Coaching Info

Annual Registration Fee

By mid-September, you will be asked to register your local church as a Bible quizzing church. The CMD registrar requires names, grades and gender of quizzers, as well as names and contact information for coaches. Information about allergies and other health issues for quizzers and coaches is collected at this time as well. The cost to register a local church is $100 annually. This fee is due by the first district quiz meet in January. The registration fee is waived for churches in their first year.

Coaching a Team

As a Bible quiz coach, you have an amazing opportunity and a responsibility to affect the lives of young people on your team for God. Thank you and God bless you for taking up the torch.

A coach is…an example

As the adult leading youth to learn more about God, you need to emulate the concepts you are covering in the material. When you do that, they will soon figure out that the ideas stated in the Scripture verses are, in fact, ALIVE!! This includes watching our speech (individual words) and conversation (jokes, comments and attitude). A great way to be an example is to memorize the verses along with the youth.

A coach is…a teacher

Hand-in-hand with being an example is being a teacher. Perhaps you’ve never thought of yourself as a teacher before, but if you’ve ever explained something for others to understand, and they did, you’ve been a teacher. However, teachers cannot take students any further than where they themselves are. A “teacher” cannot take another person into an airplane and teach that person how to fly it if the “teacher” has never done it. A teacher can talk about what the Bible says but to experience what the Bible says is much better. In the quizzing setting, we can teach the teens what WE are learning about God and from God. Now that’s exciting!!

Continually pray for your quizzers so they are always on your mind and under God’s care.

A coach is…a student

Any teacher must also be a student. When we are learning from God, we can teach the quizzers those very same things, helping them to grow in their relationship with God. You might think that since you are the coach, you need to have all the answers, but there will be answers you don’t have…yet. Isn’t it strange how this seems to form a circle? We learn, we exemplify, we teach, we learn, and so on. Be humble, and be ready to learn from the teens as well. They most likely will surprise you with their wisdom and the kinds of things they think about and ponder.

And a coach is…a coach

Of course, Quizzing is about learning Scripture in order to say it correctly at the quiz meets. That’s the competitive part. As a coach you can teach quizzers to find their own unique memorization techniques, bind the quizzers together as a cohesive group and teach them sportsmanship. Winning is great, but losing can be a time to become a real team where the members can support each other.

Coaching Manual

Getting Started

CMD Bible Quizzing is divided into three zones: northern Saskatchewan, southern Saskatchewan and Manitoba/Northwestern Ontario. Each zone has a co-ordinator who is responsible for assisting local churches in setting up quiz programs. Go to the About page for information on how to contact your zone coordinator. You will want to be added to the CMD email list to ensure that you receive information about quizzing and quiz meets.

Resources

It is essential that all quizzers memorize the Scripture verses using the same version and copyright date as the one used in the questions.

CMD sells the Scripture portion to be studied in a variety of formats. Using this material is recommended rather than using a Bible because the material is specially marked for Bible quizzing.

CMD also publishes a sampling of questions to be used for quiz practices. These questions are a sub-set of the questions used for competition. The church set is available online (no charge).

To access QuizHelper, a free subscription online service, go to www.quizhelper.com. You will need to send an email requesting access to the service. It includes a quiz generator as well as resources to aid in studying.

Other resources and study aids are available online. Some are free while others are for sale.

Equipment

CMD Bible Quizzing and many of the churches involved own quiz benches. These benches are used for competition. Some churches also own quiz pads that need to be set on flat chairs or benches.

Equipment is available for purchase from mikesquizzing.ca.

While it is preferred to practice using pads or benches, it is not essential. You can practice by having the quizzers sit on chairs and a volunteer act as a jump judge to determine which quizzer jumped first. A variation of the game “spoons” is also fun. Have the quizzers sit in a large circle around a plastic cup. The first quizzer to lunge and grab the cup answers the question.

A set of benches is available for rent for churches on an annual basis. These benches are often used for quiz meets and transporting them to the meets is the responsibility of the church borrowing them. Rentals can be arranged by contacting the CMD director.

Getting Your Parents & Church Involved

While you are the point person for your church’s Bible quizzing program, you shouldn’t be doing all the work yourself.

First of all, keep your parents and your church family informed about quizzing. Send emails to parents and ask for a corner of your church bulletin. Provide information about upcoming meets, prayer requests, results from the quiz meets. Ask for space on a bulletin board in the church to post posters with lots of photos from quiz meets.

Recruit help by asking people to:

• Pray for quizzers and coaches. An “adopt-a-quizzer” program is a great way to ensure people are praying for your quizzers. People “adopt” a quizzer and commit to pray for that individual throughout the year. You prepare a prayer card with photo of the quizzer for each person who is “adopting” a quizzer and include a general prayer guide.
• Listen to quizzers recite their verses during the weekly practice.
• Teach the Bible lesson for the passage that’s being memorized.
• Transport quizzers to meets.
• Volunteer at quiz meets as an official (scorekeeper or answer judge). Training is provided.

As more youth join your quiz program, you’ll need to recruit more people to help with the coaching. Former quizzers make great coaches. If you are blessed with more than enough help, we are always happy to train new officials. Your “extra” coaches should feel free to contact CMD’s officials co-ordinator.