sports coaching essay

What are your chances of acceptance?

Calculate for all schools, your chance of acceptance.

Your chancing factors

Extracurriculars.

How to Write a Non-Cliche College Essay About Sports + Examples

What’s covered:, what makes a sports essay cliche.

• How To Make Your Sports Essay Unique

Great Examples of College Essays About Sports

Where to get your college essay edited for free, or by an expert.

You’ve been brainstorming essay topics for your college applications, and you think you’ve finally found the right one: an extended metaphor likening your experience on the field with overcoming personal struggles. The problem: many other students have this same thought. 

The purpose of a college essay is to make yourself stand out as a unique individual, but when students write about sports, they often blend in. Because of that, students are usually advised to pick a different topic.

That being said, it is possible to write a non-cliche college essay about sports if you put in a little extra effort. Read along to learn how to make your sports essay different from all the other sports essays.

Sports essays are cliche when they follow a standard trajectory. Some of these trajectories include writing a story about:

• An agonizing defeat
• Forging bonds with teammates
• Overcoming adversity
• Overcoming an injury
• Refusing to quit
• Victory during a big game

Because sports essays have very similar themes and “lessons learned,” it can be difficult to make your story stand out. These trajectories also often focus too much on the sport or storyline, and not enough on the writer’s reflections and personality.

As you write your essay, try to think about what your experience says about you rather than what you learned from your experience. You are more than just one lesson you learned!

(Keep in mind that the sports essay is not the only college essay cliche. Learn about other essay cliches and how to fix them in our complete guide).

How to Make Your Sports Essay Unique

1. focus on a specific moment or reflection..

The college essay is a way for students to humanize themselves to admissions officers. You do not feel human if you are describing yourself as just another player on the field!

One important way to make your essay about you (not just about sports) is by focusing on a specific moment in time and inviting the reader to join you in that moment. Explain to the reader what it would be like to be sitting in that locker room as you questioned the values of the other players on your team. Ask your reader to sit with you on the cot in the trainer’s room as your identity was stripped away from you when they said “your body can’t take this anymore.” Bring your reader to the dinner table and involve them in your family’s conversation about how sports were affecting your mental health and your treatment of those around you.

Intense descriptions of a specific experience will evoke emotions in your reader and allow them to connect with you and feel for you.

When in doubt, avoid anything that can be covered by ESPN. On ESPN, we see the games, we see the benches, we even see the locker rooms and training rooms. Take your reader somewhere different and show them something unique.

2. Use sports to point out broader themes in your life.

The main risk when writing about sports is neglecting to write about yourself. Before you get started, think about the main values that you want to express in your sports essay. Sports are simply your avenue for telling the reader what makes you unique. 

As a test, imagine if you were a pianist. Would you be able to talk about these same values? What if you were a writer? Or a chemist? Articulating your values is the end, and sports should simply be your means.

Some values that you might want to focus on:

• Autonomy (you want to be able to set your mind to anything and achieve it on your own)
• Growth (you seek improvement constantly)
• Curiosity (you are willing to try anything once)
• Vulnerability (you aren’t afraid to fail, as long as you give it your all)
• Community (you value the feedback of others and need camaraderie to succeed)
• Craft (you think that with deliberate care, anything can be perfected)
• Responsibility (you believe that you owe something to those around you and perhaps they also owe something to you)

You can use the ESPN check again to make sure that you are using sports as an avenue to show your depth.

Things ESPN covers: how a player reacts to defeat, how injuries affect a player’s gameplay/attitude, how players who don’t normally work well together are working together on their new team.

Things ESPN doesn’t cover: the conversation that a player had with their mother about fear of death before going into a big surgery (value: family and connection), the ways that the intense pressure to succeed consumed a player to the point they couldn’t be there for the people in their life (value: supporting others and community), the body image issues that weigh on a player’s mind when playing their sport and how they overcame those (value: health and growth).

3. Turn a cliche storyline on its head.

There’s no getting around the fact that sports essays are often cliche. But there is a way to confront the cliche head-on. For example, lots of people write essays about the lessons they learned from an injury, victory, and so on, but fewer students explain how they are embracing those lessons. 

Perhaps you learned that competition is overwhelming for you and you prefer teamwork, so you switched from playing basketball to playing Dungeons & Dragons. Maybe, when your softball career ended abruptly, you had to find a new identity and that’s when you became obsessed with your flower garden and decided to pursue botany. Or maybe, you have stuck with football through it all, but your junior-year mental health struggle showed you that football should be fun and you have since started a nonprofit for local children to healthily engage with sports.

If your story itself is more cliche, try bringing readers to the present moment with you and show why the cliche matters and what it did for you. This requires a fair amount of creativity. Ensure you’re not parroting a frequently used topic by really thinking deeply to find your own unique spin.

Night had robbed the academy of its daytime colors, yet there was comfort in the dim lights that cast shadows of our advances against the bare studio walls. Silhouettes of roundhouse kicks, spin crescent kicks, uppercuts and the occasional butterfly kick danced while we sparred. She approached me, eyes narrowed with the trace of a smirk challenging me. “Ready spar!” Her arm began an upward trajectory targeting my shoulder, a common first move. I sidestepped — only to almost collide with another flying fist. Pivoting my right foot, I snapped my left leg, aiming my heel at her midsection. The center judge raised one finger. 

There was no time to celebrate, not in the traditional sense at least. Master Pollard gave a brief command greeted with a unanimous “Yes, sir” and the thud of 20 hands dropping-down-and-giving-him-30, while the “winners” celebrated their victory with laps as usual. 

Three years ago, seven-thirty in the evening meant I was a warrior. It meant standing up straighter, pushing a little harder, “Yes, sir” and “Yes, ma’am”, celebrating birthdays by breaking boards, never pointing your toes, and familiarity. Three years later, seven-thirty in the morning meant I was nervous. 

The room is uncomfortably large. The sprung floor soaks up the checkerboard of sunlight piercing through the colonial windows. The mirrored walls further illuminate the studio and I feel the light scrutinizing my sorry attempts at a pas de bourrée, while capturing the organic fluidity of the dancers around me. “Chassé en croix, grand battement, pique, pirouette.” I follow the graceful limbs of the woman in front of me, her legs floating ribbons, as she executes what seems to be a perfect ronds de jambes. Each movement remains a negotiation. With admirable patience, Ms. Tan casts me a sympathetic glance.   

There is no time to wallow in the misery that is my right foot. Taekwondo calls for dorsiflexion; pointed toes are synonymous with broken toes. My thoughts drag me into a flashback of the usual response to this painful mistake: “You might as well grab a tutu and head to the ballet studio next door.” Well, here I am Master Pollard, unfortunately still following your orders to never point my toes, but no longer feeling the satisfaction that comes with being a third degree black belt with 5 years of experience quite literally under her belt. It’s like being a white belt again — just in a leotard and ballet slippers. 

But the appetite for new beginnings that brought me here doesn’t falter. It is only reinforced by the classical rendition of “Dancing Queen” that floods the room and the ghost of familiarity that reassures me that this new beginning does not and will not erase the past. After years spent at the top, it’s hard to start over. But surrendering what you are only leads you to what you may become. In Taekwondo, we started each class reciting the tenets: honor, courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control, courage, humility, and knowledge, and I have never felt that I embodied those traits more so than when I started ballet. 

The thing about change is that it eventually stops making things so different. After nine different schools, four different countries, three different continents, fluency in Tamil, Norwegian, and English, there are more blurred lines than there are clear fragments. My life has not been a tactfully executed, gold medal-worthy Taekwondo form with each movement defined, nor has it been a series of frappés performed by a prima ballerina with each extension identical and precise, but thankfully it has been like the dynamics of a spinning back kick, fluid, and like my chances of landing a pirouette, unpredictable. 

Why it works:

What’s especially powerful about this essay is that the author uses detailed imagery to convey a picture of what they’re experiencing, so much so that the reader is along for the ride. This works as a sports essay not only because of the language and sensory details, but also because the writer focuses on a specific moment in time, while at the same time exploring why Taekwondo is such an important part of their life.

After the emotional image is created, the student finishes their essay with valuable reflection. With the reflection, they show admissions officers that they are mature and self-aware. Self-awareness comes through with statements like “surrendering what you are only leads you to what you may become” and maturity can be seen through the student’s discussion of values “honor, courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control, courage, humility, and knowledge, and I have never felt that I embodied those traits more so than when I started ballet.” These are the kinds of comments that should find their way into a sports essay!

“Advanced females ages 13 to 14 please proceed to staging with your coaches at this time.” Skittering around the room, eyes wide and pleading, I frantically explained my situation to nearby coaches. The seconds ticked away in my head; every polite refusal increased my desperation.

Despair weighed me down. I sank to my knees as a stream of competitors, coaches, and officials flowed around me. My dojang had no coach, and the tournament rules prohibited me from competing without one.

Although I wanted to remain strong, doubts began to cloud my mind. I could not help wondering: what was the point of perfecting my skills if I would never even compete? The other members of my team, who had found coaches minutes earlier, attempted to comfort me, but I barely heard their words. They couldn’t understand my despair at being left on the outside, and I never wanted them to understand.

Since my first lesson 12 years ago, the members of my dojang have become family. I have watched them grow up, finding my own happiness in theirs. Together, we have honed our kicks, blocks, and strikes. We have pushed one another to aim higher and become better martial artists. Although my dojang had searched for a reliable coach for years, we had not found one. When we attended competitions in the past, my teammates and I had always gotten lucky and found a sympathetic coach. Now, I knew this practice was unsustainable. It would devastate me to see the other members of my dojang in my situation, unable to compete and losing hope as a result. My dojang needed a coach, and I decided it was up to me to find one. 

I first approached the adults in the dojang – both instructors and members’ parents. However, these attempts only reacquainted me with polite refusals. Everyone I asked told me they couldn’t devote multiple weekends per year to competitions. I soon realized that I would have become the coach myself.

At first, the inner workings of tournaments were a mystery to me. To prepare myself for success as a coach, I spent the next year as an official and took coaching classes on the side. I learned everything from motivational strategies to technical, behind-the-scenes components of Taekwondo competitions. Though I emerged with new knowledge and confidence in my capabilities, others did not share this faith.

Parents threw me disbelieving looks when they learned that their children’s coach was only a child herself. My self-confidence was my armor, deflecting their surly glances. Every armor is penetrable, however, and as the relentless barrage of doubts pounded my resilience, it began to wear down. I grew unsure of my own abilities.

Despite the attack, I refused to give up. When I saw the shining eyes of the youngest students preparing for their first competition, I knew I couldn’t let them down. To quit would be to set them up to be barred from competing like I was. The knowledge that I could solve my dojang’s longtime problem motivated me to overcome my apprehension.

Now that my dojang flourishes at competitions, the attacks on me have weakened, but not ended. I may never win the approval of every parent; at times, I am still tormented by doubts, but I find solace in the fact that members of my dojang now only worry about competing to the best of their abilities.

Now, as I arrive at a tournament with my students, I close my eyes and remember the past. I visualize the frantic search for a coach and the chaos amongst my teammates as we compete with one another to find coaches before the staging calls for our respective divisions. I open my eyes to the exact opposite scene. Lacking a coach hurt my ability to compete, but I am proud to know that no member of my dojang will have to face that problem again.

In the beginning, you might think this is another cliche sports essay about overcoming adversity. But instead, it becomes a unique statement and coming-of-age tale that reads as a suspenseful narrative. 

The author connects their experience with martial arts to larger themes in their life but manages to do so without riffing off of tried-and-true themes. Through statements like “I knew I couldn’t let them down. To quit would be to set them up to be barred from competing like I was” we learn about the students values and their desire to be there for those who depend on them. 

The student also brings it full circle, demonstrating their true transformation. By using the “Same, but Different” ending technique , the student places themself in the same environment that we saw in the intro, but experiences it differently due to their actions throughout the narrative. This is very compelling!

“1…2…3…4 pirouettes! New record!” My friends cheered as I landed my turns. Pleased with my progress, I gazed down at my worn-out pointe shoes. The sweltering blisters, numbing ice-baths, and draining late-night practices did not seem so bad after all. Next goal: five turns.

For as long as I can remember, ballet, in all its finesse and glamor, had kept me driven day to day. As a child, the lithe ballerinas, donning ethereal costumes as they floated across the stage, were my motivation. While others admired Messi and Adele, I idolized Carlos Acosta, principal dancer of the Royal Ballet. 

As I devoted more time and energy towards my craft, I became obsessed with improving my technique. I would stretch for hours after class, forcing my leg one inch higher in an effort to mirror the Dance Magazine cover girls. I injured my feet and ruined pair after pair of pointe shoes, turning on wood, cement, and even grass to improve my balance as I spun. At competitions, the dancers with the 180-degree leg extensions, endless turns, and soaring leaps—the ones who received “Bravos!” from the roaring audience—further pushed me to refine my skills and perfect my form. I believed that, with enough determination, I would one day attain their level of perfection. Reaching the quadruple-pirouette milestone only intensified my desire to accomplish even more. 

My efforts seemed to have come to fruition two summers ago when I was accepted to dance with Moscow’s Bolshoi Ballet at their renowned New York City summer intensive. I walked into my first session eager to learn from distinguished ballet masters and worldly dancers, already anticipating my improvement. Yet, as I danced alongside the accomplished ballerinas, I felt out of place. Despite their clean technique and professional training, they did not aim for glorious leg extensions or prodigious leaps. When they performed their turn combinations, most of them only executed two turns as I attempted four. 

“Dancers, double-pirouettes only.” 

Taken aback and confused, I wondered why our teacher expected so little from us. The other ballerinas seemed content, gracing the studio with their simple movements. 

As I grew closer with my Moscow roommates, I gradually learned that their training emphasized the history of the art form instead of stylistic tricks. Rather than show off their physical ability, their performances aimed to convey a story, one that embodied the rich culture of ballet and captured both the legacy of the dancers before them and their own artistry. As I observed my friends more intently in repertoire class, I felt the pain of the grief-stricken white swan from Swan Lake, the sass of the flirtatious Kitri from Don Quijote, and I gradually saw what I had overlooked before. My definition of talent had been molded by crowd-pleasing elements—whirring pirouettes, gravity-defying leaps, and mind-blowing leg extensions. This mindset slowly stripped me from the roots of my passion and my personal connection with ballet. 

