Eileen Wolfe
University of West Florida

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Youth sports act as a microcosm of society
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Socialization
Problem solving
Leadership
Discipline
Cooperation/teamwork
Dealing with adversity
Overcoming fear
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Facing challenges
Stress/arousal regulation
Healthy lifestyle
Coordination
Self-efficacy

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Nearly 45 million youth participate in sports every year in U.S.
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Represents 66% of all out-of-school activities for youth (Ewing & Seefeldt, 2002)
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#1 reason for involvement is “To have fun”
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Other main reasons: improve skills, get in shape, be with friends (Ewing & Seefeldt, 1996)

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For every 10 youth that begin sport, 3 to 4 discontinue by next season (Gould &
Petlichkiff, 1988)
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50% of youth dropout of sport involvement by age 12
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70% dropout by age 14 (University of Michigan
Institute for Social Research, 1981-1997)
In any given year, 3 to 4 out of 10 will drop out before the next season.
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Reasons? _____________________________

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Frequent worries about adult expectations and evaluation by others
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Fear of failure
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Less perceived fun
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Less satisfaction with their performance, regardless of winning or losing
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Perception that participation is important to parents
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Outcome goal orientation and low perceived ability
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Maladaptive Perfectionism

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Proper interventions can decrease dropout rates and increase positive developmental outcomes
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1)Positive reinforcement, 2)technical instruction, and 3) mistake-contingent encouragement from adults most important interventions
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Focus on increasing desirable behaviors by rewarding
Coaches and parents can be trained

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Need continuous and immediate reinforcement: positive approach
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Not all want to become “Elite”
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Stages of Athlete Development
(
Co te , 1999; Co te , Lidor, & Hackfort, 2009)
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Sampling years
Specializing years
Investment years
Recreational years

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Majority of youth in this stage
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Characterized by “deliberate play”
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Kids voluntarily try variety of sports
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Positive outcomes: Form opinions on sports, develop fundamental motor skills, socialize, learn to work with others
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Essential building block of sport development
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Can go into specializing or recreational

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Characterized by a balance between deliberate
play and deliberate practice
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Kids begin to focus on one or two sports that they enjoy
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Skills such as problem solving, imagery, and goalsetting, along with socialization, self-concept, and self-esteem development (Chase &
Drummer, 1992; Harter, 1978)
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Should be challenging, yet fun!
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Can go into investment or recreational

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Characterized by deliberate practice
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Investment of training time, money, focus
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Development of elite athletes
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Win-at-all cost focus on performance and competition
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Can teach leadership, responsibility, commitment, stress regulation

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Characterized by enjoyment and focus on healthy lifestyle, socialization
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Not place for overly competitive level of play
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Reason many join community sports rather than school-sponsored sports
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Less pressure
Everyone given equal opportunity
More likely to experience less negative effects
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However, less likely to develop PST’s for stress regulation

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Majority are untrained volunteers
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Most coach how they were coached
Trained coaches have only 5% dropout rate compared to untrained at 26% (Barnett, Smoll, &
Smith, 1992)
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Majority use combination of negative and positive approach
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Should follow 5:1 RULE
Phil Jackson vs. Bobby Knight
Positive Coaching Alliance

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Understand individual athlete goals
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Model Sportsmanship
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Increases peer-to-peer positive reinforcement
ROOTS: Rules, Opponents, Officials, Teammates, Self
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Practice PST’s to regulate own stress/arousal
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Imagery, self-talk, relaxation/breathing
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Use positive, sincere feedback
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Sandwich Approach: Positive statement, Futureoriented instruction, compliment
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Smith, Smoll, Curtis (1979) CBAS Study
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Barnett, Smoll, & Smith (1992) follow-up

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Single most important thing kids need from parents: Support
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Emotional
Informational
Companionship
Tangible
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Continuum from underinvolved to overinvolved parents
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The healthiest development of the child athlete takes place when the parent shows support and respect for the child athlete, teammates, coaches, officials, fans, and opponents alike, through a moderate level of involvement.

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“The Overinvolved Parent”
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Examples

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Parents strongly influence their child’s goals
(Duda & Hom, 1993) and perceived competence (Brustad, 1993).
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May not realize the impact of their influence
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May not know how to communicate effectively with coaches and the child
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Parent Orientation Meetings
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Parent Responsibilities and Code of Conduct
(American Sport Education Program, 1994)
Can use as opportunity to tackle “Myths”
(pg.530-531)

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Which of the following is best characterized by “deliberate practice” in athlete development?
a) Sampling stage b) c) d) e)
Specializing stage
Investment stage
Reinforcement stage
None of the above

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The stage of athlete development in which an athlete invests all of their resources into one sport is known as the sampling stage.
a. True b. False

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According to the University of Michigan
Institute for Social Research, approximately what percentage of athletes dropout of youth sports by the age of 14?
a) b) c) d) e)
20%
30%
50%
70%
None of the above

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Reinforcement for young athletes should be __________ and __________________?
a) b) c) d) e)
Continuous and delayed
Continuous and immediate
Intermittent and delayed
Intermittent and immediate
None of the above
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Feedback should be task oriented (not outcome oriented) and self-comparing (not peer comparing)

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Which of the following should coaches use to deal with stresses of coaching and to be a good role model?
a) Self-talk b) c) d) e)
Relaxation/Breathing techniques
Imagery
All of the above
None of the above

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True or False: Bobby Knight is a spokesperson for the Positive Coaching
Alliance and is displays a considerate coaching style.
a) b)
True
False

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According to Youth sport coaches should follow the 2:1 Rule by giving 2 positive feedbacks to every 1 negative feedback.
a) True b) False

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