The recommendations in this article came from two coaching colleagues and professional friends who reflected on their coaching careers as part of an action research project. The recommendations in this article primarily come from the perspective of the lead author's coaching business experience, while the second author took on the role of…

Soccer is one of the most favored sports among children ages 6 to 12 years old. Organized training rooted in pedagogical principles is essential to ensure children develop the needed skill and attain the desired benefits of soccer. This article provides practical tips for coaches to improve their coaching skills and create a positive and effective…

To assist basketball coaching lockdown defense at early training stages, we break down defensive strategies into fundamentals, man-to-man, closeouts, and rebounding in this paper. We also recommend specific drills to solidify these areas of defense.

Given the stance of education-based sport entities (i.e., NFHS) that sport participation leads to leadership development, this article aims to provide coaches and practitioners several strategies to teach leadership skills anchored in principles from skill acquisition literature. The principles explored include (1) identification of skill…

Sport coaching involves continuous learning as coaches seek to manage the complexity of the sport environment, address the ever-changing aspects of their sport, and find more effective and efficient ways to promote athlete development and maintain a competitive advantage. Therefore, coaches regularly find themselves in situations where they need…

Despite the prevalence of students with learning disabilities (LD), athletic coaches face challenges in recognizing and effectively supporting the needs of athletes with LD due to lack of professional development in this area. Sometimes referred to as a "hidden disability", LD is not easily perceived by teachers and coaches. Students…

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.…

Coaches require support to successfully navigate the integration of professional, interpersonal and intrapersonal knowledge to be effective within their environment. There is a need for coaches to have access to, and utilization of, a practical tool to identify and appraise elements of their coaching delivery. There is a wealth of literature on…

This article examines the interaction between physiological arousal, negative emotions, and the athlete's performance. It describes how heart rate, physiological arousal, emotions, the sympathetic nervous system, and performance are interconnected and explains how warm-ups prepare athletes for optimal training and competition. The article also…

The purpose of this article is to share Coach Vermeil's foundational commonsense coaching principles for youth sports coaches, and more broadly health and physical educators, to help create a more positive culture for their team.

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…

The purpose of this article is to overview the cardiovascular fitness benefits associated with HIIT and speed training, as well as discuss specific ways coaches and fitness professionals can introduce and promote speed workouts as a viable, and creative, exercise alternative.

In recent years, there has been a growing trend of elite athletes from developing countries migrating to more developed nations in search of better training facilities, coaching, and competition opportunities The purpose of this article is to provide 10 coaching strategies and suggestions for retaining athletic talents in developing countries.

This article focuses on the theoretical underpinnings and associated practical applications of the individual zones of optimal functioning (IZOF) model. This model can help coaches simplify the way they teach athletes to use enhancing emotions, elude impairing emotions, sustain an optimal range of emotional functioning, and achieve elevated…

School sports are traditionally described as fertile ground for the achievement of diverse outcomes for student-athletes. Philosophically, this means that the adult leaders of school-sponsored sport programs have an obligation to provide developmentally appropriate outcomes for their student-athletes. While sport skill development and competitive…