With the Bolshoi, I learned to step back and explore the meaning behind each step and the people behind the scenes. Ballet carries history in its movements, from the societal values of the era to each choreographer’s unique flair. As I uncovered the messages behind each pirouette, kick, and jump, my appreciation for ballet grew beyond my obsession with raw athleticism and developed into a love for the art form’s emotive abilities in bridging the dancers with the audience. My journey as an artist has allowed me to see how technical execution is only the means to a greater understanding between dancer and spectator, between storyteller and listener. The elegance and complexity of ballet does not revolve around astonishing stunts but rather the evocative strength and artistry manifested in the dancer, in me. It is the combination of sentiments, history, tradition, and passion that has allowed ballet and its lessons of human connection to become my lifestyle both on and off stage.

This essay is about lessons. While the author is a dancer, this narrative isn’t really about ballet, per se — it’s about the author’s personal growth. It is purposefully reflective as the student shows a nice character arc that begins with an eager young ballerina and ends with a reflection on their past. The primary strength of this essay is the honesty and authenticity that the student approaches it with.

In the end, the student turns a cliche on its head as they embrace the idea of overcoming adversity and demonstrate how the adversity, in this case, was their own stereotypes about their art. It’s beautiful!

“Getting beat is one thing – it’s part of competing – but I want no part in losing.” Coach Rob Stark’s motto never fails to remind me of his encouragement on early-morning bus rides to track meets around the state. I’ve always appreciated the phrase, but an experience last June helped me understand its more profound, universal meaning.

Stark, as we affectionately call him, has coached track at my high school for 25 years. His care, dedication, and emphasis on developing good character has left an enduring impact on me and hundreds of other students. Not only did he help me discover my talent and love for running, but he also taught me the importance of commitment and discipline and to approach every endeavor with the passion and intensity that I bring to running. When I learned a neighboring high school had dedicated their track to a longtime coach, I felt that Stark deserved similar honors.

Our school district’s board of education indicated they would only dedicate our track to Stark if I could demonstrate that he was extraordinary. I took charge and mobilized my teammates to distribute petitions, reach out to alumni, and compile statistics on the many team and individual champions Stark had coached over the years. We received astounding support, collecting almost 3,000 signatures and pages of endorsements from across the community. With help from my teammates, I presented this evidence to the board.

They didn’t bite. 

Most members argued that dedicating the track was a low priority. Knowing that we had to act quickly to convince them of its importance, I called a team meeting where we drafted a rebuttal for the next board meeting. To my surprise, they chose me to deliver it. I was far from the best public speaker in the group, and I felt nervous about going before the unsympathetic board again. However, at that second meeting, I discovered that I enjoy articulating and arguing for something that I’m passionate about.

Public speaking resembles a cross country race. Walking to the starting line, you have to trust your training and quell your last minute doubts. When the gun fires, you can’t think too hard about anything; your performance has to be instinctual, natural, even relaxed. At the next board meeting, the podium was my starting line. As I walked up to it, familiar butterflies fluttered in my stomach. Instead of the track stretching out in front of me, I faced the vast audience of teachers, board members, and my teammates. I felt my adrenaline build, and reassured myself: I’ve put in the work, my argument is powerful and sound. As the board president told me to introduce myself, I heard, “runners set” in the back of my mind. She finished speaking, and Bang! The brief silence was the gunshot for me to begin. 

The next few minutes blurred together, but when the dust settled, I knew from the board members’ expressions and the audience’s thunderous approval that I had run quite a race. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough; the board voted down our proposal. I was disappointed, but proud of myself, my team, and our collaboration off the track. We stood up for a cause we believed in, and I overcame my worries about being a leader. Although I discovered that changing the status quo through an elected body can be a painstakingly difficult process and requires perseverance, I learned that I enjoy the challenges this effort offers. Last month, one of the school board members joked that I had become a “regular” – I now often show up to meetings to advocate for a variety of causes, including better environmental practices in cafeterias and safer equipment for athletes.

Just as Stark taught me, I worked passionately to achieve my goal. I may have been beaten when I appealed to the board, but I certainly didn’t lose, and that would have made Stark proud.

This essay uses the idea of sports to explore a more profound topic—growing through relationships. They really embrace using sports as an avenue to tell the reader about a specific experience that changed the way they approach the world. 

The emphasis on relationships is why this essay works well and doesn’t fall into a cliche. The narrator grows not because of their experience with track but because of their relationship with their coach, who inspired them to evolve and become a leader.

Have a draft of your college essay? We’re here to help you polish it. Students can participate in a free Peer Review, or they can sign up for a paid review by CollegeVine’s experts. Sign up for your free CollegeVine account today to start improving your essay and your chances of acceptance!

Related CollegeVine Blog Posts

• Our Butterfly
• Our Mindful Approach
• View All Programs
• Public Workshops
• For Athletes
• For Coaches & Support Staff
• For Teams, Schools, Colleges
• For Governing Bodies & International Federations
• Impact Portfolio
• Fundraising Auction
• Get Involved
• Press & Praise

Coaching Styles and Their Impact on Athletes

All coaches have their own unique coaching style and the way it is implemented will affect their athletes’ performance. Marcone (2017) suggests that the impact on an athlete’s motivation and performance can be extremely significant; the varying styles of coaching could either fulfill or neglect an athlete’s psychological needs. Marcone (2017) explains that recent research has shown that an autonomy supportive coaching style/behavior fulfill the needs of athletes and result in a greater success overall in their improvement and performance. Similarly, Jones (2020) also investigated different coaching styles and their impact on athletes. To find the most efficient coaching styles, the leadership scale for sport and the multidimensional model for leadership was used. Jones (2020) found that youth and high school athletes prevailed most under democratic and social support coaching styles; in college athletes, it was suggested that a democratic style of coaching led to more team cohesion and freedom. Jones (2020) then suggested that an autocratic/authoritarian style of coaching was not efficient for any athletes. An autocratic style doesn’t allow the freedom or autonomy that athletes need to succeed (Jones, 2020). In a similar study, Brinton et al. (2017) revealed that authoritative coaching styles were a significant predictor of autonomy and competence by the athlete. An authoritarian coaching style was a significant negative predictor of athlete autonomy levels (Brinton et al., 2017).

Mertens et al. (2018) investigated the impact of competence support provided by coaches and athlete leaders on players’ competence satisfaction, intrinsic motivation, and performance and found that teams achieving higher levels of competence satisfaction and intrinsic motivation had the competence support from the coach. This study reveals the importance of support from leaders/coaches to improve team performance and it reiterates just how easy it is for coaches to influence their athletes. Coaches have the power to motivate their athletes’ minds and muscles as they train to improve performance (Northcentral University, 2018). The only way to achieve this is by maintaining a positive relationship with their players and proving that they can trust and fully commit to their team.

Many athletes will continue to learn and grow with multiple coaches along the way. It is a coach’s job to be one that many would call a role model as they will be impacting their athlete’s lives more than they originally may think. To be a successful coach and role model, it will be important for them to consider many different coaching styles that will be most effective for their team’s performance. It takes some experimenting to find the most efficient path, but the time taken will be worth it. As shown in the research above, the least effective coaching style is the authoritarian style. This style will make a coach seem controlling and strict. This has proven to cause a negative psychological impact on athletes. The athletes who experience coaches who behave in an authoritarian way cannot create the trust and positive relationships that are critical for team success. A similar authoritarian style has proven to show improvements in competence and performance, but there are still the positive connections and support that are missing for an athlete’s psychological needs. Studies have shown that the most effective coaching style among all ages is the autonomy style. The autonomy coaching style is recommended because it allows for players to have freedom and support from the coach. These are the kinds of coaches who are considered role models as they provide positive psychological effects for athletes. It’s important for coaches to consider their options and understand that they will be impacting many athlete’s lives. This isn’t the kind of job where coaches can be selfish because they need to be available to enhance and support their athletes’ needs and goals.

Coaching is a difficult job. There are a lot of things that need to be considered and implemented to achieve success in a team's performance. Athletes are impacted every day by the decisions and actions put forth by their coaches. This is why it is a coach’s responsibility to put the goals and needs of their athletes first and strive to provide their athletes with the tools they need to succeed.

Brinton, C. S., Hill, B. J., & Ward, P. J. (2017). Authoritative coach: Building youth through sport. Journal of Park and Recreation Administration , 35 (1), 51–65. https://doi.org/10.18666/jpra-2017-v35-i1-7296

How coaches can impact athlete focus . Northcentral University. (2018, February 7). https://www.ncu.edu/blog/how-coaches-can-impact-athlete-focus#gref .

Jones, K. (n.d.). Coaching styles and its effect on team performance . Digital Commons @Brockport. https://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/pes_synthesis/120/ .

Mertens, N., Boen, F., Vande Broek, G., Vansteenkiste, M., & Fransen, K. (2018). An experiment on the impact of coaches’ and athlete leaders’ competence support on athletes’ motivation and performance. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports , 28 (12), 2734–2750. https://doi.org/10.1111/sms.13273

Marcone, M. (n.d.). The impact of coaching styles on the motivation and performance of athletes . Digital Commons @Brockport. https://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/pes_synthesis/21/ .

Coaching Philosophy Essay

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

The fundamental foundation of a good team rests upon the ability of the coach to lead the team to greater heights. Consequently, a well-developed and tested coaching philosophy as demonstrated by the coach is one of the basic prerequisites of building a strong team. Below, the tenets that describe my coaching philosophy are outlined.

I am a firm believer of discipline, respect, teamwork, self-reflection and total cooperation as the principal tenets involved in developing a good team and, as such, these guiding principles inform my coaching philosophy. To achieve successful outcomes, each player must exercise a certain level of discipline not only in the field but also in other areas.

I always make it to clear to players under my charge that discipline or lack of it is instrumental in shaping or destroying future professional ambitions. Players must show respect not only to their counterparts and competitors, but also to the coaching fraternity and the rules and regulations governing the sport. Players under my charge must always remember that professional teams are always disciplined and respectable.

Teamwork is a guiding principle that cannot be ignored if the team is to achieve successful outcomes. A group of players cannot really be called a ‘team’ if they do not exhibit the spirit of teamwork. Individual successes of players under my charge must always be perceived under the lens of group success to prioritize teamwork and gain mileage from its positive outcomes.

Indeed, it is my believe that members of the team should be encouraged to undertake joint activities other than playing or exercising to establish strong social bonds and enhance interpersonal relationships. Such activities may include camping, social work, attending to the sick and tree planting.

The bottom line is that these activities not only bring out unique talents and abilities in the players, but underline the raw power and strength that derives from a closely knit team.

There cannot be any tangible results without self-reflection. The professional development of the team is dependent on the capacity of the coach to make personal reflections of previous mistakes and the core strengths of the team with the view to establish critical areas that require improvement.

Players also need to be encouraged to make reflective assessments of their weaknesses and strengths so that they can start making steps towards improving their performance. Self-reflection forms a critical component in developing a strong team that can excel in all its endeavors. It is also important to note that self-reflection is instrumental in assisting members of the team to realize their full potential.

The last guiding principle that informs my coaching philosophy is cooperation. Coaches expect total cooperation not only from players but also from other members of the technical bench if they are to develop successful and competitive teams.

Players must at all times be encouraged to cooperate with their colleagues and the technical team during training and in actual competitions if they expect the team to post positive results.

Indeed, the importance of cooperation in coaching cannot be underestimated since it is the basic principle that ensures members of the team learn from each other. Above all, cooperative players make the coaching tasks much easier, either in training or during actual competitions, because they are more willing to listen and act upon the advice given by the coach.

• Athletic Administration and Coaching: Statement of the Problem
• Student-Athletes and Socialization
• Developing Coaching Skills
• Coaching Role Within the Organisation
• Coaching Relationships and Characteristics
• How College Athletes Deal with Stress and Manage Time
• The Coney Polar Bear Club
• Olympic-Style Lifts and Power Lifting Lifts
• Athlete's Performance: External and Internal Factors
• Long Term Athlete Development Stage: Training to Train
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2019, May 18). Coaching Philosophy. https://ivypanda.com/essays/coaching-philosophy-essay/

"Coaching Philosophy." IvyPanda , 18 May 2019, ivypanda.com/essays/coaching-philosophy-essay/.

IvyPanda . (2019) 'Coaching Philosophy'. 18 May.

IvyPanda . 2019. "Coaching Philosophy." May 18, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/coaching-philosophy-essay/.

1. IvyPanda . "Coaching Philosophy." May 18, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/coaching-philosophy-essay/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Coaching Philosophy." May 18, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/coaching-philosophy-essay/.

YOUR FINAL GRADE - GUARANTEED UK Essay Experts

Disclaimer: This essay is provided as an example of work produced by students studying towards a education degree, it is not illustrative of the work produced by our in-house experts. Click here for sample essays written by our professional writers.

Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of UKEssays.com.

In The Sports Coaching Profession Education Essay

Reference this

Get Help With Your Essay

If you need assistance with writing your essay, our professional essay writing service is here to help! Find out more about our Essay Writing Service

Cite This Work

To export a reference to this article please select a referencing stye below:

Related Services

Essay Writing Service

• Dissertation Writing Service

• Assignment Writing Service

DMCA / Removal Request

If you are the original writer of this essay and no longer wish to have your work published on UKEssays.com then please:

Our academic writing and marking services can help you!

• Find out more about our Essay Writing Service
• Undergraduate 2:2
• 7 day delivery
• Marking Service
• Samples of our Service
• Full Service Portfolio

Related Lectures

Study for free with our range of university lecture notes!

• Education Lectures
• All Available Lectures

Freelance Writing Jobs

Looking for a flexible role? Do you have a 2:1 degree or higher?

Study Resources

Free resources to assist you with your university studies!

• Dissertation Resources at UKDiss.com
• How to Write an Essay
• Essay Buyers Guide
• Referencing Tools
• Essay Writing Guides
• Masters Writing Guides

Calculate for all schools

Your chance of acceptance, your chancing factors, extracurriculars, writing about sports in college essays.

