By Lori Gano-Overway, Sarah Carson Sackett, & Bob Harmison
(November 3, 2022)

Sport is a great context to teach young people life skills. First, sport is inherently fun as student-athletes get to be active, test out their skills, play with others, and be challenged to get better. For the most part, athletes want to be there. Second, the sport context presents unique opportunities for kids to grow and learn a variety of life skills.  These life skills include teamwork, communication, goal setting, etc. (see graphic; Cronin & Allen, 2017).

While the sport context sets the stage, fully developing these life skills require coaches to be more intentional approach (Bean et al., 2018). These more intentional strategies involve discussing and practicing life skills.  However, many coaches are left wondering how to more seamlessly incorporate these strategies into their practice in the midst of all of their other job responsibilities.

The first step is to identify and define 3 to 5 life skills that will be the focus of the season.  Once this is complete, coaches can more easily set expectations and reinforce life skills within practice and competition.  Setting expectations and team standards that align with target life skills provide athletes with useful reminders and incentives for doing this difficult work. For example, clearly outlining what respect looks like in practice and competitions (e.g., congratulating an opponent for a nice shot in tennis, providing words of encouragement to the player who is having a difficult practice, being calm and accepting an official’s call even when you do not agree) helps athletes know what to do. Once expectations are in place, coaches can look for opportunities to verbally praise these positive behaviors when they see them. If athletes are falling short of expectations, coaches can set aside time to talk to the athlete about how they can do better. 

Many coaches note their why for coaching is to develop athletes in sport and life. By intentionally identifying and defining life skills, setting clear behavioral standards, and prioritizing reinforcing positive portrayals of the standards, coaches will be well on their way to achieving their goals. If you are interested in learning more about coaching life skills through sport, see the information below about a free self-paced, two-hour course developed to coach life skills. 

References

Bean, C., Kramers, S., Forneris, T., & Camiré, M. (2018) The implicit/explicit continuum of life skills development and transfer Quest, 70, 456-470. https://doi.org/10.1080/00336297.2018.1451348

Cronin, L.D., & Allen, J. (2017). Development and initial validation of the Life Skills Scale for Sport. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 28, 105-119. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2016.11.001

Within the Coaching Life Skills Through Sport course, each participating coach:

• labels and defines key life skills for their program,
• identifies strategies for coaching life skills to student-athletes, and
• develops plans to incorporate the strategies during their sport’s season.

The free self-paced course teaches coaches the latest evidence-based strategies for developing life skills and provides a workbook to guide them in building a manageable life skills program in their own coaching practice.  Additionally, it provides examples of how high school coaches are putting these strategies into action within their sport programs.