Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-q6k6v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-08T16:22:20.747Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

17 - Actively Caring Coaching for Young Athletes

from INTRODUCTION TO PART II - APPLICATIONS OF AC4P PRINCIPLES

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 March 2016

E. Scott Geller
By
Thelma S. Horn
E. Scott Geller
Affiliation:
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Thelma S. Horn
Affiliation:
Miami University Oxford, OH
Get access

Summary

Somewhere behind the athlete you've become and the hours of practice and the coaches who have pushed you is a little girl who fell in love with the game and never looked back … play for her.

– Mia Hamm

Participating in sports is a popular activity for children in the United States. Approximately 35–45 million children between the ages of 6 and 18 participate in some type of organized sport program each year, according to recent estimates. Youth participation in these programs (especially in certain types of sports) varies significantly across gender, race/ethnicity, geographic area, and family socioeconomic status. In total, at least half or up to three-quarters of all children in the United States participate in organized sports.

The number of children (especially girls) who participate in a competitive sport program has increased during the past several decades. There also appears to be a trend toward earlier entry into sports. Today, it's not unusual for children as young as 3 or 4 years of age to be participating in an organized sports program and/or to begin training in what will ultimately be a competitive sport. The intensity of physical training among young athletes may also be increasing, as parents hope to boost their children into higher levels of play.

There is also a trend in certain sports contexts toward earlier sport specialization. Children participate from an early age (e.g., 4 or 5 years) in only one sport (e.g., tennis) to the exclusion of all other physical activities. In previous decades children participated more often in several different sports or physical activities until they were into their adolescent years – at which time they often focused on one sport. It's more common today for children to be asked to, or perhaps pushed to, select one sport at an early age and train year round at that sport for the rest of their athletic career.

Participation in sports occurs during very important growth and development periods in the lives of children and adolescents. Significant developmentally-based changes occur between the ages of 6 and 18 in children's physical, socioemotional, psychological, and cognitive domains, and this development appears to be an interaction of nature and nurture. And so engagement in competitive sports programs can significantly impact a child's development.

Type
Chapter
Information
Applied Psychology
Actively Caring for People
 , pp. 535 - 562
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2016

