Jean Côté

Previous research has underscored the influence of positive coach-athlete relationships (i.e., interpersonal interactions) on athletes’ psychosocial outcomes (i.e., improved social skills, team cohesion). Extant literature also highlights that reflective practice enables coaches to critically evaluate their experiences, leading to improved decision-making, greater adaptability in various sporting contexts, and more particularly, enhanced interpersonal relationships. Despite such benefits, traditional coach education programs overemphasize professional knowledge (i.e., technical and tactical skills) at the expense of interpersonal and intrapersonal development. This chapter introduces an evidence-based tool to facilitate self-reflection to enhance coaches’ interpersonal skills that integrates coach leadership and coach reflection literature.

Coaches help shape sport environments and athlete experiences. However, many coach development programs do not adequately teach the knowledge and skills necessary for holistic athlete development. Accordingly, a positive youth development program, the 1616 Program (1616), was created to foster developmentally rich opportunities for youth ice hockey players. To overcome many current coach development program shortcomings, 1616 includes a coach-specific segment grounded in coaching effectiveness, leadership, and behavior change literature. We explored the coach segment’s impact using a mixed-method convergent parallel design with coaches across North America. In total, 36 coaches ( n = 3 females; M _age = 43.8 years; SD = 5.33 years) with an average of 10.1 years ( SD = 8.04) of coaching experience completed questionnaires. We interviewed nine coaches ( n = 1 female; M _age = 43.0 years; SD = 8.04 years) with an average of 8.5 years ( SD = 3.73) of coaching experience. Results suggest that coaches felt that athlete personal assets improved while describing improvements in their own behavior change markers, efficacy beliefs, and interpersonal and leadership skills. Despite noting areas for improvement, coaches who completed the 1616 Program generally improved their self-perception, experienced more positive athlete interactions, and appreciated the high-quality program design and delivery.

The purpose of this review was to summarize knowledge on formal interest constructs across common youth domains and to identify literature gaps. The Joanna Briggs Institute’s guidelines and the PRISMA-ScR extension guided this study’s design. Five databases were searched: APA PsycInfo, SPORTDiscus, Sports Medicine & Education Index, Education Source, and Web of Science. Peer-reviewed, English-language studies with participants aged 5–25 were eligible for inclusion. There were 228 articles included in this review. Through a descriptive content analysis, we found that: interest research has primarily been conducted in educational domains, while voluntary domains such as sport have received less attention; quantitative methods dominate research; and interest has been inconsistently defined and measured. Future research should focus on consistent interest definitions and employ longitudinal, person-oriented, and qualitative designs in voluntary youth domains such as sport.

High-performance (HP) coaching has been described as “a complex, social, and dynamic activity that is not easily represented as a set of tangible and predictable processes.” Coaches are not only responsible for extensive planning, monitoring, and leadership in a dynamic and complex environment but also have responsibility for supporting athlete development and safeguarding their athletes’ overall health, well-being, and psychological and physiological safety. However, HP coaching is often considered an unsustainable profession, due to the levels of stress and subsequent mental health challenges that are frequently part of the role. Therefore, this position paper will focus on the concerns, challenges, and resources needed to prevent and manage mental ill-being and support the mental well-being of sport coaching professionals in HP sport, and provide recommendations for individuals, systems, and organizations that work with HP sport coaches.

With the pronounced ongoing growth of global youth sports, opportunities for and participation of youth athletes on the world sports stage, including the Olympic Games, are expected to escalate. Yet, adolescence is a vulnerable period of development and inherently dynamic, with non-linear and asynchronous progression of physical, physiological, psychological and social attributes. These non-concurrent changes within and between individuals are accompanied by irregular and unpredictable threats and impediments. Likewise, the evident age-based criteria and conventional path for those youth athletes deemed eligible candidates for the Olympic Games are not well or consistently defined. Furthermore, the unstructured and largely varying policies and practices across the sporting International Federations specific to youth participation underscore the need to establish a contemporary universal paradigm that would enable elite youth athletes to navigate an individualised healthy pathway to personal, athletic and sport success. First, we reviewed and summarised key challenges facing elite youth athletes and the relevant evidence fundamental to facilitating and supporting central aspects of health and well-being, while empowering safe, sustainable and positive engagement during athletic and personal advancement and competition. Second, we developed and present a modern elite youth athlete model that emphasises a child-centred, practical framework with corresponding guidelines and recommendations to protect health and well-being while safely and favourably managing international sport competition. Our proposed evidence-informed paradigm will enable and support individualised pathways for healthy, well-rounded and sustainable positive engagement while achieving sport success for youth contending or aiming to compete at world-class international sporting events.

Objective The objective of this study is to characterise the key factors that influence positive engagement and desirable developmental outcomes in sport among elite youth athletes by summarising the methods, groups and pertinent topical areas examined in the extant published research. Design Scoping review. Data sources We searched the databases SPORTDiscus, APA PsycINFO, Web of Science and Sports Medicine & Education Index for peer-reviewed, published in English articles that considered the factors influencing positive developmental outcomes for athletes under 18 years competing at a national and/or international level. Results The search returned 549 articles, of which 43 met the inclusion criteria. 16 studies used a qualitative approach, 14 collected quantitative data, 2 adopted mixed methods and 11 were reviews. Seven articles involved athletes competing in absolute skill contexts (ie, against the best athletes of any age) while the majority involved athletes competing in relative skill contexts (ie, against the best in a specific age or developmental group). The studies described the characteristics of the athletes, as well as their training, relationships with others, social and physical environments, and/or their overall developmental pathways. Conclusion Existing research on positive engagement in elite youth sport aligned with and mapped onto established models of positive development in youth sport more generally. Our findings further support that, while certain youth athletes may demonstrate extraordinary performance capabilities, they are still children who benefit from positive engagement prompted and reinforced by developmentally appropriate and supportive activities, relationships and environments.