Impact of Quality Coaching on Youth Athletes

Youth Coaches are essential to the world of sports. A coaches job is to lead a group of individuals to perform well and improve athletes both physically and mentally. A good coach promotes positive experiences for athletes, helps athletes foster love for the sport, mentor player, cultivate team chemistry, and make sure individual athletes represent the team in a good manner off the court. On the contrary, a bad coach makes athletes feel stressed, makes players dislike the game, increases chances of injury, and negatively impacts a player’s overall experience. To ensure participants receive a positive experience when participating in team sports, all coaches should receive complete training to ensure coaches can not only coach but understand the

psychology of children. Imagine being young, playing a sport that you thought was awesome, but you had a terrible coach leading your team.

Because your coach was untrained you don't enjoy practice, the team performed at a low level, and the sport you used to enjoy Isn't fun anymore. What would you? Would you quit? "In 2007, according to SFIA, 34.7% of children ages 6-12 were active three times a week in any sports activity, organized or unstructured; by 2014, that number had dropped to 26.9% (among 13-17-year-olds, it fell from 44.7% to 39.8%)." Additionally, the Aspen Project Play website mentions that 81.5% of parents in America have major concerns over their child's coaching. As a youth athlete, I also experienced concerns with some of my coaches. I spent twelve years of my life in Texas, most of which I played in numerous sports to include; track, basketball, football, and baseball. I participated in many sports because the culture in Texas was sports-centric. Children started participating in sports at a young age and were that winning is everything. Some youth athletes would talk about how they were going to become the next basketball star like LeBron James. Athletes like them and the success they achieved was the big appeal to kids like us. So, we would ask our parents to play sports just to be like the superstar athletes that we saw on the

television. Playing a variety of sports gave me the opportunity of receiving guidance from a variety of coaches. The main message I constantly heard from my coaches was to work hard in practice so that I could participate on game day. When I did get to participate on game day I should give one-hundred percent to win no matter the cost. Some coaches said to have fun and not worry about just winning while others only wanted us to win and could care less if we had fun playing the sport. One of my football coaches told me to hit hard because “it’s fun to knock somebody on their ass”, with the added bonus of making the crowd go “Ooooh!” One of my basketball told me to go to the rim hard and be physical because my strong suit was getting rebounds. To be honest, every coach had a different way of going about his or her tasks. Each athlete had his/her own preference of coaching styles, leading me to believe that no one coaching style was better than the other. Merriam Dictionary defines coaching as "a person who teaches and trains the members of a sports team and makes decisions about how the team plays during games." The Aspen Project Play notes that "physical activity, and sports, in particular, can positively affect aspects of personal development among young people, such as self-esteem, goal-setting, and leadership. However, evidence indicates that the quality of coaching is a key factor in maximizing positive effects." Coaches need to be well balanced and know their players strengths and weaknesses. Players should be treated the same. Every player's response to stimuli is different. The coach is one of the most crucial parts of a team, he/she have the responsibility of developing athletes to perform. An article on truesports.com says, "At their worst, coaches can push the psychological, emotional, and physical limits of their players to the point of harm, create a hostile and unfair environment, and turn young athletes away from the sport forever." There are three types of coaching autocratic, democratic, and hands-off. The autocratic coach is demanding and rigid. Athletes do not have a say in how the team operates, do as instructed, and cannot express potential changes in the sports program. A democratic style coach delegates what needs to be done but still has the final say, For example, my track coach in middle school coach came to practice stated we were going to have a hard day today, “what should we do today?” Eventually, everyone would agree to a suggested workout and we would encourage each other to ensure we completed the workout to the best of our ability. This coaching style is good because it gives players the ability to think for themselves and feel more involved with their sports career. However, some coaches can be too overbearing and try this approach but not listen. Coaches can also hurt an athlete by letting them have a say and then not pushing the athlete. Next there is the hands off coaching style where coaches may or may not tell you what is needed and you are expected to do it. Coaches usually use this when they don’t care, are just starting out, or they really trust their athletes. This coaching style is good if the athlete has the ability to push themselves and can be trusted, however even if the athlete is knowledgeable they can be seriously injured. I have happened to see a lot of coaches use this style with little kids, and depending on the player or team it works. These styles of coaching are all different however, they should be used in harmony. The problem is, not all coaches recognize this, and that is due to inadequate training. aspenprojectplay.org states 26% of kids drop out of sports when being coached by untrained coaches. They also go on to state "One study found that when coaches received training in skills and communicating effectively with kids, only 5% of children chose not to play the sport again." When coaches aren't trained in the mechanics of a sport and how to treat players they are more likely to provide a negative experience for athletes. However, David Bornstein of NYtimes.org out of the 2.5 million adults who volunteer to be a youth sports coach only 10% receive formal training. Children being taught by untrained coaches are a problem, however, there is a way to fix it. The problem of untrained coaches in youth sports can be solved by providing coaches with adequate training. Every sport has training available for coaches which aim to improve on the knowledge of the coach about that respective sport, at the training coaches can also learn about the psychological side of coaching. Anyone can help make youth sports coaches around the world better by holding them accountable, requiring coaches to get proper training, and receiving proper training if you are a coach. Work with league administration to require training for coaches. Join leagues that advocate training. There are many types of training for coaches out there, track coaches can go to a USA track and field coaching classes, football coaches can receive online training at asep.com which is a site that allows anyone to receive training, and even basketball coaches can receive training from multiple places both online and in the classroom. All someone would have to do in order to receive training is research coaching courses online. Coaches are very important in the world of sports, and with proper training, they can perform their jobs well and provide a positive experience for youth athletes.