Sports Afield

-- New Director has Big Plans for the Venerable Institute for the Study of Youth Sports

Dan Gould took over as director of the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports in the Department of Kinesiology in 2004. An accomplished scholar and self-described ardent sports fan, Gould says that becoming director of the institute (only the third person to hold the position) was the job he had been waiting for his entire career. In fact, he is no stranger to the institute or MSU, having first arrived in East Lansing as a newly minted 25-year-old Ph.D. in 1978. He even worked on the project that would lead to the creation of the institute. After stops at Kansas State University, the University of Illinois, at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Gould is back at MSU and has big plans to build on the institute’s core strengths and enhance its research and outreach presence in the state and nationally. What follows is a discussion with Dan Gould on the institute’s future and the status of youth sports.

- It is a bit of a homecoming for you. You taught at MSU for a short time in the 1970s and 1980s. Now, you are back as director. What led you to take the position?

There were a lot of issues. The first is that Michigan State is a great university and I loved my time here the first time around. I also love the Midwest and the people. So part of it was the desire to come back to a great university. I have always felt that of all the universities I have been at, I fit this one the best in terms of the land-grant tradition. I do scholarly research but I am also known for disseminating that research and getting it to people who can use it. The president of the university talks about advancing knowledge and transforming lives, and that just fits my orientation quite well. And then there is the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports, which was the first of its kind in the country. I have always been interested in sports in general as well as youth and elite sports and athletes. It’s also personal. My own kids have had great coaches and sometimes not so great experiences with coaches, and being able to make a contribution for the last 15 or so years of my career in helping people enjoy sports, especially kids, is very important to me.

- The institute has such a proud history. What role can it play here in Michigan and nationally?

We definitely have a proud and long tradition at the institute. It is my honor to come back but I came back with a specific vision in mind and that is that this institute can transform sports for kids in the United States to make it a great educational experience, whether we’re talking physical, psychological, or social. That is my driving force. I love sports, and I’ve always loved school and education, so how can we make sports a great educational vehicle whether it’s in the classroom or out of the classroom. There are some great things about youth sports and there are some problems in youth sports today. My goals are, minimum, for this institute to be the most important organization that advances knowledge on youth sports in the United States and, I hope, the world. I make no bones about it. I didn’t come back here, and Michigan State didn’t hire me, to be a small influence.

. What do you see as the most important issues facing youth sports?

I think one of the biggest issues that we have been writing about here at the institute is what I call the professionalization of children’s sports. It’s not anybody’s fault, but we live in a very media-oriented society and if you turn on the television you can watch wall-to-wall sports. For a person like me, who loves sports, it’s fun. I love to watch elite sports and I’ve worked in the Olympics and worked with people who are the best in the world. I’m not an anti-elite sports. But one of the things that people forget is that elite and professional sports are different than educational athletics. The goal of professional sports is winning and, sometimes, at almost any cost. However, for a parent, the goal for their son or daughter in taking part in youth sports is an educational one: to develop physically and socially, to learn skills, and to enjoy the experience. Winning is not unimportant but is part of a bigger picture. But what happens is that if you came from another planet and read the papers and read Sports Illustrated and watched ESPN, the only thing you would conclude is that everything is about winning. So what we are finding is that with youth sports, people are forgetting about physical, psychological, social, and educational development. Winning is becoming all-important. We’re seeing the winning-is-everything mindset transferred down into the youth level. The result is that sometimes you see some outrageous parent behavior, kids hitting other kids on the field, and other horror stories. What we need to do is educate the country and conduct studies to demonstrate that a focus on child development has benefits. What is ironic is that some of our research that has focused on what it takes to be an Olympic champion and an elite athlete has shown that it is this developmental focus, creating an environment where the child falls in love with sports, that is most effective. That usually doesn’t come by pushing winning and victories. It comes from the joy of the activity and learning skills.

- If you had the power, what is the one thing you would change about how young people experience participation in organized sports today?

If I could change one thing, it would be the social context. Not because it is so terrible but right now we only have one way to keep score. You either win or lose. We’ve actually toyed with the idea of coming out with a report card. If every kid in America got a report card on their youth sports team experience every month and it rated your child’s physical development, social development, psychological development, as well as won-loss record, things would change. Again, it’s not that I don’t like to win and kids should try to win, but what we forget is that not everybody can win but everybody can become healthier and can learn to love being physically active. And sometimes losing is a better teacher than winning. So I’d love to see society have a better grading system for the developmental benefits of youth sports, and those developmental aspects would get stressed. So when you read the paper it would say, “Lance Armstrong Improved Self-Esteem for Seventh Time in Tour de France.”

- You are a sports psychologist by training. Your areas of research interest include burnout in young athletes, the relationships between stress and athletic ability, and the psychological foundations of coaching. How active will the institute be in terms of research?

Research is our number one priority at the institute. There are a lot of groups around the country that provide coaches education programs and we are certainly involved in that. But there are very few groups that identify the significant issues facing kids in terms of youth sports and physical activity. What are the problems and what are the issues? Our job at the institute is to identify significant issues and then take all the wonderful resources we have in the department and college and bring them to bear upon those issues. So that research component is our most unique thing. When I was considering the position, I spoke to groups all over the country and there wasn’t one of them that was focused on doing applied, cutting-edge research on these issues. So research is central, but another issue is dissemination of that research. Now, we don’t have the staff and the budget to go around and educate every parent and coach in America. But the approach we are going to take is to train the trainer. So we’re doing things like partnering with great organizations like Think Detroit, which provides sports and recreation programs to thousands of kids in the Detroit area. We’re working hand-in-hand with them to develop a coaches education program. We partner with the Michigan High School Athletic Association, helping them with their coaches education program. So our model involves identifying the issues, doing the research, and then packaging the research so that we can train trainers to deliver it.

- As you mentioned, you have developed close ties to the Michigan High School Athletics Association and next summer the National Council for Accreditation of Coaching Education’s national conference will be held here at MSU. So is outreach another essential aspect of the work of institute?

Personally, outreach is why I am back here. I have always felt that Michigan State truly lives that land-grant tradition, that it is truly committed to knowledge for some purpose. We are a world-renowned university, but relative to a lot of other universities, we are the people’s university. We try to go out and help society. Outreach is so essential to that orientation. And, for me, almost all of the ideas for research come from doing outreach, from doing workshops, talking to athletes, and so on. So outreach is essential to getting our research to people who need it and can use it, but it’s also important for us to hear from coaches and parents about what the important issues are out there. The bottom line is that if we listen to the consumers—the coaches, the teachers, the kids—and find out their needs, and then use all of the tremendous knowledge and resources at the university to address those and put the information in ways that people can understand and use it, we will do very well.

 

BUZZ

Looking Good

The Institute for the Study of Youth Sport’s Web site is now sporting a new look after a complete redesign. Institute Director Dan Gould and Assistant Professor Bob Benham took the lead on the redesign, which features a more graphical look and a new logo.

“We were definitely seeking an upgrade,” Benham said. “So we’ve given it a much more contemporary and attractive look.” The site has also been made easier to navigate. It now includes clear links for coaches, parents, researchers, and kids.
The idea is to make the sight as transparent as possible in order for users to find the information they need quickly. In terms of content, the site has added links to current research projects and articles written by institute staff and other information, including an updated mission statement.
Although a substantial improvement over the previous site, Benham said it is still a work in progress. He will continue to work with College of Education Webmaster and graphic designer Smita Sawai to improve the site and user experience. So expect more content and technological enhancements in coming months.