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Are today’s high school coaches well trained?
Both my son and daughter play high school sports. While I am a proponent of school sports I have become concerned with much of the coaching I observed. These coaches just don’t seem to be as well trained as when I was in school. What is going on?
You are right to be concerned with who is coaching your children. Research has consistently shown that the quality of coaching determines whether sports participation has positive or negative effects on young athletes. In particular, high school coaches have a major influence on athletes’ motivation, skill development, values and achievement.When most of us parents of high school aged athletes were in school it was likely that our coaches were trained teachers, often physical education teachers. Things are very different today—fewer and fewer coaches have a background in physical education and some coaches are not even trained teachers.
This does not mean all high school coaches are poor today. On the contrary, there are many great coaches working in our schools and when we observe them they should be recognized. However, there is a need for coaching education – especially for inexperienced coaches. Specifically, coaching education is needed relative to non sport-specific strategy or tactics topics such as understanding child growth and development, sport physiology, injury prevention, teaching sports skills, and sport psychology.
What is the answer? Because of a shortage of individuals available to coach, it is probably unrealistic to expect all high school coaches to be trained physical educators. However, we should insist on some sort of mandatory training for our high school coaches. For example, the National Federation of State High School Associations has a coaching education program that provides instruction in sport science, sport first aid, and drugs and sports. Here the in the State of Michigan we at the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports have partnered with the Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) to develop their highly acclaimed Coaching Advancement Program, a comprehensive coaching education program specifically designed to meet the needs to today’s coaches.
So what can we as parents do to insure better high school coaching? First, lobby your school board, principal and athletic director to provide education for your school’s coaches. Ask them what coaching education they provide and if their coaches are not being educated ask why. Insist that they hold coaches accountable for their actions (for example, good versus poor sportspersonship). Recognize coaches who make efforts to educate themselves—not only about X’s and O’s of play, but about sport science, player health and safety, and adolescent growth and development.
Remember, children and adolescents are our most important asset and sports participation can have a powerful effect on their lives. So it is imperative that we provide the highest quality coaching for them and coaching education is critical for today’s high school coaches.
Daniel Gould, Ph.D.
Director, Institute for the Study of Youth Sports
