Pierre Trudel, Natalie Durand-Bush, Penny Werthner, University of Ottawa
Wade Gilbert, Fresno State University, California
Marc Cloes, Université de Liège, Belgium
SRG-RELEASE TIME STIPEND 2006
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Project summary
Among the various opportunities young people have to practise sports, school sports are of particular interest because the ultimate goal of schools is to shape our future citizens. Although school sport has become increasingly popular in Canada, there are very few studies enabling us to assess whether it is achieving its stated mission objective, specifically to promote the overall development of student athletes through sport. An analysis of the data collected over the past three years confirms that (a) all the players involved (administrators, coaches, student-athletes, parents) believe that sport helps impart values and life skills to student athletes; (b) the way in which school sport is structured can affect the transmission of values and life skills; (c) coaches receive little training on teaching values and life skills and have difficulty providing tangible examples of activities they use to do so; and (d) recruiting coaches is a significant problem.
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SCRI 2009 Presentation Slides
Among the various opportunities young people have to practise sports, school sports are of particular interest because the ultimate goal of schools is to shape our future citizens. School sport in Canada seems to place considerable value on the overall development of student athletes. For example, the purpose of the Canadian School Sport Federation is to “promote and be an advocate for good sportsmanship, citizenship and the total development of student athletes through interscholastic sport” (CSSF, 2004, p.4). Considering that coaches play a major role in both teaching sports skills and transmitting values, our research program is based on a conceptual model we call “holistic coaching.” Holistic coaching is defined as all the activities negotiated among coaches, student athletes and the team’s supporters (parents, principals) that balance the student athletes’ overall development with sport-specific development. The goal of this project is to answer the following general question: what type of coaching (holistic or non-holistic) is used in school sports? To answer this question, we interviewed school principals (n=13), coaches (n=37), parents (n=20) and student athletes (n=20). With regard to sports in schools, the analysis of the interviews shows that (a) in addition to motor skills, student athletes seem to develop sound values and life skills; (b) parents appear to support their children’s decision to be involved in school sports because they are a good complement to academics; (c) coaches seem to see the value of holistic coaching but have difficulty providing concrete examples of activities they use; and (d) school principals appear to strongly support school sports.
Young people can practise sports in a variety of situations; the practice of school sport is of
particular interest because the ultimate goal of educational institutions is to shape our future
citizens. Interscholastic sport in Canada seems to place considerable value on the overall
development of student athletes. For example, the purpose of the Canadian School Sport
Federation (CSSF) is to “promote and be an advocate for good sportsmanship, citizenship and
the total development of student athletes through interscholastic sport” (CSSF, 2004, p.4).
Given that coaches inevitably play a major role in both teaching sport skills and imparting
values, our research program on the practice of school sport will be based on a conceptual
model known as “holistic coaching.” Holistic coaching is defined as all the activities negotiated
among the coaches, athletes and the people around the team (parents, principals) that balance
the student athletes’ total development with sport-specific development. This project is designed
to answer the following general question: What type of coaching (holistic or non-holistic) is
prevalent in school sport? To answer this question, we have to date interviewed school
principals (n=12), coaches (n=30), parents (n=20) and student athletes (n=20). A preliminary
analysis of the data collected indicates that (a) coaches value holistic training but have difficulty
providing tangible examples of activities used to impart educational values; (b) coaches have
few opportunities to learn how to impart educational values; and (c) the lack of time, scant
recognition and the competitive nature of school sport make learning the coaching role very
difficult.
SCRI 2007 Presentation Slides
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