Volunteer Youth Sport Coaches' Perspectives of Coaching Education/Certification and Parental Codes of Conduct

Abstract

The vast majority of youth sport programs in the United States relies primarily on parent volunteers to serve as coaches. Unfortunately, most of these volunteer coaches have not received formal training to prepare them adequately for the role of youth sport coach. To exacerbate the issue, according to the popular media, parents and other adults can commit belligerent and even violent acts around, and often resulting from, poorly managed youth sport events. Although some efforts have been made to standardize curricula, provide training for coaches, and contain or prevent inappropriate parent behaviors, few efforts have been directed at investigating the self-described needs and concerns of the coaches from their perspectives. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the concerns and issues of youth sport coaches related to coaching and parental education. Five focus group interviews with 25 volunteer youth sport coaches were conducted to investigate these issues. Results were organized around four higher order themes that emerged from inductive content analyses: (a) coaching education content areas of need, (b) barriers and problems of offering coaching education, (c) coaching education format recommendations, and (d) efficacy of parental codes of conduct. Results were discussed in terms of the potential impact administrators, coaches, and parents could have in implementing formal coaching education programs and developing their coaching education practices.

Key words:

• children's sports
• focus groups
• qualitative research

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lenny D. Wiersma

This study was funded by a grant from the California State University Special Fund for Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity. The authors would like to thank Amy Kowalski, a graduate assistant, for her assistance with the data analysis and revision of this manuscript and Artur Poczwardowski, who provided valuable feedback on the reporting of the results. Please address all correspondence concerning this article to Lenny Wiersma, Department of Kinesiology, California State University, Fullerton, Fullerton, CA 92834-6870.