Effective Coaching for All Athletes Within Youth Recreational Sports

Within any given team, young athletes have varied skills that range from novice to competent. Providing the same coaching activities for everyone will result in frustration for some athletes because they do not possess certain prerequisite skills, and others because they have reached mastery and become bored. Effective Coaching offers a foundational structure and methods for teaching effective skills that athletes of varied levels of mastery need to work as a team. These easy-to-use, practical tools reduce athlete frustration and help create an environment that encourages mastery as well as fun for all, including the coach.

Topics discussed include effective organization, design of practice environments, communication with families, efficient and feasible progress monitoring, and discussion of common youth sport programs (e.g., soccer, t-ball, indoor hockey, basketball, flag football, lacrosse, and volleyball), as well as accessible coaching for teams that may include young athletes with learning disabilities, behavioral disabilities, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, as well as athletes without disabilities. This book is written for youth sport coaches, and individuals who volunteer their time to teach young athletes the fundamentals of a given sport.