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. National Council of Youth Sports (NCYS) (2008). Report on trends and participation in organized youth sports. Stuart, FL: National Council of Youth Sports.
2. Sabo, D., & Veliz, P. (2008). Go out and play: Youth sports in America. East Meadow, NY: Women's Sports Foundation.
3. Malina, R. M. (2010). Early sport specialization: Roots, effectiveness, risks. Current Sports Medicine Reports, 9(6), 364–371.Google Scholar
4. Landers, R. Q., Carson, R. L., & Blankenship, B. T. (2010). Introduction. Journal of Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance, 81(8), 14–15; Russell, W. D. (2014). The relationship between youth sport success, reasons for participation and youth sport participation motivation: A retrospective study. Journal of Sport Behavior, 37(3), 286–305.
5. Sameroff, A. (2010). A unified theory of development: A dialectic integration of nature and nurture. Child Development, 81, 6–22.Google Scholar
6. Weiss, M. R. (2004). (Ed.). Developmental sport and exercise psychology: A lifespan perspective. Morgantown, WV: Fitness Information Technology.
7. Hedstrom, R., & Gould, D. (2004). Research in youth sports: Critical issues status. East Lansing, MI: Institute for the Study of Youth Sports; Weiss, M. R., Kipp, L. E., & Bolter, N. D. (2012). Training for life: Optimizing positive youth development through sport and physical activity. In Murphy, S. M. (Ed.). The Oxford handbook of sport and performance psychology (pp. 448–475). New York: Oxford University Press.
8. Bar-Or, E. (1996) (Ed.). The child and adolescent athlete. London: Blackwell Science; Eklund, R., & Cresswell, S. (2007). Athlete burnout. In Eklund, R. C. & Cresswell, S. L. (Eds.). Handbook of sport psychology (3rd ed.) (pp. 621–641). New York: John Wiley; Fraser-Thomas, J., & Cote, J. (2009). Understanding adolescents’ positive and negative development experiences in sport. Sport Psychologist, 23, 3–23; Gearity, B. T., & Murray, M. A. (2011). Athletes’ experiences of the psychologist effects of poor coaching. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 12, 213–221; Murphy, S. (1999). The cheers and the tears: A healthy alternative to the dark side of youth sports today. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
9. Smoll, F. L., & Smith, R. E. (2015). Conducting evidence-based coach training programs: A social-cognitive approach. In Williams, J. M. & Krane, V. (Eds.). Applied sport psychology: Personal growth to peak performance (7th ed.) (pp. 359–383). New York: McGraw-Hill.
10. Black, S. J., & Weiss, M. R. (1992). The relationship among perceived coaching behaviors, perceptions of ability, and motivation in competitive age-group swimmers. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 14(3), 309–325; Horn, T. S. (1985). Coaches’ feedback and changes in children's perceptions of their physical competence. Journal of Educational Psychology, 77(2), 174–186.
11. Dweck, C. S. (2007). The perils and promises of praise. Educational Leadership, 34–39; Dweck, C. S. (2008). Mindsets: How praise is harming youth and what can be done about it. School Library Media Activities Monthly, 34(5), 55–58.Google Scholar
12. Ames, C. (1992). Achievement goals, motivational climate, and motivational processes. In Roberts, G. C. (Ed.). Motivation in sport and exercise (pp. 161–176). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics; Dweck, C. S. (1999). Self-theories: Their role in motivation, personality, and development. Philadelphia: Taylor & Francis/Psychology Press; Nicholls, J. (1989). The competitive ethos and democratic education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
13. Erickson, K., & Gilbert, W. (2013). Coach–athlete interactions in children's sport. In Cote, J., & Lidor, R. (Eds.). Conditions of children's talent development in sport (pp. 139–156). Morgantown, WV: Fitness Information Technology.
14. Noddings, N. (1992). The challenge to care in schools: An alternative approach to education. New York: Teachers College Press; Noddings, N. (1995). Teaching themes of care. Phi Delta Kappan, 76, 675–679.
15. Hellison, D. (2000). Physical activity programs for underserved youth. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 3, 238–242; Hellison, D. (2003). Teaching responsibility through physical activity (2nd ed.). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.Google Scholar
16. Newton, M., Fry, M. D., Watson, D. L., Gano-Overway, L., Kim, M., Magyar, M., et al. (2007). Psychometric properties of the caring climate scale in a physical activity setting. Revista de Psicologia del Deporte, 16, 67–84.Google Scholar
17. Fry, M. D., Kim, M. S., Gano-Overway, L. A., Guivernau, M., Newton, M., & Magyar, T. M. (2012). Youth perceptions of a caring climate, emotional regulation, and psychological well-being. Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology, 1(1), 44–57; Gano-Overway, L. A., Newton, M., Magyar, T. M., Fry, M. D., Kim, M. S., & Guinernau, M. R. (2009). Influence of caring youth sport contexts on efficacy-related beliefs and social behaviors. Developmental Psychology, 45(2), 329–340.
18. Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55(1), 68–78.Google Scholar
19. Adie, J., Duda, J. L., & Ntoumanis, N. (2012). Perceived coach-autonomy support, basic need satisfaction and the well- and ill-being of elite youth soccer players: A longitudinal investigation. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 13(1), 51–59; Coatsworth, J. D., & Conroy, D. E. (2009). The effects of autonomy-supportive coaching, need satisfaction, and self-perceptions on initiative and identity in youth swimmers. Developmental Psychology, 45(2), 320–328.
20. Mageau, G. A., & Vallerand, R. J. (2003). The coach–athlete relationship: A motivational model. Journal of Sports Sciences, 21(11), 883–904.Google Scholar
21. Smith, R. E., Smoll, F. L., & Curtis, B. (1979). Coach effectiveness training: A cognitive-behavioral approach to enhancing relationship skills in youth sport coaches. Journal of Sport Psychology, 1(1), 59–75.Google Scholar
22. Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
23. Barnett, N. P., Smoll, F. L., & Smith, R. E. (1992). Effects of enhancing coach–athlete relationships on youth sport attrition. The Sport Psychologist, 6(2), 111–127; Smoll, F. L., Smith, R. E., Barnett, N. P., & Everett, J. J. (1993). Enhancement of children's self-esteem through social support training for youth sport coaches. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78(4), 602–610.
24. Smith, R. E., Smoll, F. L., & Cumming, S. P. (2007). Effects of a motivational climate intervention for coaches on young athletes’ sport performance anxiety. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 29, 39–50; Smoll, F. L., Smith, R. E., & Cumming, S. P. (2007). Effects of a motivational climate intervention for coaches on changes in young athletes’ achievement goal orientations. Journal of Clinical Sport Psychology, 1(1), 23–46.
25. Newton, M., Watson, D. L., Gano-Overway, L., Fry, M., Kim, M. S., & Magyar, M. (2007). The role of a caring-based intervention in a physical activity setting. Urban Review, 39(3), 281–299.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×