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17 - Actively Caring Coaching for Young Athletes

from INTRODUCTION TO PART II - APPLICATIONS OF AC4P PRINCIPLES

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 March 2016

E. Scott Geller
By
Thelma S. Horn
E. Scott Geller
Affiliation:
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Thelma S. Horn
Affiliation:
Miami University Oxford, OH
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Summary

Somewhere behind the athlete you've become and the hours of practice and the coaches who have pushed you is a little girl who fell in love with the game and never looked back … play for her.

– Mia Hamm

Participating in sports is a popular activity for children in the United States. Approximately 35–45 million children between the ages of 6 and 18 participate in some type of organized sport program each year, according to recent estimates. Youth participation in these programs (especially in certain types of sports) varies significantly across gender, race/ethnicity, geographic area, and family socioeconomic status. In total, at least half or up to three-quarters of all children in the United States participate in organized sports.

The number of children (especially girls) who participate in a competitive sport program has increased during the past several decades. There also appears to be a trend toward earlier entry into sports. Today, it's not unusual for children as young as 3 or 4 years of age to be participating in an organized sports program and/or to begin training in what will ultimately be a competitive sport. The intensity of physical training among young athletes may also be increasing, as parents hope to boost their children into higher levels of play.

There is also a trend in certain sports contexts toward earlier sport specialization. Children participate from an early age (e.g., 4 or 5 years) in only one sport (e.g., tennis) to the exclusion of all other physical activities. In previous decades children participated more often in several different sports or physical activities until they were into their adolescent years – at which time they often focused on one sport. It's more common today for children to be asked to, or perhaps pushed to, select one sport at an early age and train year round at that sport for the rest of their athletic career.

Participation in sports occurs during very important growth and development periods in the lives of children and adolescents. Significant developmentally-based changes occur between the ages of 6 and 18 in children's physical, socioemotional, psychological, and cognitive domains, and this development appears to be an interaction of nature and nurture. And so engagement in competitive sports programs can significantly impact a child's development.

Type
Chapter
Information
Applied Psychology
Actively Caring for People
 , pp. 535 - 562
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2016

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