Hey guys, I'm a junior and I'm starting to think about the topics for my college essay. I'm really passionate about sports and it's been a significant part of my high school experience. Is it a good idea to write about sports in my college essay? Can you share any tips and suggestions for making it stand out?

Writing about sports in your college essay can be a great idea if you approach it in a unique and personal way. While it's true that some sports-related essay topics are considered cliché, like sports injuries or victories, there's still a way to make yours stand out.

Here are some tips and suggestions for making your sports essay stand out:

1. Focus on a specific aspect: Instead of writing about your entire sports experience, choose a specific aspect or moment that carries personal significance. For example, how your connection with a teammate shaped your perspective on teamwork or how a particular challenge on the field taught you perseverance and resilience.

2. Share personal growth: Rather than just discussing your accomplishments or stats, emphasize how your involvement in sports has contributed to your personal growth and character development. Mention the skills and qualities you've gained and how they'll contribute to your success in college and beyond.

3. Write about a unique experience: Avoid the clichés by writing about an unusual or unexpected experience related to sports. For example, an essay could focus on how coaching a youth sports team shaped your leadership skills or how organizing a charity sports tournament benefited your community.

4. Show your passion: Make sure your genuine love for the sport comes across in your writing. This could be reflected in the vivid description of memorable moments or the enthusiasm with which you talk about your dedication and commitment to the sport.

5. Connect it to your future goals: Tie your sports experiences to your academic and career aspirations to show the admissions committee how your background in sports will contribute to your future success. For example, if you have a passion for sports science or sports management, discuss how your experiences on the field have fueled your interest in those fields.

By considering these tips, you can craft a compelling essay about your passion for sports without falling into cliché territory. Remember to make your essay personal, focused, and reflective of your personal growth, and you'll be well on your way to writing a standout sports-related essay.

About CollegeVine’s Expert FAQ

CollegeVine’s Q&A seeks to offer informed perspectives on commonly asked admissions questions. Every answer is refined and validated by our team of admissions experts to ensure it resonates with trusted knowledge in the field.

• Tools and Resources
• Customer Services
• Affective Science
• Biological Foundations of Psychology
• Clinical Psychology: Disorders and Therapies
• Cognitive Psychology/Neuroscience
• Developmental Psychology
• Educational/School Psychology
• Forensic Psychology
• Health Psychology
• History and Systems of Psychology
• Individual Differences
• Methods and Approaches in Psychology
• Neuropsychology
• Organizational and Institutional Psychology
• Personality
• Psychology and Other Disciplines
• Social Psychology
• Sports Psychology
• Share This Facebook LinkedIn Twitter

Article contents

Coaching behavior and effectiveness in sport and exercise psychology.

• Ronald E. Smith Ronald E. Smith Department of Psychology, University of Washington
•  and  Frank L. Smoll Frank L. Smoll Department of Psychology, University of Washington
• https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190236557.013.188
• Published online: 19 December 2017

Coaches occupy a central role in sport, fulfilling instructional, organizational, strategic, and social relationship functions, and their relationships with athletes influence both skill development and psychosocial outcomes of sport participation. This review presents the major theoretical models and empirical results derived from coaching research, focusing on the measurement and correlates of coaching behaviors and on intervention programs designed to enhance coaching effectiveness.

A strong empirical literature on motor skill development has addressed the development of technical sport skills, guided in part by a model that divides the skill acquisition process into cognitive, associative, and autonomous phases, each requiring specific coaching knowledge and instructional techniques. Social-cognitive theory’s mediational model, the multidimensional model of sport leadership, achievement goal theory, and self-determination theory have been highly influential in research on the psychosocial aspects of the sport environment. These conceptual models have inspired basic research on the antecedents and consequences of defined coaching behaviors as well as applied research on coach training programs designed to enhance athletes’ sport outcomes. Of the few programs that have been systematically evaluated, outcomes such as enjoyment, liking for coach and teammates, team cohesion, self-esteem, performance anxiety, athletes’ motivational orientation, and sport attrition can be influenced in a salutary fashion by a brief intervention with specific empirically derived behavioral guidelines that focus on creating a mastery motivational climate and positive coach-athlete interactions. However, other existing programs have yet to demonstrate efficacy in controlled outcome research.

• coaching behaviors
• leadership measurement
• behavioral assessment
• motor skill development
• social cognitive theory
• multidimensional leadership model
• achievement goal theory
• self-determination theory
• coaching behavior interventions
• psychosocial outcomes

Introduction

Coaches occupy a central role in sport, fulfilling instructional, organizational, strategic, and social relationship functions. Athletes’ skill acquisition, success, enjoyment, continued participation, and physical and psychological well-being are all strongly influenced by coaching behaviors. Not surprisingly, therefore, research on coaching behaviors and their consequences have been a strong focus of research in sport and exercise psychology. This body of scientific literature illustrates important reciprocal linkages between theory, research, and practice. This review focuses on three central facets of this research literature: measurement of coaching behaviors; relations between coaching behaviors and other variables, and interventions designed to enhance coaching practices.

Measurement and Correlates of Coaching Behaviors

Theory and measurement are intimately related. Theoretical models cannot be tested without measures that provide operational definitions of the model’s constructs, and the constructs provide the basis for the content of the measures, whether the measurement model involves questionnaire items completed by coaches and athletes or systematic observation and coding of actual coaching behaviors. Within sport and exercise psychology, several theoretical models have guided research on coaching behaviors. They are considered in their historical order of appearance.

Social-Cognitive Learning Theory: The Mediational Model

Direct observation of behavior is a hallmark of behavioral approaches, including social cognitive learning theory (Mischel, 1973 ; Bandura, 1986 ). The fact that coaching behaviors occur in a public context where they can be directly observed, categorized, and quantified inspired the development of behavioral coding systems beginning in the 1970s. An early example was the use of a ten-category system to assess the coaching behaviors of legendary University of California, Los Angeles basketball coach John Wooden (Tharp & Gallimore, 1976 ). Based on more than 30 hours of observation during team practices, the data showed that Wooden spent approximately 50% of his time giving verbal instruction, 12.7% in admonitions to hustle, and about 7% giving either encouragement and compliments or scolds, respectively. They also described stylistic aspects of his coaching, such as giving very brief and specific instructions and demonstrations that seldom lasted more than 5 seconds.

At about the same time, the Coaching Behavior Assessment System (CBAS) was developed as a research tool to permit the direct observation and coding of coaches’ actions during practices and games (Smith, Smoll, & Hunt, 1977 ). The CBAS contained 12 categories divided into two major classes of behaviors. Reactive (elicited) behaviors are responses to immediately preceding athlete or team behaviors, while spontaneous (emitted) behaviors are initiated by the coach and are not a response to a discernible preceding event. Reactive behaviors are responses to either desirable performance or effort (i.e., reinforcement, nonreinforcement), mistakes and errors (i.e., mistake-contingent encouragement, mistake-contingent technical instruction, punishment, punitive technical instruction, ignoring mistakes), or misbehaviors on the part of athletes (i.e., keeping control). The spontaneous class includes general technical instruction, general encouragement, organization, and general communication (unrelated to the current situation). The system thus involves basic interactions between the situation and the coach’s behavior. Use of the CBAS in observing and coding coaching behaviors in a variety of sports has shown that (a) the scoring system is sufficiently comprehensive to incorporate the vast majority of overt leader behaviors, (b) high interrater reliability can be obtained, and (c) individual differences in behavioral patterns can be discerned (Smith, Smoll, & Christensen, 1996 ).

The CBAS was developed within a cognitive-behavioral mediational model that involved interactions between the situation, coaching behaviors, the athlete’s perceptions of the behaviors, and the athlete’s reactions to the behavior (Smoll & Smith, 1989 ). The athlete’s reactions are assumed to be mediated by the athlete’s encoding and perception of the coach’s behavior. This assumption led to the development of a questionnaire (CBAS Perceived Behaviors sScale) for athletes, asking them how frequently their coach engaged in each of the CBAS categories. The latter consists of definitional items that provide examples of prototypic categorical behaviors. For example, the preface to a question on mistake-contingent encouragement may include the following: “A coach may say: ‘Sometimes players goof and make mistakes.’ Some coaches give their players support and encouragement after they make a mistake. For example, they may say, ‘That’s OK. Don’t worry about it; you’ll get ‘em next time.’ Other coaches don’t give much encouragement after mistakes.” Then the survey follows with “How often did your coach encourage you after you made mistakes?” In a study involving 51 youth baseball coaches, 542 athletes, and 57,213 coded behaviors, team-level bivariate correlations between observed and perceived behaviors were variable, with the highest levels of agreement occurring for the categories involving the coaches’ responses to mistakes (+.54 for punishment, +.37 for punitive technical instruction, and +.31 for mistake-contingent technical instruction). Canonical correlation analyses of the observed and perceived behaviors revealed dimensions that correlated +.89 with one another and were both related to attitudes toward the coach, assessed at the end of the season. Both behavioral and perceived dimensions had their highest loadings on the supportive (i.e., positive reinforcement and mistake-contingent encouragement) and the punitive behavioral categories. Notably, however, although the level of agreement reflects as much as 30% common variance, the level of agreement allows for substantial lack of correspondence between observed behaviors and athlete perceptions, and for variation in athletes’ perceptions of a particular coach. Also in accord with the mediational model, athlete-perceived coaching behaviors were more highly and consistently related to their attitudes toward the coach than were observed behaviors. Five behaviors (i.e., mistake-contingent encouragement, general encouragement, punishment, punitive technical instruction, and general technical instruction) were correlated with positive evaluations of the coach at values between .34 and .43, with the punitive categories being negatively correlated with attitudes toward the coach (Smith, Smoll, & Curtis, 1978 ).

A companion self-report CBAS questionnaire modeled on the athlete perception form was also created for coaches. Research showed that, consistent with the mediational model, athlete-perceived coaching behaviors were more strongly related to outcome variables than were the observed behaviors. Furthermore, athletes’ reports were more strongly related to the observed behaviors than were the coaches’ self-reports, indicating that except with regard to punitive behaviors, coaches have limited awareness of how they behave (Smith et al., 1978 ).

Factor analyses of the CBAS revealed three major factors that account for approximately 75% of the behavioral variance: (a) supportiveness (comprised of reinforcement and mistake-contingent encouragement), (b) instructiveness (general technical instruction and mistake-contingent technical instruction versus general communication and general encouragement), and (c) punitiveness (punishment and punitive technical instruction). Relations between coaches’ scores on these behavioral dimensions and athletes’ postseason attitude measures indicated that players responded most favorably to coaches who engaged in higher percentages of supportive and instructional behaviors (Smith et al., 1978 ). Athletes on teams whose coaches created a supportive environment also liked their teammates more. A somewhat surprising finding was that the team’s win-loss record was essentially unrelated to how well the players liked the coach and how much they wanted to play for the coach in the future. This finding that coaching behaviors were far more important predictors of liking for the coach than was win-loss record was replicated in another study involving youth basketball (Cumming, Smoll, Smith, & Grossbard, 2007 ). Notably, however, winning assumed greater importance beyond age 12, although it continued to be a less important attitudinal determinant than coaching behaviors.

As the mediational model predicts, athlete’s reactions to coaching behaviors are influenced by both athlete and situational characteristics. For example, athletes with low in self-esteem are especially responsive to variations in supportive and instructional behaviors in terms of their liking for coaches, preferring coaches who are high on both dimensions, whereas children with high self-esteem are less influenced by how supportive or instructive the coach is (Smith & Smoll, 1990 ). Situational characteristics also matter. In one study in which score of the baseball games were assessed each half inning, factor scores on the supportiveness, punitiveness, and instructiveness dimensions revealed that the rate of supportive behaviors that coaches delivered while their team was winning correlated highly with athlete’s postseason liking, whereas supportive behaviors that occurred while the team was losing bore no relation to liking for the coach. The opposite occurred for punitive behaviors, which were strongly and negatively related to liking when delivered in losing situations, but were only weakly related when given during winning situations. Instructiveness was not differentially affected by the score at the time it occurred (Smith, Shoda, Cumming, & Smoll, 2009 ).

The CBAS has been used in many studies, particularly within youth sports, to develop behavioral profiles of coaches, to assess relations between coaching behaviors and other variables, such as evaluative reactions to the coach, team cohesion, and sport attrition, as well as athletes’ anxiety and self-esteem. It has also been used to measure behavioral changes that occur as a result of coach training (e.g., Smith, Smoll, & Curtis, 1979 ; Conroy & Coatsworth, 2004 ; Lewis, Groom, & Roberts, 2014 ). The CBAS has given impetus to the development of other behavioral coding systems containing similar or related behavioral categories (Morgan, Muir, & Abraham, 2014 ). One recent example, the Coach Analysis and Intervention System (Cushion, Harvey, Muir, & Nelson, 2012 ) uses computer technology to code a wide variety of verbal and nonverbal behaviors and the circumstances under which they occur, to whom they are directed, and how they are combined when a coach exhibits several behaviors simultaneously. Another valuable tool allows for the coding of both coach and athlete behaviors, permitting an analysis of coach-athlete interaction patterns (Erickson, Cộté, Hollenstein, & Deakin, 2011 ). These recent developments promise to build upon the research base derived from the CBAS over the past four decades.

Multidimensional Model of Sport Leadership

The study of leadership has a long history in mainstream psychology, spanning social psychology, industrial-organizational psychology, and military psychology (VanVactor, 2013 ). Drawing upon the many theories of leadership, Chelladurai ( 1993 , 2012 ) advanced a multidimensional model of leadership that includes situational characteristics, leader characteristics, and member characteristics. To measure leader characteristics, Chelladurai focused on five dimensions of coaching behavior: (a) training and instruction; (b) democratic behavior (allowing athletes a voice in team decisions); (c) autocratic behaviors (decisions restricted to the coach); (d) social support (expressing personal concern for individual athletes); and (e) positive feedback for good performance. These dimensions are measured by a 40-item leadership scale for sports (LSS), which assesses athletes’ preferences for specific behaviors, their perceptions of their coach’s behaviors, and coaches’ perceptions of their own behavior. The scale has acceptable psychometric properties and has been used in many studies of coaches.

