Coaching Ireland Coaching Children Workshop Series: Developing Physical Literacy Through Sport: Coaching Children to Think - Factsheet 4

COACHING CHILDREN SERIES: WORKSHOP 2 INTRODUCTION This factsheet aims to provide a supporting framework for the development of child appropriate sport and physical activity games. It aims to explain basic theories and methodologies of skill acquisition and gives examples of how to apply these into practice. Specifically, this factsheet gives insight into children’s FUNdamental Game Skills i.e. children’s ability to understand and manage the complexities of games and competitions. This will enable you to apply a gamebases approach to your coaching sessions. This factsheet aims to assist you to design games that support the development of FUNdamental Game Skills and deliver inclusive and differentiated sport and physical activity sessions that cater for a wide range of children’s abilities including children with disabilities. “Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood.” Fred Roger

Coaching Ireland Coaching Children Workshop Series: Coaching Children Successfully in Sport: An Introduction for Coaches - Factsheet 1

COACHING CHILDREN SUCCESSFULLY IN SPORT AN INTRODUCTION FOR COACHES This factsheet aims to provide a supporting framework for the development of child appropriate sports and physical activity sessions. It aims to increase the understanding of children’s reasons for joining and leaving sports and physical activities, children’s developmental stages, appropriate coaching approaches during these stages and the importance of developing the whole child. Too often, sessions offered to children in sport and physical activity are scaled down versions of adult activities. However, children’s needs and wants could not be more different from adults. To develop lifelong physically active individuals it is essential that coaches understand these needs and wants and help children to enjoy and feel passionate about participating in physical activity and sport

International Sport Coaching Journal Digest

Digest contains a listing of pertinent, recent coaching and coach education articles and updates from other sources

‘I’m not prepared to sacrifice my life for other people’s tennis’: An explorative study into the career narratives of female tennis coaches

Research recognises the existence of a dominant performance narrative in elite sport that values a ‘win at all costs’ attitude, prioritising sport over all other facets of life. This narrative commonly privileges dominant groups of men at the expense of marginalised men and many women. To interrogate this aspect of sporting culture further, this study offers a unique insight into the influence of the dominant performance narrative within the coaching context. Specifically, a narrative analysis approach was employed to explore eight female tennis coaches’ career experiences. Findings suggest that career success was judged on adherence to the dominant performance narrative which required a single-minded dedication to coaching. Whilst some of the coaches aligned closely with this narrative, adherence to the exclusive nature of the performance narrative caused tension and conflict for others. The coaches who did not adhere to the dominant performance narrative resisted cultural norms and aligned themselves with other, less dominant narratives. This highlights that career success in coaching can be a multidimensional concept and importantly that organisational culture needs to change in order that alternative narratives become more available and validated. This could lead to coach identity being less tied to adherence to the dominant performance narrative and focused more on personal development and well-being. Ultimately, this may result in higher levels of female coach attraction, retention, and progression

Comparative estrogenic activity of wine extracts and organochlorine pesticide residues in food.

The human diet contains industrial-derived, endocrine-active chemicals and higher levels of naturally occurring compounds that modulate multiple endocrine pathways. Hazard and risk assessment of these mixtures is complicated by noadditive interactions between different endocrine-mediated responses. This study focused on estrogenic chemicals in the diet and compared the relative potencies or estrogen equivalents (EQs) of the daily consumption of xenoestrogenic organochlorine pesticides in food (2.44 micrograms/day) with the EQs in a single 200-ml glass of red cabernet wine. The reconstituted organochlorine mixture contained 1,1,1-trichloro-2-(p-chlorophenyl)-2-(o-chlorophenyl)ethane, 1,1,1-trichloro-2,2-bis(p-chlorophenyl)ethane, 1,1-dichloro-2,2-bis(p-chlorophenyl)ethylene, endosulfan-1, endosulfan-2, p,p'-methoxychlor, and toxaphene; the relative proportion of each chemical in the mixture resembled the composition reported in a recent U.S. Food and Drug Administration market basket survey. The following battery of in vitro 17 beta-estradiol (E2)-responsive bioassays were utilized in this study: competitive binding to mouse uterine estrogen receptor (ER); proliferation in T47D human breast cancer cells; luciferase (Luc) induction in human HepG2 cells transiently cotransfected with C3-Luc and the human ER, rat ER-alpha, or rat ER-beta; induction of chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) activity in MCF-7 human breast cancer cells transfected with E2-responsive cathepsin D-CAT or creatine kinase B-CAT plasmids. For these seven in vitro assays, the calculated EQs in extracts from 200 ml of red cabernet wine varied from 0.15 to 3.68 micrograms/day. In contrast, EQs for consumption of organochlorine pesticides (2.44 micrograms/day) varied from nondetectable to 1.24 ng/day. Based on results of the in vitro bioassays, organochlorine pesticides in food contribute minimally to dietary EQ intake

Development, Implementation, and Evaluation of an Athlete-Informed Mental Skills Training Program for Elite Youth Tennis Players

Informed by athletes’ psychological needs, the current qualitative study developed, implemented, and evaluated a 15-month mental skills training (MST) program for elite youth athletes. The MST was divided into three phases that included a nine-month pre-intervention, a two-month intervention, and a four-month evaluation phase. The intervention consisted of three interactive workshops which were delivered to 11 competitive British youth tennis players (aged 8 to 15 years) and their coach (age =34). The intervention was informed by data that was collected throughout a nine-month pre-intervention phase including longitudinal observations, field notes, and semi-structured interviews. The intervention was evaluated over a four-month period through observations, field notes, athlete-workshop data, and a semi-structured interview with the coach. Results reinforced the value of the longitudinal pre-intervention phase by highlighting that the establishment of rapport between the researcher and athletes enhanced the meaningfulness and content of the MST program. Additionally, an increase in athletes’ use and regulation of PSCs was identified as a result of athletes’ improved understanding of psychological skills (i.e., self-talk, imagery, performance routines) and characteristics (i.e., focus, emotional control) (PSCs). Finally, the MST program fostered a shared subject specific language between athletes and their coach, enhancing the openness and frequency with which PSCs were talked about. Practical guidelines for future sport psychology interventions with youth athletes and their coaches are provided

Categorizing and Defining Popular Psychological Terms Used Within the Youth Athlete Talent Development Literature: A Systematic Review

Inconsistencies in the use and definition of psychological terms within the talent development literature have been identified. To advance the scientific field, the creation of a shared language is recommended. This review aimed to systematically (i) identify terms used in empirical studies to describe psychological components purported to facilitate athletes' development; (ii) analyse definition and meanings of these terms; and (iii) group, label and define terms into meaning clusters. A systematic review using a narrative approach to synthesise information was conducted. A comprehensive literature search of SPORTDiscus, PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES, and ERIC was completed in May 2015. In total 21 empirical studies, published between 2002 and 2015, met the inclusion criteria and were included in the narrative synthesis. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the findings. Identified psychological terms were categorised as psychological skills or psychological characteristics. Psychological skills were defined as athletes’ ability to use learned psychological strategies (e.g., self-talk) to regulate and facilitate the enhancement of psychological characteristics. Psychological characteristics were defined as predispositions that impact upon athlete development (e.g., self-confidence). Despite being relatively enduring and consistent across a range of situations, psychological characteristics can be regulated and enhanced through the use of psychological skills