Coaching the development and transfer of life skills: a scoping review of facilitative coaching practices in youth sports

ABSTRACT

Research demonstrates support for life skill development and in some instances the life skill transfer. However, coaching practices used to teach life skills are still being understood. This scoping review was designed to identify (a) the facilitative coaching practices related to the development and/or transfer of life skills in youth sport settings and (b) theories used to ground our understanding of coaching of life skills. As a secondary study purpose and way to promote social justice in youth sport, this scoping review was designed to highlight the inclusion of youth populations who are recognized as being socially vulnerable. In total, 51 articles were reviewed, including 25 articles that were guided by a specific theoretical orientation and 19 articles related to socially vulnerable populations. Findings identified implicit and explicit coaching practices for coaching life skills. Implicit coaching practices included developing a PYD-focused coaching philosophy, using a strength-based approach, establishing a prosocial team culture, fostering positive relationships, and supporting youth autonomy. Explicit coaching practices included discussing and teaching life skills, creating opportunities to practice life skills in sport, supplying direct feedback related to using life skills, debriefing sport experiences to enhance life skill transfer, and providing opportunities to transfer outside of sport.

KEYWORDS:

• Sport-based positive youth development
• social justice
• socially vulnerable youth
• sport coach
• coach education

Acknowledgements

We would like to graciously thank Eugenia Opuda for her ongoing support related to scoping review process and systematic search for articles.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Funds through the FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., under the scope of the project UIDB/05198/2020 (Centre for Research and Innovation in Education, inED).