The multidimensional model predicts that athlete performance and satisfaction will be greatest when required (situationally elicited) behaviors, preferred leader behaviors, and actual leader behaviors are aligned. Although support has been found for this hypothesis (Chelladurai, 1984 , 2012 ), results have been inconsistent, with congruent findings for some subscales and not for others, and with inconsistent patterns across studies. In general, however, low discrepancies between training and instruction, social support, and positive feedback tend to be more often related to satisfaction, while autocratic behaviors that exceed preferences are aversive and related to dissatisfaction.

Clearly, other variables interact with the congruence measure in ways as yet undetermined. Of particular interest in this regard is the fact that preferred leader behaviors can vary among athletes. For example, athletes with high anxiety prefer more social support and positive feedback behaviors than do athletes with low anxiety, and athletes with low levels of motivation prefer autocratic behaviors that apparently substitute for internal motivation (Horn, Bloom, Berglund, & Packard, 2011 ). Older and more accomplished athletes prefer coaches who are both autocratic and socially supportive. Males prefer training and instructional and an autocratic style more than women do, whereas women tend to prefer a more democratic style. Studies have also shown marked differences across different nations and cultures (Chelladurai & Reimer, 1998 ). Thus, within this model, there is no “one size fits all” preferred coaching pattern. Rather, coaches who are flexible and can adapt their coaching behaviors to the situation and to the preferences of individual athletes are likely to be most successful.

Given the substantial amount of research involving the LSS, it is puzzling that although many positive findings have occurred in terms of differences between groups of athletes and support has been found for the importance of alignment between preferred and actual coach behaviors, relations between hypotheses derived from the multidimensional model and objective measures of performance have proven to be weaker than expected, and at times inconsistent with expectations (Chelladurai & Reimer, 2012 ). Objective performance is an understandably challenging target variable, as it is affected by many factors beyond leadership style, including athletic talent, unforeseen injuries, strength of opponents, and an array of psychological factors that are largely beyond the coach’s influence. Also, quantitative measures of broad classes of behavior, whether coded with the CBAS or reported, do not necessarily reflect important qualities of the behavior (e.g., instructional adequacy or encouragement delivered in a sarcastic fashion), a fact that can reduce relations to performance. Moreover, there is evidence that coaches are perceived as responding differentially to more and less successful athletes. In a study of collegiate football players, for example, higher-performing athletes (starters) rated their coaches as engaging in significantly higher levels of training and instruction, as having a more democratic and a less autocratic decision-making style, as being more socially supportive, and as offering more positive feedback than did lower-status athletes labeled “survivors” by their coaches. The latter perceived their coaches as more autocratic and as low on the other four behavioral dimensions. Additionally, longitudinal evidence exists that LSS behaviors are not stable over the course of a season, with instructional, democratic, and positive feedback showing the largest changes (Fletcher & Roberts, 2013 ). Temporal invariance could therefore affect perceived behavior scores on the LSS and cloud relationships of the LSS with other variables across studies.

Finally, the multidimensional model is complex, with many “moving parts.” It is possible that complex and as yet undiscovered interactions among mediating factors remain hidden, as in the mediation model, where nonsignificant overall relations between CBAS observed behaviors and attitudes toward the coach when behaviors were aggregated across game situations suddenly became highly significant when the game situation variable was taken into account.

Given the degree of conceptual overlap between the mediational and multidimensional models of coaching behavior, it is interesting to assess relations between the CBAS and the LSS. A study of high school athletes that related LSS scores to scores on the CBAS athlete form revealed strong relations between scores on the two scales, and both LSS and CBAS scores accounted for substantial and similar amount of variance in positive attitudes toward the coach (Cumming, Smith, & Smoll, 2006 ). For example, the CBAS categories accounted for 39% of the variance, and the LSS scales accounted for 37% of the variance in the amount of enjoyment experienced while playing for the coach. In accord with predictions made by Chelladurai ( 1993 ), the LSS positive feedback scale was highly correlated with the CBAS categories of reinforcement and general encouragement and negatively related to nonreinforcement. However, the same pattern was shown for the LSS social support scale and, in general, all of the positively toned CBAS behaviors correlated well with all of the LSS scales, except autocratic, the only scale that correlated positively with the punitive CBAS categories. In general, therefore, convergent validity greatly exceeded discriminant validity in the LSS-CBAS relations. High positive correlations among the training, democratic, positive feedback, and social support scales of the LSS add to the discriminant validity issue.

Achievement Goal Theory

No theory has had a greater impact on sport psychology over the past two decades than achievement goal theory (AGT). Originally developed to study motivation within the educational domain (Nicholls, 1989 ; Ames, 1992 ), the relevance of the theory to motivational issues in sport soon became apparent, inspiring a substantial amount of sport psychology research.

Achievement goal theory focuses on the function and the meaning of goal-directed actions, based on how participants define success and how they judge whether or not they have demonstrated competence. The two central constructs in the theory are individual goal orientations that guide achievement perceptions and behavior, and the motivational climate created within achievement settings. The theory posits two separate conceptions of success represented in mastery (task) and ego achievement goal orientations. In mastery orientation, success is self-referenced, defined in terms of personal improvement, enjoyment, effort, and learning from mistakes. In ego orientation, success is other-referenced, achieved through besting others or equaling their level of performance using minimal effort (Ames, 1992 ; Roberts, 2001 ).

According to AGT, how an individual defines success and competence is influenced by interacting dispositional and environmental factors. Environmental conditions that emphasize and reinforce mastery or ego success criteria comprise the motivational climate. Achievement goal theory posits two types of motivational climates that promote either mastery or ego conceptions of success. A mastery climate emphasizes enjoyment, giving maximum effort, and personal improvement as indicators of success, stresses the importance of each team member and promotes mutual support and cooperative learning. Mistakes are viewed not as something to be dreaded but as a natural consequence of learning and as providing the feedback needed to improve performance; coaches provide encouragement and corrective instruction when they occur.

In an ego climate, there is a strong emphasis on outcome. Success is defined as winning out over others; differential attention is focused on the best athletes; intrateam rivalry is promoted by comparing athletes favorably or unfavorably with one another; and mistakes are negatively evaluated and often punished (Ames, 1992 ; Roberts, 2001 ).

Achievement goal theory has inspired the development of sport-specific measures designed to assess differences in both achievement goal orientations and in motivational climates created by coaches, parents, and peers. The most widely employed coach-initiated motivational climate scale is the Perceived Motivational Climate in Sport Questionnaire-2 (PIMCSQ-2; Newton, Duda, & Yin, 2000 ), which is appropriate by its reading level for adolescents and adult populations. An adaptation designed for children down to ages 8 or 9 is the Motivational Climate Scale for Youth Sport (MCSYS; Smith, Cumming, & Smoll, 2008 ). Both scales have separate mastery (task) and ego-climate subscales, but the PIMCSQ-2 also measures underlying facets of the task climate (i.e., cooperative learning, effort-improvement emphasis, and an important role for all participants) and ego climate (i.e., intrateam rivalry, unequal recognition, and punishment for mistakes). Most studies use the superordinate task and ego scales. The MCSYS mastery and ego scales correlate −.38, indicating that coaches engage in both classes of behavior. Sample mastery scale items are (a) “The coach told players to help each other get better,” (b) “The coach made players feel good when they improved a skill,” and (c) “Coach said that all of us were important to the team’s success.” Sample ego-scale items are (a) “Winning games was the most important thing for the coach,” (b) “Players were taken out of games if they made a mistake,” and (c) “The coach paid most attention to the best players.”

The motivational climate created by coaches has been shown to be related to a wide array of sport outcomes (Duda & Treasure, 2015 ; McArdle & Duda, 2002 ). As in educational settings, a strong body of empirical evidence shows that a mastery climate is linked to a wide array of positive outcomes, including enhanced enjoyment and satisfaction, higher levels of perceived competence and performance, lower performance anxiety, higher levels of self-esteem, and higher levels of intrinsic motivation for sport participation. A mastery environment fosters the belief that effort, which is controllable, is the key to sport success, whereas athletes in an ego climate place greater emphasis on ability. A mastery climate promotes greater goal persistence and sustained effort, and athletes tend to adopt adaptive achievement strategies such as selecting challenging tasks, giving maximum effort, persisting in the face of setbacks, and taking pride in personal improvement. In contrast, an ego-involving climate promotes social comparison as a basis for success judgments, whereas an ego environment yields discouragement when a positive outcome is not achieved. In a mastery climate, athletes show more positive and prosocial moral attitudes, whereas an ego climate is associated with greater willingness to cheat or do whatever is necessary to win. Finally, a mastery climate fosters greater team cohesion, attraction among team members, positive evaluations of the coach, and lower rates of sport attrition compared with an ego climate. Consistent with AGT, a large body of research shows that mastery and ego climates promote and strengthen corresponding goal orientations (Duda & Treasure, 2015 ). Over the course of a sport season, youth athletes exposed to a mastery climate exhibit increases in mastery goal orientation scores and decreases in ego goal orientation, whereas those in an ego climate show increases in ego goal orientation (Smith, Smoll, & Cumming, 2009 ).

Notably, behaviors associated with mastery and ego climates are not mutually exclusive; rather, they are a matter of emphasis. Most coaches engage in a mixture of mastery- and ego-oriented behaviors, particularly during competition, when the orientation is likely to shift the outcome. The same is true of athletes’ goal orientations. Highly successful athletes often have an overall mastery orientation but shift into an ego-oriented state during competition, when the focus is on winning.

One indicator of the influence of the motivational climate comes from studies comparing its effects on athletes’ reactions to their sport experience with team success (win-loss record). In a study of 10- to 15-year-old athletes, their team’s winning percentage was positively related to athletes’ judgments of their coaches’ perceived knowledge and teaching ability, but motivational climate accounted for far more variance than did winning percentage in terms of how much they liked playing for the coach and wished to do so in the future (Cumming et al., 2007 ). In a later study of adolescent basketball players, motivational climate exhibited stronger and more pervasive relations to the athletes’ attitudes toward the coach, teammates, and the sport experience than did winning (Breiger, Cumming, Smith, & Smoll, 2015 ). For both boys and girls, winning percentage was related to enjoyment derived from playing the sport and intention to continue participation the following season. Likewise, for both boys and girls, mastery climate scores were positively and significantly related to enjoyment playing on the team, liking for the coach, and perceived liking by the coach. However, the results also showed that gender influences athletes’ responses to both winning and to the motivational climate. An ego climate clearly had a more negative impact on girls, with ego climate scores being negatively related to how much girls liked the sport, how much fun they had playing on their teams, and how much they believed the coach liked them.

An ego climate also affected the importance of win-loss record in ways a mastery climate did not. For both boys and girls, significant relations were found between winning percentage and liking for the sport, personal importance of winning, and intention to return the following year. Nonetheless, gender differences also occurred. In an ego climate, liking for and desire to again play for the coach, liking for teammates and enjoyment playing on the team were positively related to winning record for boys, but not for girls. Enjoyment playing on the team and desire to play for the coach again were positively and significantly related to winning record for boys, but not for girls. It thus appears that winning within an ego climate is more important than it is in a mastery climate, but that winning may affect different attitudes and aspects of the experience for boys than for girls.

Motivational climate research has focused attention on the coach-athlete relationship. Building upon this foundation, several new conceptual models have appeared that focus on the quality of the relationship that is to be found particularly within a mastery climate. Relational coaching (Jowett, 2009 ) focuses on four important aspects of the coach-athlete relationship: (a) mutual closeness, (b) commitment to the relationship, (c) complementarity (ability to work cooperatively), and (d) co-orientation (the ability to view the relationship from both one’s own and the other’s perspective). The Coach-Athlete Relationship Questionnaire is used to measure these aspects of the relationship, and research using this measure shows that relationships that are high on these factors produce the most enjoyable and productive coach-athlete climate.

Another derivative conception, again related to the mastery climate but not identical with it, is the caring environment, where individuals are made to feel a sense of belonging and in which participants treat one another with kindness and mutual respect. Research on the caring environment has shown that the positive emotions produced by such an environment mediate positive well-being in athletes (Fry, Guivernau, Kim, Newton, Gano-Overway, & Magyar, 2012 ).

All of the AGT results cited so far are based on athlete perceptions of the motivational climate, using either the PMCSQ or the MCSYS instruments. This is an entirely defensible approach, for as the mediational model described earlier emphasizes, it is the athlete’s perceptions of the climate that mediate the effects of coach behaviors on outcome variables. Nonetheless, the need to assess the actual climate-relevant behaviors of coaches from both methodological and theoretical perspectives has repeatedly been cited (N. Smith et al., 2015 ). A new theoretical advance integrating AGT and self-determination theory, described in the following section, has inspired the development of a new observation system tied to the expanded model.

Self-Determination Theory

A recent theoretical advance integrates AGT with another prominent motivational theory that has special relevance to sport-related motivation (Duda, 2013 ). Self-determination theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 2000 ) focuses on factors that influence the development of motivation, particularly intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. The relative strength of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation determines an individual’s sense of autonomy, the extent to which behavior is viewed as self-governed. Together with competence (the perceived mastery over behavior) and relatedness (the perceived sense of belonging), autonomy is considered a basic need that facilitates psychological well-being (Deci & Ryan, 2000 ). SDT proposes that the social environment influences the extent to which these basic needs are satisfied.

SDT holds that internal and external behavioral goals are distributed on a continuum of self-determination. On the self-determined end lies intrinsic motivation, where actions are performed in the service of inherent enjoyment of the activity. The continuum also contains three different variants of extrinsic motivation. From higher to lower self-determination, these are termed (a) identified regulation (in which behavior is related to other goals, such as engaging in the sport to lose weight or improve conditioning), (b) introjected regulation (in which behavior functions to avoid a negative emotion or for ego enhancement), and (c) external regulation (in which the behavior is performed for external reasons, such as tangible rewards or the avoidance of punishment). SDT also retains the concept of amotivation, in which behavior loses all reinforcement value and occurs largely out of habit (e.g., “I’m not sure why I swim any more.”). Generally, because behavior is guided more by external incentives or becomes amotivated, positive qualities of human nature are hindered, whereas greater self-determination or autonomy allows positive qualities to flourish (Deci & Ryan, 2000 ). An imposing literature both within and outside of sport supports this contention and demonstrates superior well-being (i.e., high feelings of autonomy, competence and relatedness) under conditions that foster high intrinsic motivation (e.g., Deci & Ryan, 2000 ; Duda, 2013 ; Amorose & Anderson-Butcher, 2015 ).

