarily negative in themselves.

Learners need to be able to:

Understand what emotions might feel positive and what might feel negative
Know why understanding feelings is important

Introduction

An emotion is a strong feeling that is caused by something happening. There are broadly two different types:
- Positive emotions: These emotions make us feel good, and that we want to continue to feel like this, e.g. being happy, excited or calm.
- Negative emotions: These emotions make us feel bad, and we want to stop feeling like this, e.g. feeling sad, angry or scared.

Skill Starter

Emotions in Motion

Define an area or pitch big enough for the learners to all move around and be physically active in.

At one end of the pitch display the word happy with a sign that signifies this (e.g. a smiley face, a celebrating sports person or a green tick), at the other display the word sad with a sign that signifies this (e.g. a sad face, a disappointed sports person or a red cross).

Ask learners to move through the pitch, not in a constant circle but changing direction. As they move, describe a scenario and ask them to stand at the right end of the pitch for the emotion they would feel. For example:

Scoring the winning goal in a football match.
Winning a game of tennis.
Being caught out in cricket
Not being able to do a flip in gymnastics

After each scenario, ask learners why they are standing there.

Finish with asking them to think of their own sporting scenario and ask them to stand at the appropriate end. Again, ask learners to describe what their scenario was and why they are standing there.

10 mins

Group activity

Active

Teach & Apply

Show pictures of positive and then negative emotions: “How is this person feeling? How can you tell?
Share examples of things that might cause those feelings and scenarios when emotions might change, such as winning a match and then the other team equalises. What are their experiences?
In life, we will feel different emotions at different times. This is a very normal part of how we think about what is going on around us.
It can be confusing and challenging if we feel negative emotions without understanding what we are feeling.
If we take time to think about how we are feeling, and can identify what the cause is, we can start working out how to change our feelings from negative into positive. For example, if we feel tired then we can rest.

Optional Activity

In the Moment

Show the learners a range of sporting pictures that have both happy and sad emotions, and describe what has just happened, for example:

A team score a try vs. a team conceding a try
A player winning the Wimbledon final vs. a player losing
A runner winning a marathon vs. losing a marathon

Ask the learners to ‘recreate’ these pictures in small groups, if necessary, some of the learners can be the spectators either celebrating or commiserating. After each recreation ask the learners to describe how they/the sports person they are recreating would be feeling in the moment.

15 mins

Group activity

Discussion

Active

Reflection & Assessment

Embed these strategies across your teaching and coaching to help learners apply what they’ve learnt.

This step can be reinforced in different ways, depending on the age and context of the learners. One way is by regularly checking in on how they are feeling at different times throughout the session/day.

Use these ideas for ways of assessing this skill step to help you check learners’ understanding and confidence.

This step is best assessed through discussion. For example, asking learners to identify different positive or negative emotions that they might feel, and in what situation they might feel them. This sort of assessment should be managed carefully; the focus should remain on whether learners can identify when they feel positive or negative.

Ask these reflective questions:
- What is an emotion?
- What do we mean by feeling positive?
- What do we mean by feeling negative?