Dr. Gould and Dr. Lauer present at 2011 National Coaching Conference

A meeting of coaching and sport science experts at the 2011 National Coaching Conference raised the bar for the development of coaches and athletes in the United States. This conference brought together stakeholders in the development of amateur sports in the USA to discuss the development of a more strategic, integrated, and aligned system of athlete and coach development. The aim is the sharing of best practices, latest research and ideas in coaching and coaching education. The USA Coaching Coalition and the United States Olympic Committee hosted this year's conference in Colorado Springs. The Institute's Dr. Dan Gould moderated a panel at the opening session of the conference, and Dr. Larry Lauer presented with East Lansing Girls Varsity Basketball Coach Rob Smith. The conference revealed the important roles that coaches play in keeping youth active and healthy, in developing character through sport, and in developing a sporting culture for all.

Coaches, and the governing bodies that oversee and educate coaches, have an important role in keeping youth active and healthy. The United States Anti-Doping Agency conducted a national survey of young athletes, adults, coaches, and teachers and learned that coaches are ranked as the #1 positive influence on today's youth involved in sport.

The USADA survey also revealed two conflicting phenomenon. Parents believe that their children will learn personal and social values when they involve them in sport, and in general study participants believe that sport has many positive benefits for its athletes. In direct conflict with this belief, however, 66% of participants felt that winning is being overemphasized in sport.

Sport sociologist Dr. Jay Coakley argued strongly that Americans fall for the myth that sport in and of itself builds character, and that sport by its nature is pure. When, in fact, the benefits of sport are likely mixed. It has probably had positive, negative, and no effects on its participants. Therefore, there are no guarantees that a child will have a life-altering (in a positive way hopefully) or developmental experience from sport. The Institute for the Study of Youth Sports firmly support the premise that developmental experiences do occur in sport when the right conditions exist; the child is ready and open to learning the skills, a positive learning environment is created, and adults (i.e., coaches, managers, and parents) surrounding the program intentionally attempt to mentor youth and teach life skills.

If sport has a responsibility to develop our youth because it is important to them and so many are involved, then it is incumbent upon coaching educators to train coaches to do these things. However, our nation's coaches may be ill-prepared for such a role. Coaches should be educated to play the role of mentor and advocate for a healthy life style. This means not only being a positive role model but being able to educate children about making good decisions related to being physically active, eating healthy, and living a responsible life. Coaches must treat their role as a professional one with expectations of continuing education. Again, the onus is on the governing bodies to create realistic training systems that competently train America's coaches. A discussion was held between university and national governing body staff to discuss ways that they could work together to educate America's coaches.

One key element of moving forward in educating America's coaches seems to be centralizing our coaching knowledge as well as best practices for training coaches. If universities and national governing bodies are sharing information the education of our coaches will accelerate versus everyone working alone.

A second key element of moving sport in America from one focused on winning to a focus on positive developmental experiences is educating parents as to what they should expect from coaches, including the kinds of training needed to coach. At this time parents often don't know if their coach has training, don't know what kinds of training are needed or are legitimate, and often don't think it is necessary. Anyone can coach; you just need a hat and a whistle! But, as we have seen in the news about some of the bad experiences youth are having coaching is much more than being able to manage kids during a practice. Coaches need to be leaders, mentors, role models, excellent communicators, and sometimes parental figures.

In the final session of the NCC Tom Farrey of ESPN led a panel with several members of key organizations such as the National Federation of High Schools and the American Sport Education Program. In this session it became clear that the parents need to be educated. However, what was not clear was whether the government should get involved in subsidizing grass-roots sport programs. The panel was mixed on having government involvement. Money comes with expectations, as well as changing political interests.

Another important theme of the NCC was the America is not doing enough to develop a sporting culture for all. Many children leave sport because recreational opportunities do not exist in the elite model of sport to play until your 18. Furthermore, coaches, parents and the structure of traditional team sports may be turning off children with too many competitions and year-round training expectations. Finally, as Tom Farrey reported in his book Game On, many children are deselected because early talent identification meaning that if children are not seen as bigger, faster, or more skilled at a young age (sometimes younger than 10 years of age) they are unable to get on the club team. This seriously reduces their immediate opportunities to play, and also decreases the likelihood that they will be able to play on a club team in the future.

Istvan Balyi of the National Coaching Institute of Canada presented the Sport 4 Life: Long Term Participant Development model being used in many countries. The idea is to build physical literacy in young children so they can be active for life. This model also educates adults on how youth develop in physical and psychosocial domains over time, during what developmental time periods they are most sensitive to particular kinds of training, and basically developmentally-appropriate coaching. Patrick Duffy of Leeds Metropolitan University in the UK also emphasized the importance of creating coaching systems that are best for the participants.

Ultimately, the NCC created an environment to challenge our current practices of sport in America. It also began the process of getting experts discussing ways to better develop our coaches so as to maximize the developmental experiences of youth in sport.

The 2011 National Coaching Conference is hosted by the United States Olympic Committee in partnership with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, National Federation of State High School Associations, and the National Association of Sport and Physical Education.

Posted Jul 12, 2011

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