conducting evidence based coach-training programs: a social-cognitive approach frank l. smoll &...

Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.

Conducting Evidence Based

Coach-Training Programs: A Social-Cognitive

ApproachFrank L. Smoll & Ronald E. Smith

Chapter 17

“Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to do the best of which you are capable.”

-John Wooden, Basketball Hall of Fame player and coach


Coaches and Sport Psychologists Need Coaching, Too!

• All interventions should be based on firm empirical evidence and should have demonstrated efficacy based on outcome research

• Coaches and sport psychologists need to work together


Theoretical Model and Research Paradigm

• Cognitive-mediational model of coach-athlete interactions:

COACH BEHAVIORS

ATHLETES’ PERCEPTIONS AND RECALL

ATHLETES’ EVALUATIVE REACTIONS


Cognitive-Mediational Model of Coach-athlete Interactions • Coaching behaviors are mediated by the

athletes’ recall and the meaning they attribute to the coach’s actions

• Also influenced by:• Athlete’s age• What he or she expects of coaches • Personality variables such as self-

esteem and anxiety


Measurement of Coaching Behavior• Coaching Behavior Assessment System (CBAS)

• Measures leadership behaviors• Direct observation and coding of coaches’ actions

during practices and games• Two major classes of behaviors

• Reactive• Responses to immediately preceding athlete

or team behaviors• Spontaneous

• Not a response to a discernible preceding event


Testing CBAS

• How frequently do coaches engage in behaviors such as encouragement, punishment, instruction, and organization, and how are observable coaching behaviors related to children’s reactions to their organized athletic experiences?


Testing CBAS (cont.)

• CBAS systematic program of research was carried out over a period of several years

• Evaluated how frequently coaches engage in reactive and spontaneous behaviors

• Evaluated children’s reactions to these behaviors and their organized athletic experience



• Typical baseball or basketball coach engages in more than 200 codable actions during an average game

• Most positive outcomes occurred when children played for coaches who:

• Engaged in high levels of positive reinforcement (performance and effort)

• Responded to mistakes with encouragement and technical instruction

• Emphasized the importance of fun and personal improvement over winning.



• A positive coaching climate was 10 times more influential than was the team’s win-loss record

• Coaches unaware of how they behaved • Athletes were more accurate perceivers of actual coach

behaviors


Assessing the Efficacy of a Coach-Training Program• Coach Effectiveness Training (CET) Workshops

• Cognitive-behavioral framework• Designed to train coaches to provide a more positive and

socially supportive athletic environment • Coaches instructed on behavioral guidelines • Behavioral feedback and self-monitoring procedures

employed to increase the coaches’ self-awareness • Trained CBAS observers came to 2 complete games• ALSO measure postseason outcomes with players

Assessing the Efficacy of a Coach-Training Program (cont.)

• Observers and players found that the trained coaches were different than those not trained in CBAS.

• CBAS coaches:• Gave more reinforcement in response to good

performance and effort • Responded to mistakes with more encouragement and

technical instruction and fewer punitive responses• Better liked and perceived as better teachers• Players liked one another more, had greater enjoyment,

and showed increases in general self-esteem• No won-loss differences Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No

reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.


Assessing the Efficacy of aCoach-Training Program (cont.)• CET intervention resulted in player-perceived behavioral differences

between trained and untrained coaches• Trained coaches were better liked and rated as better teachers; players

reported more fun playing• Children with low self-esteem who played for the trained coaches

exhibited a significant increase in general self-esteem over the course of the season

• Children experienced lower levels of performance anxiety with CET coaches

Replication of the Efficacy of a Coach-Training ProgramFour results for trained vs. untrained coaches:

1. Player-perceived behavioral differences were consistent with the behavioral guidelines

2. Coaches were better liked and rated as better teachers by their players

3. Children with low self-esteem exhibited a significant increase in general self-esteem

4. Children manifested lower levels of performance anxiety

One year follow-up found drop-out difference: – control group = 26% dropout rate – trained group = 5% dropout rateCopyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No

reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.


Achievement Goals, Motivational Climate, and Coaching• Sport environment is inherently a

competence and achievement context

• Motivational factors play an important role in determining the effects of participation on psychosocial development


Achievement Goal Theory• Focuses on understanding the function and the

meaning of goal directed action, based on athletes perception of ability and demonstrated competence

• Incorporates a variety of variables:• Goal states• Attributions• Fear of failure• Self-perceived competence• Incremental and entity implicit theories of competence• Goal orientations• Motivational climate


Goal Orientation• The criteria individuals use to define

success• Mastery (task) – Success = self-

referenced manner and is focused on skill development, task mastery, and exerting maximum effort

• Ego – Social comparison shapes self-perceived success, emphasis is on outperforming others in order to attain recognition and status.