The integration of AGT and SDT was inspired by clear conceptual overlap between a mastery motivational climate and situational factors identified in SDT research that promoted the satisfaction of autonomy, relatedness, and competency needs, as well as strong evidence that a mastery motivational climate had salutary effects on the need variables within SDT. Moreover, in the prediction of meaningful sport outcomes, concurrently applying AGT and SDT measures as predictor variables accounted for overlapping but also independent sources of variance (Quested & Duda, 2010 ), and they also related differentially to important aspects of athlete well-being and quality of functioning. Duda ( 2013 ) advanced a hierarchical multidimensional model of empowering and disempowering motivational climates. An empowering environment is mastery-oriented, socially supportive, and autonomy supportive of internal self-regulation. A disempowering climate is ego oriented, punitive, nonsupportive, and controlling.

Although applications of the model are in their relative infancy, both perceived and behavioral-observation measures of the integrated motivational climate have been developed. A 30-item Empowering and Disempowering Motivational Climate Questionnaire-Coach (EDMCQ-C; Appleton, Ntoumanis, Quested, Viladrich, & Duda, 2016 ) allows athletes to rate their coach’s climate relevant behavior on an agree-disagree scale and is used to measure five dimensions of the perceived motivational climate: (a) task involved, (b) ego involved, (c) controlling, (d) autonomy supportive, and (e) socially supportive.

A behavioral observational system, the Multidimensional Motivational Climate Observation System (MMCOS; N. Smith et al., 2015 ) provides a measure used to rate the measure the coach’s observed behaviors in relation to the theoretical model. It is a complex system, consisting of two superordinate dimensions (empowering and disempowering) seven environmental dimensions (autonomy support, controlling, task-involving, ego-involving, relatedness support, relatedness thwarting, and structure), and 32 lower-order coaching strategies that are checked off and used to rate the higher-order dimensions. The system is used to code temporally or event-defined segments (e.g., 5-minute segments in a soccer match). The MMCOS is clearly more complex than the CBAS and provides a more nuanced behavioral profile. However, unlike the CBAS and other behavioral coding systems, it is not a quantitative measure of the frequency with which observed behaviors actually occur; rather, it is a set of observer ratings.

Initial assessment of the construct validity of the perceived and observed behavior measures have been conducted with large multinational samples of athletes representing a variety of sports. One study that assessed relationships between athlete-perceived (EDMCQ-C) and observed (MMCOS) behaviors as well as the relations of both measures to athlete indices of autonomous (internal), externally controlled motivation, and amotivation (N. Smith, Tessier, Tzioumakis, Fabra, Quested, Appleton et al., 2016 ). None of the correlations between athlete-perceived and observed behaviors providing indices of the five empowering and disempowering dimensions exceeded .09, reflecting less than 1% common variance, a figure far lower than that obtained with the CBAS categories derived from social learning theory in a youth sport sample similar in age. Likewise, relationships between the MCCOS behavior measures and the theoretically related athlete motivation measures were quite low, ranging from −.01 to .09 and accounting for less than 1% of the motivational outcome variance. Correlations of the athlete-perceived EDMCQ-C measures with the athlete motivation variables were more favorable, with correlations exceeding .30 found between coach controlling and ego-oriented behaviors and athletes’ externally controlled motivation and amotivation. These results lend stronger evidence for the construct validity of the athlete-perceived measure than those reported for the observational measure. In another study, empowering climate scores on the EDMCQ-C were positively related to enjoyment and self-esteem and negatively related to reduced accomplishment, devaluation, and physical health symptoms, whereas a disempowering climate was negatively related to enjoyment and self-esteem, and positively related to athlete burnout and negative health symptoms (Appleton & Duda, 2016 ). However, a more sophisticated analysis that simultaneously assessed the interactive effects of empowering and disempowering motivational climates accounted for only about 1% of the variance in these targeted outcome variables. Buffering the effects of disempowering coach behaviors required a very high level of empowering behaviors. This result is consistent with CBAS findings that although punitive behavior categories occur with far less frequency than do the positive behaviors (also shown in the observational data of N. Smith et al., 2016 ), they have a disproportionate negative impact on athletes by creating an aversive sport environment.

Enhancing Coaching Effectiveness

There has never been any question that coaches occupy a central role in sports, exerting key influence on sport outcomes through their roles as teachers and strategic planners, and in the relationships they form with athletes and parents. Understandably, therefore, enhancing their pedagogical, strategic, and interpersonal capabilities has long been a focus within sport and exercise psychology. Two lines of emphasis are evident that, historically, have occurred along relatively independent tracks. The first involves instruction in motor learning principles and strategic techniques designed to develop athletes’ physical skills and optimal strategic decision making by coaches. The second emphasis, of more recent origin, is focused on helping coaches to create a psychosocial sport environment that enhances outcomes for athletes. As empirical evidence, such as that reviewed in the previous section, has accumulated showing consistent relationships between coaching behaviors and their impact on athletes and team functioning, coach interventions addressing this domain have been developed.

Enhancing Strategic and Instructional Capabilities

Motor skill learning is highly sport specific, but a strong science base has emerged on general principles involved in learning, maintaining, and improving such skills (Coker, 2013 ; Magill, 2013 ). The dominant model divides the motor learning process into three phases: the cognitive, associative, and autonomous phases. Each of these requires different coaching techniques. In the cognitive phase, explanations and demonstrations by the coach allow athletes to develop a motor program, a set of internal representations, and self-instructions to guide the movement. With practice and feedback, both from the athlete’s sensory systems and from the coach, the motor program is revised, corrected, and refined so that the skill is executed in an increasingly synchronized fashion. The coach designs exercises and practice routines, adjusts instruction depending on the progress being shown, gives corrective feedback, and provides encouragement to facilitate the process.

Once the athlete can execute the skill in the way it was demonstrated, the associative phase begins. In this intermediate phase of learning, the learner has moved from having a general idea of how to perform the skill to being able to perform it accurately and consistently. Speed, accuracy, coordination, and consistency improves even further and the athlete develops an implicit “feel” for the activity based on a more autonomous motor program and the ability to self-correct when errors occur. The coach’s role is now to utilize the skill in actual sport situations and to plan strategy, largely by designing effective practices that allow the athlete to apply the skill to simulated or real competitive situations. Error correction requires the ability to detect increasingly subtle errors and to provide demonstrations and feedback in a manner that can be used for further refinement and skill application. In closed skills (e.g., bowling or free throw shooting), the environment is fairly constant, and consistency of movement is the primary focus. In open skills, where the environment is diverse and unpredictable (e.g., in golf), the coach must help the athlete diversify the movement to meet environmental demands and teach the athlete which environmental cues are key to planning and making adjustments. The provision of effective feedback continues to be an important function of the coach during this phase.

In the autonomous or advanced phase of skill learning, the motor program is run off with little conscious thought or attention to the movement. Indeed, conscious attention to the movement can degrade performance by disrupting the automaticity of the highly developed skill sequence. As Baseball Hall of Famer Yogi Berra once said, “You can’t think and hit at the same time.” The phrase “paralysis by analysis,” popular among coaches and athletes, captures the phenomenon. Performance slumps are perpetuated by cognitive interference with the normal flow of skill execution. During this phase, the major demands on the coach involve highly refined practice routines, subtle error correction, and encouragement and motivational overtures where needed. At this level, exquisite understanding of the skill and ability to communicate effectively are prime requisites for effective coaching. Excellent resources are available to help coaches at all levels of sport refine their sport-specific teaching and strategic skills (e.g., Coker, 2013 ; Martens, 2012 ). Among the newer additions to the coach’s performance enhancement tool kit is instruction in utilizing and teaching athletes not only motor and strategic skills, but also empirically supported psychological skills such as systematic goal setting, attention control, stress management, self-talk, confidence, and mental rehearsal procedures (e.g., Burton & Raedeke, 2008 ).

Enhancing Psychosocial Outcomes in Athletes

Increased awareness of the manner in which the coach-athlete relationship can positively or adversely affect not only skill development but also a wide range of psychosocial outcomes in athletes of all ages is attributable to an enormous body of empirical research. Coaching behaviors have been shown to influence athletes’ self-esteem, motivation, performance anxiety, attitudes toward their sport experience, peer relationships, burnout, psychological skills development, physical well-being, and sport attrition. Concerns about athletes’ well-being, an alarming sport dropout rate exceeding 30% per year in young athletes (Gould, 1987 ) and, in some cases, formal legislation requiring training for youth sport coaches, has stimulated the development of many training programs for coaches over the past four decades. Unfortunately, development has far outstripped systematic evaluation of their effects.

Coach Effectiveness Training/Mastery Approach to Coaching

Widespread concerns about adult-created problems in youth sports prompted the Youth Enrichment in Sports program of research and application. The aims of the project, carried out in two phases were (a) to study relations between coaching behaviors and young athletes’ reactions to their youth sport experience and (b) to use the empirical results as the basis for an evidence-based intervention for coaches (Smith et al., 1978 ). Cognitive social learning theory (Bandura, 1986 ; Mischel, 1973 ) formed the basis for instrument development (e.g., the CBAS) and the intervention procedures, which involved modeling and role playing of desirable behaviors and coach self-monitoring of their behaviors to enhance awareness. A more comprehensive discussion of cognitive-behavioral principles and techniques used in conducting psychologically oriented coach training programs appears elsewhere (Smoll & Smith, 2015 ). Essentially, however, the intervention is designed to influence observed and athlete-perceived coaching behaviors, and these changes, are thought to mediate other effects of the training on young athletes.

Data derived from two large-scale phase 1 studies provided clear links between the CBAS dimensions of supportiveness, instructiveness, and punitiveness and athletes’ reactions to their coach, their teammates, and other aspects of their experience. Phase 2 involved the development and evaluation of a brief and highly focused intervention for youth sport coaches based on the evidence-based phase 1 findings. The intervention initially was called Coach Effectiveness Training (CET). With the development of AGT a decade later, it became clear that the CET guidelines (particularly its conception of success) were entirely consistent with the mastery motivational climate described by AGT, and a later version of the intervention formally introduced motivational climate content. The 75-minute intervention was therefore renamed the Mastery Approach to Coaching (MAC).

The MAC program incorporates two major themes. First, it strongly emphasizes the distinction between positive versus aversive control of behavior (Smith, 2015 ). In a series of coaching “do’s and don’ts” derived from the foundational phase 1 research on coaching behaviors and their effects, coaches are encouraged to increase four specific behaviors: (a) positive reinforcement, (b) mistake-contingent encouragement, (c) corrective instruction given in a positive and encouraging fashion, and (d) sound technical instruction. Coaches are urged to avoid nonreinforcement of positive behaviors, punishment for mistakes, and punitive technical instruction following mistakes. They are also instructed how to establish team rules and reinforce compliance with them to avoid discipline problems, and to reinforce socially supportive behaviors among team members. These guidelines, which are summarized in Table 1 , are designed to increase positive coach-athlete interactions, enhance team solidarity, reduce fear of failure, and promote a positive atmosphere for skill development.

The second important MAC theme is a conception of success as giving maximum effort and becoming the best one can be, rather than an emphasis on winning or outperforming others. Derived from Coach John Wooden’s definition of success as “the sense of self-satisfaction from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming,” (Wooden & Carty, 2005 , p. 12), MAC-trained coaches are thus encouraged to adopt a four-part philosophy of winning (Smith & Smoll, 2012 , pp. 27–28):

Winning isn’t everything, nor is it the only thing . Young athletes cannot get the most out of sports if they think that the only objective is to beat their opponents. Although winning is an important goal, it is not the most important objective.

Failure is not the same thing as losing . It is important that athletes do not view losing as a sign of failure or as a threat to their personal value.

Success is not equivalent to winning . Neither success nor failure need depend on the outcome of a contest or on a win-loss record. Winning and losing pertain to the outcome of a contest, whereas success and failure do not.

Athletes should be taught that success is found in striving for victory (i.e., success is related to commitment and effort). Athletes should be taught that they are never “losers” if they give maximum effort.

This philosophy, which is highly congruent with a mastery motivational climate, is designed to maximize young athletes’ enjoyment of sport and their chances of deriving the benefits of participation, partly as a result of combating competitive anxiety. Although seeking victory is encouraged as inherent to competitive sports, the ultimate importance of winning is reduced relative to other participation motives. In recognition of the inverse relation between enjoyment and postcompetition stress (Smith, Smoll, & Passer, 2002 ), fun is highlighted as the paramount objective. The philosophy also promotes separation of the athlete’s feelings of self-worth from the game’s outcome, which serves to help overcome fear of failure. The mastery-oriented coaching guidelines and philosophy of winning are thus consistent with the procedures successfully designed by Ames ( 1992 ) and Epstein ( 1988 ) to create a mastery learning climate in the classroom. The behavioral guidelines that form the core of the MAC intervention are shown in Table 1 . The MAC workshop, together with supporting materials, is now available online at www.y-e-sports.org .

Table 1. Summary of Mastery Approach to Coaching Guidelines

Note . Excerpted from the manual given to MAC workshop participants (Smoll & Smith, 2009 ).

A notable finding from observational studies is that coaches have very limited awareness of how they behave, as indicated by low correlations between observed and coach-rated behaviors (N. Smith et al., 2016 ; R. Smith et al., 1978 ). Because behavior change does not occur without awareness of one’s behavior, MAC coaches are taught the use of two proven behavioral-change techniques, namely, behavioral feedback and self-monitoring. To obtain feedback, coaches are encouraged to work with their assistants as a team and share descriptions of each others’ behaviors. Another feedback procedure involves coaches soliciting input directly from their athletes. With respect to self-monitoring, the workshop manual includes a brief Coach Self-Report Form, containing nine items related to the behavioral guidelines that coaches complete after practices and games (Smoll & Smith, 2009 , p. 25). On the form, coaches are asked how often they engaged in the recommended behaviors in relevant situations.

