This case shows how important it is for all coaches, especially head coaches, to know and understand the rules of their sport. Not just the playing rules, but also administrative rules, which include rules on recruiting. Failure to follow the rules and procedures led the defendants in this case to be liable for negligent supervision.

Concerns exist about how the landscape of school sports is changing, leaving many school coaches feeling unprepared to meet the challenges of this role today. This article explores the status of school sports coaching by drawing on recent findings from the National Coach Survey, the first-of-its-kind survey in the United States released in 2022.

Mental health is an emerging area of interest in sport, but there is a paucity of educational initiatives in sport management curricula to train the next generation of sport managers to address the mental health needs of athletes, a type of knowledge that the mental health literature operationalizes as mental health literacy. One goal of…

Never has the domain of sports coaching been so inundated with "secondary information." In high-performance contexts, for example, coaches are routinely presented with detailed reports specifying features about an athlete's or team's performance. Here, we question whether such detailed secondary information has led us to know "too…

Due to the significant growth of participants in sports around the world, this article aims to identify the effects of early specialization, as well as the roles and responsibilities of the professionals and people involved in athlete development, especially in the context of soccer. It describes the phases of Long-Term Athlete Development (LTAD)…

Cross country has grown in popularity and provides youth with the ability to put into practice both physical capability and mental strength and preparedness. However, such preparedness can also lead to physical injuries such as shin splints, or mental fatigue, which can lead to dropout and/or burnout. Yoga is an activity that has become…

School-age children receive a myriad of physical, social, emotional, and cognitive benefits from being involved in sport, as well as several academic benefits. Children who participate in sport are more likely to have a higher GPA, increased daily attendance, and greater high school graduation rates than their non-sport participating peers.…

Table tennis, recognized for enhancing personal development and fostering an inclusive learning environment, remains underutilized in educational curricula due to resource constraints and practical challenges in teaching. This article explores the educational value and implementation challenges of table tennis in physical education and proposes…

The word "talent" is used across many sport disciplines -- to describe an athlete's prowess (i.e. "he is talented"), as a term for what is sought after during assessment and selection (i.e. talent selection camps) or in reference to players to be developed (i.e. "a group of talents"). While the term has received…

The aim of this article is to provide a concise overview of the theoretical assumptions of behaviorism, which generally informs "traditional" approaches to sport coaching. B.F. Skinner's (1904--1990) theory of operant conditioning is discussed, alongside considerations for sport coaching practice. For coaches who draw upon the principles…

Highly successful athletes must learn how to optimize factors that facilitate flow and effectively manage factors that inhibit flow. This article explains what coaches can do to push the flow button and motivate athletes to have peak experiences and improved performance.

Coaches serve in a unique role to oversee health and safety with their athletes especially when traveling with the team to sporting events. If there is no athletic trainer to take charge in prevention or management of injuries, the coach will need to assume that role. Coaches should understand the importance of their role and know how to implement…

Helping athletes become their best is a constant challenge for all coaches. Having a model or blueprint for teaching skills and correcting errors is essential for quality coaching. The article explores the concepts associated with deep, deliberate, purpose practice and presents a model for teaching sport skill that we call DP2.

While youth sports can come with numerous mental health benefits, there can also be some risks. Understanding mental health in the context of youth sports involves recognizing the psychological pressures and challenges unique to this environment. This article describes a coaching model that coaches can use to teach coping strategies and…

This article is intended to assist those leading the sport-specific physical preparation of athletes by providing a progressive approach to staging warmups. The approach encourages consideration of the movement and physical demands of the sport and collaboration with technical coaches. The approach includes utilization of specific movement primers…