Motivational Climate• Achievement behavior influenced by

both personal and situational factors.• Motivational climate = environmental

factors that foster mastery or ego involvement.

• Mastery Climate• Success is defined in terms of self-

improvement, task mastery and exerting maximum effort

• Ego-involving Climate• Success is defined in terms of

social comparison


Motivational Climate (cont.)

Mastery Climate• Stronger mastery orientation for

participants• Greater enjoyment and

satisfaction• Stronger intrinsic and self-

determination motivation• Group cohesion• Lower levels of performance

anxiety

Ego-involving Climate• Positive reinforcement only given

to most competent athletes and instrumental to winning

• Comparing teammates creates rivalries

• Mistakes punished with criticism (inspiring a fear of failure with athletes)

• Win at all costs (negative effects)


Mastery Approach to Coaching

• MAC incorporates content on goal orientations and motivational climate and provides specific guidelines on creating a mastery climate

• Coaches are encouraged to increase:1. Positive reinforcement2. Mistake-contingent encouragement3. Corrective instruction given in a positive and

encouraging fashion4. Sound technical instruction


MAC (cont.)

• Coaches urged to avoid:• Non-reinforcement of positive behaviors• Punishment for mistakes • Punitive technical instruction following

mistakes

• Guidelines are designed to:• Reduce fear of failure• Foster self-esteem • Increase positive coach-athlete interactions• Enhance team solidarity• Promote positive atmosphere for skill

development

Implementing Sport Psychology Workshops for Coaches

Create a positive learning experience

• Do:– Communicate respect– Emphasize that all

coaches have a great deal to offer as a result of their own experiences

– Convey sincere enthusiasm

• Don’t:– Approach coaches in

condescending manner– Intimate that the

program is designed to protect athletes from coaches

– Give the impression that what the coaches have been doing is incorrect

Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of

McGraw-Hill Education.


Workshops for Coaches (cont.)

• Coaches should be made aware of their important role as a coach

• Many underestimate their influence and need reminding of their effect on young athletes

• Teach a 4-part philosophy of winning1. Winning isn’t everything, nor is it the only thing2. Failure is not the same thing as losing3. Success is not equivalent to winning4. Success is found in striving for victory

• Maximizes young athletes’ enjoyment of sport and the benefits of participation


Workshops for Coaches (cont.)• Establishing an empirical foundation for training guidelines

+ presenting supportive, empirical evidence• Expertise and trustworthiness• Arouses the curiosity and involvement of participants• Research findings form a frame of reference for the

behavioral guidelines• Demonstrating that certain behaviors have positive

effects on children impact coaches’ expectations for similar consequences

• Use lay terms and visual aids, avoid scientific jargon

• Do not view as a “magic formula” and mere knowledge of the principles are not sufficient

• Must integrate the guidelines into his/her own coaching style

• Interactive format to encourage active participatory learning (stories and anecdotes)

• Trainer must be well versed in practical ramifications of the guidelines

Workshops for Coaches (cont.)

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McGraw-Hill Education.


Secrets of Effective Presentations• Prepare, prepare, prepare

• More comfortable when practice presenting before the session

• Find your style• Do what feels right

• Spice it up• Include personal and interesting sport stories

• Cover less, not more• Go slowly and thoughtfully through the material

• Make improvements • Avoid doing the same thing over and over, even

though it is not working


Goal of the Workshop• Change coaches’ attitudes about some of

their roles and responsibilities and about their use of certain coaching behaviors

• The persuasion process involves:• Credibility, trustworthiness, likeability,

and novelty


Credibility• A credible communicator

is more effective in changing attitudes

• Credibility = Expertise + Trustworthiness

• Present information and coaching guidelines objectively - avoid a “right versus wrong”

Persuasiveness• Create similarities to

create persuasiveness – “we” vs. “you”

• Communicator’s liability• Reciprocity• 2-sided presentation• Rhetorical questions • Novelty • Humor


Increase Coaches’ Self-Awareness and Compliance

• Behavioral feedback• Encouraged coaches to work with their assistants

and share descriptions of each other behaviors and solicit feedback from athletes

• Self-monitoring • Manual contains a self-monitoring form to be filled

out immediately after practices/games

conducting evidence based coach-training programs: a social-cognitive approach frank l. smoll &...

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