The CET/MAC intervention has been evaluated numerous times in experimental and quasi-experimental studies since its development (for more detailed reviews, see Smith & Smoll, 2011 ; Smoll & Smith, 2015 ). The outcomes supporting the efficacy of the coach-training program are summarized here:

Differences between experimental and control group coaches occurred in both observed and athlete-perceived coach behaviors in accordance with the behavioral guidelines (Smith et al., 1979 ; Smoll, Smith, & Cumming, 2007 ; Lewis et al., 2014 ).

Trained coaches were better liked and rated as better teachers; and their athletes reported more fun playing the sport, and a higher level of attraction among teammates. Increases in athletes’ perceptions of both task-related and social group cohesion have also been reported for youngsters who played for trained versus untrained coaches (Smith et al., 1979 ; McLaren, Eys, & Murray, 2015 ).

Athletes’ reports of their team’s coach-initiated motivational climate clearly supported the efficacy of the intervention. In this regard, trained coaches received significantly higher mastery-climate scores and lower ego-climate scores on the MCSYS climate measure compared with untrained coaches. Moreover, in accord with AGT, male and female athletes who played for trained coaches exhibited increases in mastery goal orientation scores and significant decreases in ego orientation scores. In contrast, athletes who played for control group coaches did not change in their goal orientations from preseason to late season. Paralleling the significant difference between intervention and control groups in sport-related mastery scores, a significant group difference was found on the mastery score of an academic achievement goal scale as well, suggesting generalization of achievement goals (Smoll et al., 2007 ).

Consistent with a self-esteem enhancement model, children with low self-esteem who played for trained coaches show significant increases in feelings of self-worth. Youngsters with low self-esteem in the control group did not change (Smith et al., 1979 ; Smoll, Smith, Barnett, & Everett, 1993 ; Coatsworth & Conroy, 2006 ).

Athletes who played for trained coaches showed significant decreases in sport performance anxiety over the course of the season (Smith, Smoll, & Barnett, 1995 ; Conroy & Coatsworth, 2004 ; Smith, Smoll, & Cumming, 2007 ).

Attrition in youth sports is a pervasive concern that has negative health and psychosocial implications. With the win-loss record controlled, children who played for untrained youth baseball coaches dropped out of all sports the following season at a rate of 26%, whereas those who played for trained coaches had only a 5% dropout rate (Barnett, Smoll, & Smith, 1992 ).

Traditionally, CET/MAC training has been offered in a workshop format. However, many sport psychologists work with individual coaches. A recent and promising adaptation is the Individualized Program for Counseling Coaches (Sousa, Smith, & Cruz, 2008 ; Cruz, Mora, Sousa, & Alcaraz, 2016 ). This individualized intervention combines MAC principles and behavioral guidelines with behavioral feedback and systematic goal setting to help coaches modify their behavior in accordance with their own behavioral objectives.

The intervention occurs in six steps. First, the CBAS is used to code the coach’s behaviors during a series of practices and matches to provide an average of 250–400 coded behaviors, thereby providing baseline data to help coaches become more aware of their coaching pattern and to assess postintervention changes. Next, a 60-minute session is held to go over basic principles concerning the motivational climate and its effects on athletes. In a second 60-minute session, the behavioral guidelines shown in Table 1 are presented in an interactive fashion. In the following session, the coach is presented with his or her behavioral profile derived from the CBAS observations, summarized in terms of the three factorial dimensions of supportiveness, punitiveness, and instructiveness, together with feedback on which behaviors would best be increased or decreased to optimize the coach’s effectiveness. The coach is then asked to select three CBAS categories that they want to increase or decrease. Finally, role playing is used to help the coach rehearse the target behaviors with the guidance of the trainer. The coach is encouraged to self-monitor during subsequent practices and matches and are given guidelines and reminders. CBAS data as well as athlete and coach reports are then collected during two subsequent practices and two matches as at baseline.

The results of the intervention have been very encouraging. In separate single-subject studies involving a total of 5 coaches, the trained coaches have exhibited behavior changes in accordance with their goals in most instances, increasing desirable behaviors and reducing negative ones (Sousa et al., 2008 ; Cruz et al., 2016 ). Of additional interest, generalization effects have been shown in behavior categories that were not specifically targeted by the coach, yielding a more positive behavioral profile overall following the intervention. For example, coaches who chose to increase positive reinforcement and encouragement showed a concomitant drop in punitive behaviors. These behavior changes were in most cases consistent with athlete’s perceptions of the coach’s behaviors on the athlete perception CBAS questionnaire. The encouraging results obtained in these single-coach studies indicate that this adaptation is worthy of further investigation and that its use of feedback and individualized goal setting, both of which have strong empirical support, is a significant feature of the training program.

Despite the rapid proliferation of coach education programs since the early 1970s, almost all of the systematic outcome research on the efficacy of coach training has been done with the CET/MAC program (Langan, Blake, & Lonsdale, 2013 ). Evidence for the efficacy of the intervention has now been provided by five different research groups. Based on the outcome studies, it appears that the empirically derived behavioral principles can be readily applied by coaches and that their application has salutary effects on a range of psychosocial outcome variables in young male and female athletes. However, there is a need for further research, particularly follow-up studies to assess the longer-term impact of the intervention on both coaches and athletes.

Empowering Coaching

The integration of AGT with SDT (Duda, 2013 ) is a major theoretical advance that has resulted in the concept of empowering and disempowering motivational climates. In an empowering climate, athletes strive for mastery goals, feel a sense of belonging, and believe they have a choice over how they behave. In a disempowering environment, the emphasis is on ego goals, punishment is applied, and athletes feel controlled by their coach.

Based on this model, an Empowering Coaching TM intervention was developed, applied, and evaluated in five European countries. The intervention is of 6 hours duration and educates coaches about the tenets of AGT and SDT relating to task and ego climates and intrinsic-extrinsic motivation and offers guidelines for increasing the empowering climate and reducing its disempowering aspects. Video clips and reflective exercises are designed to engage coaches in the content of the workshop (for a more detailed descriptions of the project and the intervention, see Duda, 2013 ; Project PAPA, 2016 ). The program’s emphasis differs somewhat from the CET/MAC empirically based behavioral guidelines approach:

Furthermore, this education programme is not about providing coaches with a “laundry list” of strategies or responses they can and should employ when interacting with their athletes . . . Rather, . . . the aim is to develop coaches’ conceptual understanding of motivation, motivation processes and their consequences. It is assumed that this enhanced “working knowledge” will make it more likely that a more empowering approach to coaching will be adopted, maintained, and generalized to different situations (Duda, 2013 , p. 315).

The intervention was tested in the largest experimental trial undertaken to date, involving 175 clubs, 854 teams, and 7,769 children in five European countries. Outcome variables involved athletes’ perceptions of empowering and disempowering aspects of the motivational climate using the behavioral EDMCQ-C measure, as well as measures of self-esteem, enjoyment, anxiety, and intentions to drop out. Some children wore accelerometers to record activity level during the week, and a subset of coaches was filmed so that their behaviors could be coded using the MCCOS observational instrument.

Several positive results were obtained. Behavioral observations in a subset of trained coaches revealed a more empowering and less disempowering climate over the course of the season. Children who played for trained coaches viewed their motivational climate as less disempowering (but not more empowering) and rated themselves as less likely to drop out of their program. However, no statistically significant positive outcomes have been reported for other important athlete variables, including autonomy, competence, and relatedness need satisfaction, enjoyment, self-esteem, anxiety, athlete burnout, and increased physical activity (Project PAPA, 2016 ). Possibly, the Empowering Coaches TM programs’ heavy emphasis on theoretical and conceptual content interfered with the development of the kind of rule-governed behavior that has been shown to result from adherence to specific behavioral guidelines (Baldwin & Baldwin, 2001 ). A more focused approach with greater emphasis on clear and specific behavioral guidelines may prove more efficacious while at the same time resulting in a more time-limited intervention.

Undoubtedly, coaches play a vital role in the athletic environment, and their behaviors influence the technical, cognitive, strategic, and psychosocial development of athletes. There is a wealth of empirical support for methods of teaching technical skills. The same is not the case in the psychosocial domain. Despite the substantial number of coach intervention programs developed over the past 30 years designed to enhance psychosocial outcomes, it is rather astounding that only a few of these programs have undergone any evaluation of efficacy. Coach training, particularly in the area of youth sports, has become a large-scale commercial enterprise in the United States. The American Sport Education Program , the National Youth Sports Coaches Association , and the Positive Coaching Alliance are among the most visible. Unfortunately, however, although their content does not deviate from what has been established empirically as producing a positive athletic climate, virtually nothing is known about what effects these specific programs actually have on coaches and athletes and how well they achieve their objectives. This absence of empirical attention is understandable, as developers of existing programs have been focused primarily on development, marketing, and dissemination rather than evaluation, and they have not had the benefit of research grants to support evaluation research. However, evaluation research is not only desirable, but essential to providing coaches with the quality of evidence-based training that will have the most salutary impact on their athletes. In the words of Lipsey and Cordray ( 2000 ), “the overarching goal of the program evaluation enterprise is to contribute to the improvement of social conditions by providing scientifically credible information and balanced judgment to legitimate social agents about the effectiveness of interventions intended to produce social benefits” (p. 346).

