Coaching Life Skills in Young Athletes

From the time of the ancient Greeks sport has been viewed as a mechanism for developing young people psychologically and preparing them for adult life. This holds true today as leadership, teamwork, confidence and resiliency are common examples of the types of life skills ascribed to youth sport participation. But does sport participation develop life skills? Coakley (2011) has argued that this is not the case and he contends that the belief that life skills are developed via sport participation is actually based more on myth than fact. What does the research say? And, if sport does develop life skills, when and under what conditions does this occur? This presentation examines the research on using sport to promote life skills in children and youth. Life skills are defined as "those internal personal assets, characteristics and skills such as goal setting, emotional control, self-esteem, and hard work ethic that can be facilitated or developed in sport and are transferred for use in non-sport settings" (Gould & Carson, 2008). The sport psychological research on promoting life skills through sport is reviewed with an emphasis on factors influencing life skills development in young athletes. Research shows that life skills can be developed through sport and physical activity both implicitly and explicitly. Effects are not always positive. Most reviewers of the evidence, however, conclude that more consistent and positive results come when life skills are explicitly fostered and taught (Gould & Westfall, 2014). Life skills, then, are best viewed as being “intentionally taught” versus as being “caught” from mere sport participation. Example programs designed to promote life skills in children and youth through sport participation are discussed, as are theoretical explanations for how life skills are developed and influence young people. Finally, specific coaching strategies and policies that can be used to promote life skills in children and youth through sport are examined as well as strategies for insuring that life skills transfer from sport to other life contexts (Pierce et al., 2016). It is concluded that sport and physical activity contexts have great potential for fostering life skills. However, sport is not a panacea for the development of life skills. Life skills are most likely developed in young athletes when they are systematically fostered and taught by caring, competent adults who use both direct and indirect strategies for doing so.