• Ames, C. (1992). Classrooms: Goals, structures, and student motivation . Journal of Educational Psychology , 84 , 261–271.
• Amorose, A. J. , & Anderson-Butcher, D. (2015). Exploring the independent and interactive effects of autonomy-supportive and controlling coaching behaviors on adolescent athletes’ motivation for sport . Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology , 4 , 206–218.
• Appleton, P. R. , & Duda, J. L. (2016). Examining the interactive effects of coach-created empowering and disempowering climate dimensions on athletes’ health and functioning . Psychology of Sport & Exercise , 26 , 61–70.
• Appleton, P. R. , Ntoumanis, N. , Quested, E. , Viladrich, C. , & Duda, J. L. (2016). Initial validation of the coach-created Empowering and Disempowering Motivational Climate Questionnaire (EDMCQ-C) . Psychology of Sport & Exercise , 22 , 53–65.
• Baldwin, J. D. , & Baldwin, J. I. (2001). Behavior principles in everyday life . Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
• Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social-cognitive theory . Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
• Barnett, N. P. , Smoll, F. L. , & Smith, R. E. (1992). Effects of enhancing coach-athlete relationships on youth sport attrition . Sport Psychologist , 6 , 111–127.
• Breiger, J. , Cumming, S. P. , Smith, R. E. , & Smoll, F. L. (2015). Winning, motivational climate, and young athletes’ competitive experiences: Some notable sex differences . International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching , 10 , 395–411 .
• Burton, D , & Raedeke, T. D. (2008). Sport psychology for coaches . Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
• Chelladurai, P. (1984). Discrepancies between preferences and perceptions of leadership behavior and satisfaction of athletes in varying sports . Journal of Sport Psychology , 6 , 27–41.
• Chelladurai, P. (1993). Leadership. In R. N. Singer , M. Murphy , & K. L. Tenant (Eds.), Handbook of research in sport psychology (pp. 647–671). New York: Macmillan.
• Chelladurai, P. (2012). Models and measurement of leadership in sports. In G. Tennenbaum , R. C. Eklund , & A. Kamata (Eds.), Measurement in sport and exercise psychology (pp. 433–442). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
• Chelladurai, P. , & Reimer, H. A. (1998). Measurement of leadership in sport. In J. L. Duda (Ed.), Advances in sport and exercise psychology measurement (pp. 227–253). Morgantown, WV: Fitness Information Technology.
• Chelladurai, P. , & Reimer, H. A. (2012). Models and measurement of leadership in sports. In G. Tennenbaum , R. C. Eklund , & A. Kamata (Eds.), Measurement in sport and exercise psychology (pp. 433–442). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
• Coatsworth, J. D. , & Conroy, D. E. (2006). Enhancing the self-esteem of youth swimmers through coach training: Gender and age effects . Psychology of Sport & Exercise , 7 , 173–192.
• Coker, C. A. (2013). Motor learning and control for practitioners . Scottsdale, AZ: Holcomb Hathaway.
• Conroy, D. E. , & Coatsworth, J. D. (2004). The effects of coach training on fear of failure in youth swimmers: A latent growth curve analysis from a randomized, controlled trial . Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology , 25 , 193–214.
• Cruz, J. , Mora, A. , Sousa, C. , & Alcaraz, S. (2016). Effects of an individualized program on coaches’ observed and perceived behavior. Revista de Psicologia del Deporte , 25 , 137–144.
• Cumming, S. P. , Smith, R. E. , & Smoll, F. L. (2006). Athlete-perceived coaching behaviors: Relating two measurement traditions . Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology , 28 , 205–213.
• Cumming, S. P. , Smoll, F. L. , Smith, R. E. , & Grossbard, J. R. (2007). Is winning everything? The relative contributions of motivational climate and won-lost percentage in youth sports . Journal of Applied Sport Psychology , 19 , 322–336.
• Cushion, C. , Harvey, S. , Muir, B. , & Nelson, L. (2012). Developing the Coach Analysis and Intervention system (CAIS): Establishing validity and reliability of a computerized systematic observation instrument . Journal of Sport Sciences , 30 , 201–216.
• Deci, E. L. , & Ryan, R. M. (2000). The “what” and “why” of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior . Psychological Inquiry , 11 , 227–268.
• Duda, J. L. (2013). The conceptual and empirical foundations of Empowering Coaching: Setting the state for the PAPA project . International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology , 11 , 311–318.
• Duda, J. L. & Treasure, D. C. (2015). The motivational climate, athlete motivation, and implications for the quality of sport engagement. In J. M. Williams & V. Krane (Eds.), Applied sport psychology: Personal growth to peak performance (7th ed., pp. 57–77). New York: McGraw-Hill.
• Epstein, J. (1988). Effective schools or effective students? Dealing with diversity. In R. Haskins & B. MacRae (Eds.), Policies for America’s schools (pp. 89–126). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
• Erickson, K. , Cộté, J. , Hollenstein, T. , & Deakin, J. (2011). Examining coach-athlete interactions using state space grids: An observational analysis in competitive youth sports . Psychology of Sport & Exercise , 12 , 645–654.
• Fletcher, R. B. , & Roberts, M. H. (2013). Longitudinal stability of the leadership scale for sports . Measurement in Physical Education & Exercise Science , 17 , 89–104.
• Fry, M. D. , Guivernau, M. , Kim, M. , Newton, M. , Gano-Overway, L. A. , & Magyar, T. M. (2012). Youth perceptions of a caring climate, emotional regulation, and psychological well-being . Sport, Exercise, & Performance Psychology , 1 , 44–57.
• Gould, D. (1987). Understanding attrition in children’s sport. In D. Gould & M. R. Weiss (Eds.), Advances in pediatric sport sciences (pp. 61–85). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
• Horn, T. S. , Bloom, P. , Berglund, K. M. , & Packard, S. (2011). Relationship between collegiate athletes’ psychological characteristics and their preferences for different types of coaching behavior . Sport Psychologist , 25 , 190–211.
• Jowett, S. (2009). Factor structure and criterion-related validity of the metaperspective version of the Coach-Athlete Relationship Questionnaire (CART-Q) . Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, & Practice , 13 , 163–177.
• Langan, E. , Blake, C. , & Lonsdale, C. (2013). Systematic review of the effectiveness of interpersonal coach education interventions on athlete outcomes . Psychology of Sport & Exercise , 14 , 37–49.
• Lewis, C. J. , Groom, R. , & Roberts, S. J. (2014). Exploring the value of a coach intervention process within women’s youth soccer: A case study . International Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology , 12 , 245–257.
• Lipsey, M. W. , & Cordray, D. S. (2000). Evaluation methods for social intervention . Annual Review of Psychology , 51 , 345–376.
• Magill, R. A. (2013). Motor learning and control: Concepts and applications (10th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
• Martens, R. (2012). Successful coaching (4th ed.). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
• McArdle, S. , & Duda, J. K. (2002). Implications of the motivational climate in youth sports. In F. L. Smoll & R. E. Smith (Eds.), Children and youth in sport: A biopsychosocial perspective (2d ed., pp. 409–434). Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt.
• McLaren, C. D. , Eys, M. A. , & Murray, R A. (2015). A coach-initiated motivational climate intervention and athletes’ perceptions of group cohesion in youth sport . Sport, Exercise, & Performance Psychology , 4 , 113–126.
• Mischel, W. (1973). Toward a cognitive social learning reconceptualization of personality . Psychological Review , 80 , 252–283.
• Morgan, G. , Muir, B. , & Abraham, A. (2014). Systematic observation. In L. Nelson , R. Groom , & P. Potrac (Eds.), Research methods in sport coaching (pp. 122–131). New York: Routledge.
• Newton, M. , Duda, J. L. , & Yin, Z. (2000). Examination of the psychometric properties of the Perceived Motivational Climate in Sport Questionnaire-2 in a sample of female athletes . Journal of Sport Sciences , 18 , 1–16.
• Nicholls, J. G. (1989). The competitive ethos and democratic education . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
• Project PAPA (2016). Available online .
• Quested, E. , & Duda, J. L. (2010). Exploring the social-environmental determinants of well- and ill-being in dancers: A test of basic needs theory . Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology , 32 , 39–60.
• Roberts, G. C. (2001). Understanding the dynamics of motivation in physical activity. In G. C. Roberts (Ed.), Advances in motivation in sport and exercise (pp. 1–50). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
• Smith, N. , Tessier, D. , Tzioumakis, Y. , Fabra, P. , Quested, E. , Appleton, P. , . . . Duda, J. L. (2016). The relationship between observed and perceived assessments of the coach-created motivational climate and links to athlete motivation . Psychology of Sport & Exercise , 23 , 51–63.
• Smith, N. , Tessier, D. , Tzioumakis, Y. , Quested, E. , Appleton, P. , Sarrazin, P. , . . . Duda, J. L. (2015). Development and validation of the multidimensional motivational climate observation system . Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology , 37 , 4–22.
• Smith, R. E. (2015). A positive approach to coaching effectiveness and performance enhancement. In J. M. Williams & V. Krane (Eds.), Applied sport psychology: Personal growth to peak performance (7th ed., pp. 40–56). Boston: McGraw-Hill.
• Smith, R. E. , Cumming, S. P. , & Smoll, F. L. (2008). Development and validation of the Motivational Climate Scale for Youth Sports . Journal of Applied Sport Psychology , 20 , 116–136.
• Smith, R. E. , Shoda, Y. , Cumming, S. P. , & Smoll, F. L. (2009). Behavioral signatures at the ballpark: Intraindividual consistency of adults’ situation-behavior patterns and their interpersonal consequences . Journal of Research in Personality , 43 , 187–195.
• Smith, R. E. , & Smoll, F. L. (1990). Self-esteem and children’s reactions to youth sport coaching behaviors: A field study of self-enhancement processes . Developmental Psychology , 26 , 987–993.
• Smith, R. E. , & Smoll, F. L. (2011). Cognitive-behavioral coach training: A translational approach to theory, research, and intervention . In J. K. Luiselli & D. D. Reed (Eds.), Behavioral sport psychology: Evidence-based approaches to performance enhancement (pp. 227–248). New York: Springer.
• Smith, R. E. , & Smoll, F. L. (2012). Sport psychology for youth coaches: Developing champions in sports and life . Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
• Smith, R. E. , Smoll, F. L. , & Barnett, N. P. (1995). Reduction of children’s sport performance anxiety through social support and stress-reduction training for coaches . Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology , 16 , 125–142.
• Smith, R. E. , Smoll, F. L. , & Christensen, D. S. (1996). Behavioral assessment and intervention in youth sports . Behavior Modification , 20 , 3–44.
• Smith, R. E. , Smoll, F. L. , & Cumming, S. P. (2007). Effects of a motivational climate intervention for coaches on children’s sport performance anxiety . Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology , 29 , 39–59.
• Smith, R. E. , Smoll, F. L. , & Cumming, S. P. (2009). Motivational climate and changes in young athletes’ achievement goal orientations . Motivation & Emotion , 33 , 173–183.
• Smith, R. E. , Smoll, F. L. , & Curtis, B. (1978). Coaching behaviors in Little League Baseball. In F. L. Smoll & R. E. Smith (Eds.), Psychological perspectives in youth sports (pp. 173–201). Washington, DC: Hemisphere.
• 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 , 59–75.
• Smith, R. E. , Smoll, F. L. , & Hunt, E. B. (1977). A system for the behavioral assessment of athletic coaches. Research Quarterly , 48 , 401–407.
• Smith, R. E. , Smoll, F. L. , & Passer, M. W. (2002). Sport performance anxiety in young athletes. In F. L. Smoll & R. E. Smith (Eds.), Children and youth in sport: A biopsychosocial perspective (2d ed., pp. 501–536). Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt.
• Smoll, F. L. , & Smith, R. E. (1989). Leadership behaviors in sport: A theoretical model and research paradigm . Journal of Applied Social Psychology , 19 , 1522–1551.
• Smoll, F. L. , & Smith, R. E. (2009). Mastery approach to coaching: A leadership guide for youth sports . Seattle, WA: Youth Enrichment in Sports.
• Smoll, F. L. , & Smith, R. E. (2015). Conducting evidence based coach-training programs: A social-cognitive approach. In J. M. Williams & V. Krane (Eds.), Applied sport psychology: Personal growth to peak performance (7th ed., pp. 359–382). New York: McGraw-Hill.
• 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 , 602–610.
• Smoll, F. L. , Smith, R. E. , & Cumming, S. P. (2007). Effects of a psychoeducational intervention for coaches on changes in child athletes’ achievement goal orientations . Journal of Clinical Sport Psychology , 1 , 23–46.
• Sousa, C. , Smith, R. E. , & Cruz, J. (2008). An individualized behavioral goal-setting program for coaches: Impact on observed, athlete-perceived, and coach-perceived behaviors . Journal of Clinical Sport Psychology , 2 , 258–277.
• Tharp, R. G. , & Gallimore, R. (1976). What a coach can teach a teacher. Psychology Today , 9 , 74–78.
• VanVactor, J. D. (Ed.) (2013). Perspectives in leadership . New York: Nova Science.
• Wooden, J. R. , & Carty, J. (2005). Coach Wooden’s pyramid of success . Grand rapids, MI: Revell.

Related Articles

• Developing Athletes in the Context of Sport and Performance Psychology
• Psychological Aspects of Athletic Training
• Humanistic Theory in Sport, Performance, and Sports Coaching Psychology
• Exercise and Mental Health Benefits

Printed from Oxford Research Encyclopedias, Psychology. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a single article for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice).

date: 11 September 2024

• Cookie Policy
• Privacy Policy
• Legal Notice
• Accessibility
• [162.248.224.4]
• 162.248.224.4

Character limit 500 /500

Breadcrumbs Section. Click here to navigate to respective pages.

Holistic Sports Coaching

DOI link for Holistic Sports Coaching

Click here to navigate to parent product.

• Privacy Policy
• Terms & Conditions
• Cookie Policy
• Taylor & Francis Online
• Taylor & Francis Group
• Students/Researchers
• Librarians/Institutions

Connect with us

Registered in England & Wales No. 3099067 5 Howick Place | London | SW1P 1WG © 2024 Informa UK Limited

24/7 writing help on your phone

To install StudyMoose App tap and then “Add to Home Screen”

The Crucial Role of Teamwork in Basketball: A Coachs Perspective

Save to my list

Remove from my list

The Crucial Role of Teamwork in Basketball: A Coachs Perspective. (2017, Feb 17). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/sports-coaching-essay

"The Crucial Role of Teamwork in Basketball: A Coachs Perspective." StudyMoose , 17 Feb 2017, https://studymoose.com/sports-coaching-essay

StudyMoose. (2017). The Crucial Role of Teamwork in Basketball: A Coachs Perspective . [Online]. Available at: https://studymoose.com/sports-coaching-essay [Accessed: 11 Sep. 2024]

"The Crucial Role of Teamwork in Basketball: A Coachs Perspective." StudyMoose, Feb 17, 2017. Accessed September 11, 2024. https://studymoose.com/sports-coaching-essay

"The Crucial Role of Teamwork in Basketball: A Coachs Perspective," StudyMoose , 17-Feb-2017. [Online]. Available: https://studymoose.com/sports-coaching-essay. [Accessed: 11-Sep-2024]

StudyMoose. (2017). The Crucial Role of Teamwork in Basketball: A Coachs Perspective . [Online]. Available at: https://studymoose.com/sports-coaching-essay [Accessed: 11-Sep-2024]

• Basketball Odyssey: A Journey of Dedication, Strength, and Teamwork Pages: 3 (758 words)
• The Crucial Role of Parents as Teachers and Role Models Pages: 2 (529 words)
• The Crucial Role of Water in Supporting Life on Earth Pages: 34 (10082 words)
• The Crucial Role of Nurses in Ethical Decision-Making in Healthcare Pages: 9 (2464 words)
• The Crucial Role of Children in Shaping a Nations Future Pages: 5 (1233 words)
• Empowering Healthcare: The Crucial Role of Informed Consent Pages: 5 (1390 words)
• The Crucial Role of Neonatal Nurses in Infant Healthcare Pages: 5 (1271 words)
• The Crucial Role of Correctional Officers in Prisons Pages: 4 (1085 words)
• The Crucial Role of Care in Healthcare Quality Improvement Pages: 5 (1356 words)
• The Crucial Role of Introverts in Modern Society Pages: 5 (1374 words)

👋 Hi! I’m your smart assistant Amy!

Don’t know where to start? Type your requirements and I’ll connect you to an academic expert within 3 minutes.

Sport Coaches Essays

Sports law: coaches, popular essay topics.

• American Dream
• Artificial Intelligence
• Black Lives Matter
• Bullying Essay
• Career Goals Essay
• Causes of the Civil War
• Child Abusing
• Civil Rights Movement
• Community Service
• Cultural Identity
• Cyber Bullying
• Death Penalty
• Depression Essay
• Domestic Violence
• Freedom of Speech
• Global Warming
• Gun Control
• Human Trafficking
• I Believe Essay
• Immigration
• Importance of Education
• Israel and Palestine Conflict
• Leadership Essay
• Legalizing Marijuanas
• Mental Health
• National Honor Society
• Police Brutality
• Pollution Essay
• Racism Essay
• Romeo and Juliet
• Same Sex Marriages
• Social Media
• The Great Gatsby
• The Yellow Wallpaper
• Time Management
• To Kill a Mockingbird
• Violent Video Games
• What Makes You Unique
• Why I Want to Be a Nurse
• Send us an e-mail

Essay On Sports Coaches

Athletic Coach or Scout Coaches teach amateur and professional athletes the skills they need to succeed at their sport. Scouts look for new players, evaluating their skills and likelihood for success at the college, amateur, or professional level. Many coaches are also involved in scouting potential athletes. Coaches typically do the following: • Plan, organize, and conduct practice sessions • Analyze the strengths and weaknesses of individual athletes and opposing teams • Plan strategies and choose team members for each game • Provide direction, encouragement, and motivation to prepare athletes for games • Call plays and make decisions about strategy and player substitutions during games • Plan and direct physical conditioning programs …show more content…

Certification often requires coaches to be a minimum age of at least 18 years old and be trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and first aid. Some states also require coaches to attend classes related to sports safety and coaching fundamentals prior to becoming certified. Although most public high school coaches need to meet these state requirements in order to become a coach, certification may not be required for coaching and sports instructor jobs in private schools. Some schools may require coaches to have a teaching license and complete a background check. Certification requirements for college coaching positions also vary. Additional certification may be highly desirable or even required in order to become an instructor in scuba diving, tennis, golf, karate, or other individual sports. There are many certifying organizations specific to the various sports, and their requirements vary. To reach the ranks of professional coaches, a candidate usually needs years of coaching experience and a winning record at a college. Some coaches may not have previous coaching experience but are nevertheless hired at the professional level due to their success as an athlete in that

The Perseverance of The Cuban Swimmer

Having a coach in life will positively influence your character and your skills. Also, having a coach doesn’t necessarily mean that your playing on a field. A coach can be anyone from a role model to a parent or guardian, a teacher, a pastor, a mentor, or sometimes even a best friend. One of the most important things for a coach to have is influence, and more important than that is that the influence he has on his players must be positive. As a leader, a coaches job is to better his players on and off of the field. This is done by developing the character of his players through encouragement and helping them understand that the game is more than just about winning. A good coach will always put the needs of his players first before he considers himself as a factor. If a coach is successful his players will develop a strong sense of self-motivation. This helps by allowing the player to

ILM 5 Coaching essay

Coaches need to have certain skills and knowledge to undertake the role. In my opinion a coach needs to be patient, supportive, interested, aware of others as well as self, attentive and perceptive. Such elements underpin effective coaching and a genuine interest in the person being coached.

College Football Coach Research Paper

Most college coaches start their careers as graduate assistants. All teams have a OC and DC. New coaches most commonly fill in as position coaches. At the higher levels, a position coach has a specific group they work with. For example, quarterbacks and wide receivers have their own position coach. To get into a larger university or professional football position, extensive coaching experience, a winning record, and honors are ordinarily commonly required.

Athletic Director

college level, the hiring of coaches is a key responsibility for athletic directors that can be subject

Coaches Have Talent And Dedication Essay

So many Coaches have talent and dedication for what they do. I 'm proud to play for one that has a spectacular history of coaching. That coach is Dennis Lorio, who Graduated from LSU (Louisiana State University) with an economic degree and played baseball. “I love the intensity and the relationship in football” Coach Lorio explaining with a passionate expression. I can see it in his eyes that he is very dedicated and hardworking coach. As of now he is 62 years old and still willing to coach. “It’s not the same without coaching. The joy and the sorrow I feel during the season has been addicted to me. I’ve been in this game almost all my life and that is a very long time.”

Ilm Level 2 Workplace Coaching Questions And Answers

There are a number of definitions to what coaching is; I feel that I can personally relate to the following definition:

College Coach As A Football Coach

A person must have specific knowledge of the sport they desire to coach, because they have many duties that come with their job. “One of the main duties of the Coach is to put together a team of the best athletes available in the specific sport” (Field, 2012, p.115). Coaches and athletes both want to be successful. This is why one of the main duties of a coach is to pick the top players out of high school. It is hard to be successful if a team does not have the proper athletes. A coach’s duties will vary depending on the size of the school. At a small school a college coach could be responsible for not only coaching but also recruiting, scouting, finance of the team, and much more, while at a larger school a coach may have their own departments for each of those duties. The main focus of a college coach is to prepare his or her players

Essay about Understanding Good Practice in Workplace Coaching

There are fundamental personal qualities, coaching competencies and skills that are needed to become a good coach.

Essay on Coaching Versus Mentoring

The Coach does not need to have experience specific to the "coachee's " employment, the coach does not have to be the senior of the "coachee" within the organisation.

Personal Statement : Health Coaches

Health coaches should receive a bachelor degree in a field related such as fitness, wellness, nursing or nutrition. A master’s degree is best and will provide students with more opportunities as well as to expand their education to be able to get more jobs and reach out to more people. Being certified is a wonderful way for professionals to demonstrate their skills and abilities; there are many associations available such as the American Council on Exercise (ACE) and the National Society of Health Coaches (NSHC). Some certification requires people to meet different criteria to qualify.

What it takes to become a coach Essay examples

When I think of coaching I think of practice planning, game planning, scouting strategizing of offense and defense, choosing my starters, little things like that. All of those ideas are valid, but that’s not the whole picture. There is a lot more to coaching than planning for a practice or a game. Many times a person who would like to coach an interschool athletic team has little or no preparation to teach sports skills and techniques. The only qualifications is often the person’s participation on his or her high school, college, or university’s team, coach of a community youth team or even perhaps as a professional player. While all that experience is valuable in one way or another, it does not constitute an adequate preparation for

Youth Sports Burnout

The coach will portray that mistakes are not acceptable and the athletes should make as little mistakes as possible. The coach will also show that he/she does not have patience for the athletes that cannot pick up the skills quickly. The coach will condition them if they make mistakes. The coach will have a very loud strong voice, demanding, and intimidating attitude. The coach will enforce fundamentals and skills that the athlete will need to be successful in the sport.

How to Become a Coach Essay

• 9 Works Cited

Coaching, however challenging, is a great way to influence the lives of others while also building their character. For as long as there have been sports, there have been people teaching the sport to the players and making them better at it. Coaches must have certain qualities in order to obtain success. One must also look at a coach’s motivation for his job, his passion for what he does, his methods for coaching, and how he became a coach in order to fully understand him. There are many questions someone may want to ask a coach about his profession if they are interested in coaching. Some questions would include: Why did he choose this as a profession? How did he get into coaching? What does one have to do to get a job as a coach? How

Roles and Responsibilities of a Sports Coach Essay

Coaches need to be confident in a wide range of skills in order to be a good coach. Three skills that are common to successful coaches include communication skills, organisation skills and sport-specific skills.

Sports Career Research Paper

However, I’d recommend you research the subject on your own. Regardless if your state requires a license or not, a certified helps players develop while making yourself stand out as a coach looking to teach properly and move up in the ranks, if you hope to reach the higher levels. Check out the links here for license info on soccer, basketball, baseball and football in America.

Related Topics

• High school
• Secondary school

Wait a second!

More handpicked essays just for you.

Coaching and leadership philosophy

The role of a sports coach

Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.

Essay On Sports Coaching

Recommended: Coaching and leadership philosophy

A sport coaching is an important way of developing the career of athletes. It involves a manager or a coach helping sportspeople to utilize their abilities and advance in their sports careers. Coaches usually watch his/her performer in a match, identify areas that need improvement in the performer’s sporting, and develop plans for training sessions that will be used to correct the problems identified. The coach usually applies some skills which are usually gained through formal education and training or through experience and observation (Knowles et al 2005). This includes the use of an appropriate coaching philosophy to learn the psychological aspects of sportspeople and set the stage for performance within a sports team. A coaching philosophy …show more content…

An effective philosophy enables athletes to take responsibility in their teams and play their roles well in order to achieve team and individual expectations. Coaching philosophy is shaped by the experiences of a coach. It consists of objectives as well as the principles, values, beliefs and approach that should be considered by a coach in order to achieve the objectives. Coaching is a complex practice with several challenges. The coach faces significant difficulties when developing a coaching philosophy due to the increasing demand to manage players to improve and maintain performance while at the same time supporting an overall performance environment made up of assistant coaches, sponsors, and support staff. The philosophy should take responsibility for players within and outside a competition …show more content…

Different players need to improve different skills. Some skills are more appropriate to some people where as some other skills may not be so. Therefore, it is important that those who train and coach them must use some ways to identify skills that are appropriate to different individuals. Coaching activities must be planned in a way that they focus on chronological ages of the players before addressing the functional ages. For example a player with physical disability should be afforded a chance to learn and play in a modified softball game and he should not be offered a wheelchair obstacle course etc. A common argument is that when trainers develop age-appropriate skills among the players, it would be helpful for them to enhance self-esteem as they would see what others in their similar age are doing (Kasser, p. 8). A coach that has been well-planned and developed through a thought-process would more likely to be an effective way to provide age-appropriate coaching. Various age groups must be identified so that coachers can make all players in too few groups and each group can be targeted with their age-appropriate skills. For instance, players can be grouped in to 10- 12 age group, 13- 14 age group, 16 – 18 and 19- 20 age groups. Which specific physical skills each group lacks also needs to be identified.

Setting Goals For The Berry College Softball Team

In order to see outcomes in this area of improvement, we as coaches must re-evaluate not only our athletes, but, in addition, our coaching styles. Of course, we all want to tell ourselves that we are great coaches and it's the athletes who are not following direction...

Coaching In Dr. Gawande's Story, Personal Best

Coaching is an integral part of helping achieve one’s maximum abilities. Dr. Gawande (2013) explains that, “Coaches are not teachers, but they teach. They’re not your boss—in professional tennis, golf, and skating, the athlete hires and fires the coach—but they can be bossy” (p. 3). It is difficult to say what is the exact function of a coach, however, they help bring forth another point of view different from our own and they also help bring about the right mindset in order to subdue a weakness.

Coaching Youth Sports Research Paper

On average 35 million children play youth sports each season and 85% of coaches are parents coaching their own kids. Whether basketball, soccer, baseball, or softball; furthermore, involves players, parents, referees, and a ball; additionally, if it is played as a game, in a tournament, is practiced, it will require a coach. This single figurehead will often be the deciding factor as to the level of satisfaction everyone involved receives from the experience. Coaching youth sports can be a balancing act between developing good players and cultivating great kids.

Coach Athlete Relationship In Youth Sports

However, this is not really a direct correlation to the coach’s effectiveness in a particular sport, being that there are many other factors in coaching a team other than game records. The coach’s job is to enhance the athlete physically, socially, and psychologically, winning is only considered a by-product of that job (Gillham, Burton, & Gillham, 2013). Gillham, Burton, and Gillham (2013) focused on developing a Coaching Success Questionnaire-2 to allow a means of evaluating other aspects of a coach’s interaction with their athletes as both a research and coach development tool. A sample group of athletes at the varsity and club level ranging from ages 18 to 25 was used to develop the questionnaire by asking their perceptions of their coaches.

Coaching Philosophy

A proper coaching philosophy contains principles which improve character development, teach step by step tactical and technical skills, form proper progressive physical training regimens, and carefully utilize team management to handle and control problems with administrative issues. A coach with a sound philosophy should mold a team with strong cohesion, and he should treat players not only as teammates, but as family and friends who are encouraged to develop communication and lifelong learning of skills through positive support and role modeling from the coach (Mergelsberg, 14-15). The philosophy should also contain written documents of implemented strategies and techniques, so that the coach will know what to improve upon season by season

Performance Anxiety in Athletes

The goal of every coach is to create an environment in which his athletes can flourish. Performance anxiety is a coach’s worst enemy simply because it can have a negative impact both mentally and physically on athletes. The mastery approach to coaching is a cognitive-behavioral intervention designed to promote a mastery-involving motivational climate (Smith, Smoll, Cumming, 2007). How a coach handles his athletes is essential for their confidence and ability to overcome any level of performance anxiety. Critical or punitive feedback from coaches can evoke high levels of negative affect in children who fear failure and disapproval, thereby contributing to a threatening athletic environment (Smith, Smoll, Cumming, 2007).

Netball Shooting Observation

Cassidy, T., Jones, R., Potrac, P. (2009) (2nd ed.). Understanding Sports Coaching: the social, cultural and pedagogical of coaching practice. London: Routledge

The Stress of Childhood Gymnastics

As a society we have the ability to change the ways in which our elite gymnasts are learning gymnastics. We need to redirect the teachings of the coaches and the parent involvement in order to achieve a atmosphere in which gymnasts can explore, learn and gain gymnastic abilities in which they feel they can handle. “ Over the last 20 years there have been many publications on coaching as it relates to sport psychology or sport pedeology. No theoretical framework, however, exsits for explaining which factors are most important in the coaching process and which relationships among these factors are most significant.” (Cote pg.1) I propose that we create an environment with a stress on healthy dieting, good exercise and less strenuous workouts. Not an environment where winning is the prime concern. There are man...

How to Become a Coach

Coaching, however challenging, is a great way to influence the lives of others while also building their character. For as long as there have been sports, there have been people teaching the sport to the players and making them better at it. Coaches must have certain qualities in order to obtain success. One must also look at a coach’s motivation for his job, his passion for what he does, his methods for coaching, and how he became a coach in order to fully understand him. There are many questions someone may want to ask a coach about his profession if they are interested in coaching. Some questions would include: Why did he choose this as a profession? How did he get into coaching? What does one have to do to get a job as a coach? How does a coach become successful? I aim to answer all of these questions and more in my paper.

Importance Of Attribution Theory In Sport

The attribution theory is essential to coaching and understanding our athletes and their motivations. Throughout sports and competitive activities, individuals are determining whether the activity they are doing is a success or a failure. But the real question that needs to be asked is why are they attributing something as a success or a failure. What is guiding them to view something that can be as simple as getting out of bed in the morning as a success or failure? This paper will dive into why the attribution theory is so critical to coaching and how you can use it to guide yourself, your players, and your teams to become as successful as possible.

Coaching Style Essay

In today’s society being a coach can be extremely complicated especially compared to earlier years. Coaching requires not only many technical and personal skills but also has to include positive psychology that will affect all athletes regardless of gender, age, and race. After reading various articles this leads me to the question, what is a coach? How do coaches differ from one another? In addition are we forgetting the importance of not only coaching but the sports psychology aspect of coaching overall? Regardless of what you may have read or heard I believe not only do all coaches have their own coaching style but every coaching technique and style is different. Coaching styles and positive psychology are two techniques that can provide

Piaget's Four Stages of Cognitive Development

Potrac, P., Gilbert, W. and Denison, J. (2013). Routledge handbook of sports coaching. 1st ed. New York: Routledge.

Sports Psychology Essay

Sports psychology continues to evolve in order to ensure that comprehensive and evidence-based psychological services are available for athletes and teams. Giving athletes an understanding of their psychological functioning, and building the ability to implement a range of psychological strategies in competition enables athletes to both execute their skills and thrive under pressure as they strive to reach their performance potential.

The Importance Of Ethics And Ethics In Sports

Coaches who put their team and players first, are coaches who value each and every one as a person (Yanity, 2011). A good coach will teach life skills along with developing each player’s athletic talent (Yanity, 2011). With athletic participation at an all-time high, coaches have become an important element in the education of student-athletes (Yanity, 2011). It is important for coaches to have moral and ethical behavior in all phases of their lives as young men and women look to these role models for guidance.

Psychological Skills Training in The World of Healthcare

Educational sport psychology focuses on improving elite athletic performance through psychological skills training. Improving cognitive behavior and development by increasing cognitive awareness and addressing and correcting negative cognitive behaviors through and assortment of training methods, psychological skills training (PST) is best defined. The compass of psychology skills training includes the development of five basic psychological skills: arousal recognition, goal setting, imagery, attention control and self-talk. Sport psychologists have determined th...

More about Essay On Sports Coaching

Related topics.