By Trey Bechly and Brad Strand
(August 3, 2021)
The youth sports market in the United States is $19.2 billion industry (Research and Markets, 2019). Millions of young athletes participate in youth sports each year and it seems like the starting age for ‘competitive’ youth sports keeps getting younger. Parents are starting their children at such young ages, not because each youngster necessarily wants to play organized sports at that age; but so their young athletes do not fall behind (Benson & Strand, 2014). However, parents are not the only ones who play a vital role in the participation of youth in sport. Coaches have just as much, if not more, of an impact on youth. The behaviors coaches display and enforce have lasting effects on youth and their motivational climate. Prichard and Deutsch (2015) stated that coaches contribute to the development of motivational climates (i.e., positive, negative, ego-oriented, mastery-oriented) by the goals they promote, the attitudes and values they transmit, and the ways they treat all members of their team. Achievement goals play such an important part in each style of coaching, whether coaches know it or not. Depending on the coaching style, positive youth development can be formed and transformed for each athlete.
Achievement Goal Theory
The study of achievement goal theory (AGT), which focuses on two different states of mind, began in the 1970’s (Pritchard & Duetsch, 2015). AGT is a psychological theory of intrinsic motivation that considers how beliefs and cognitions orient us towards achievement or success, especially in relation to two styles, task (mastery) and ego (performance) (Kramer et al., 2012). When someone is in a mastery-oriented state, their success is based on skill development, task mastery, and exerting maximum effort (Williams & Krane, 2021). Mastery-oriented individuals care about personally improving their skills on the task they are focusing on. They are not overly focused simply on competing or comparing themselves to others, but instead focusing on competing against themselves.
Unfortunately, success and winning are what a lot of coaches, parents, and peers push on youth in their sport experiences. They mostly care about the winning and losing of competitions which is more of an ego-oriented state of mind. In an ego-state, participants use social comparison for self-perceived success, and their emphasis is on outperforming others to attain success and recognition (Williams & Krane, 2021). If they do not win, they do not feel like they have succeeded. Failure then becomes anything other than winning.
Mastery-Oriented Climate
According to Granero-Gallegos et al. (2017), a mastery-oriented motivational climate is positively related to task-oriented goals, enjoyment, satisfaction, interest, self-motivation, and commitment rather than the negative affective behavior and feeling of pressure associated with a performance-orientated motivational climate. There is less pressure on athletes because they do not have to worry about comparing themselves to others or the outcomes of the competition. Instead, they are focused on improving their own skills to be the best versions of themselves.
Research suggests that athletes who perceive a mastery-oriented motivational climate tend to display a positive goal achievement pattern more so than an athlete who has a perceived performance-oriented motivational climate (Granero-Gallegos et al., 2017). Striving for mastery-oriented motivational climates within sport settings is important as results from past studies have shown that when mastery-oriented climates are perceived as important, individuals have a higher tendency to exhibit adaptive cognitive, affective, and behavioral patterns (Ntoumanis & Biddle, 1999).
Mastery Approach to Coaching (MAC)
A sport psychology program titled the Mastery Approach to Coaching (MAC) is focused on training coaches about the mastery-oriented climate principles and the effects those behaviors have on athletes (Smoll, nd). According to the MAC, more than 25,000 youth sport coaches, district sport coaches, and educators (PE teachers) have been trained through 500 different workshops around the country (Smoll, 2013).
Smoll (nd) proposed two different approaches to coaching, a positive and negative approach. The positive approach creates a mastery-oriented climate and is designed to increase desirable behaviors by motivating athletes to perform by rewarding, or reinforcing the efforts of athletes. In contrast, the negative approach is usually seen as an ego-oriented climate that involves attempts to eliminate athletes’ mistakes through the use of punishment and criticism. The ego-oriented approach is a quick and effective method to instill fear of failure, creating a climate of hostility and resentment due to the fear of not reaching a specific performance outcome.
The MAC demonstrates positive outcomes such as fostering positive coach athlete relations, increasing the amount of fun the athletes experience, creating greater team cohesion, increasing athletes’ self-esteem, reducing performance-destroying anxiety and fear of failure, and decreasing athlete dropout rates from approximately 30% to 5% (Smoll, 2013). All of these outcomes contribute to positive youth development through sport.
Application to Coaching Practice
A mastery-oriented motivational climate affects young athletes in a more positive way compared to an ego-oriented climate in a number of ways.
- Athletes trained in a mastery-oriented motivational climate have improved psychological well-being compared to those who are subjected to a climate that is solely focused on competitive training (Granero-Gallegos et al. (2017).
- Athletes trained in mastery-oriented motivational climate have more enjoyment and higher levels of motor skill performance (Theeboom & Weiss, 1995).
- Athletes trained in a mastery-oriented motivational climate report higher levels of enjoyment and satisfaction, increased perceptions of efficacy, reduced anxiety levels, fulfilled social interactions and are able to feel competent and successful because their effort is within their control (Prichard & Deutsch, 2015).
- Athletes trained in a mastery-oriented motivational climate base their success on giving maximum effort and becoming the best they can be rather than only focusing on winning and losing (Saville & Bray, 2016).
- Athletes in a mastery-oriented motivational climate are reinforced for selecting challenging tasks, giving maximum effort, persisting in the face of setbacks, encouraging and supporting teammates, and demonstrating personal improvement (Smith, Smoll, & Cumming, 2007).
Conclusion
An important aspect of developing a mastery approach to coaching is by gaining the respect of each athlete. According to Smoll (n.d.), there are two ways coaches can accomplish this; first, by showing athletes they are willing to make the effort to teach athletes how to develop their skills, and second, being a fair and considerate leader by showing them that they are happy to be coaching them and that they care about them as individuals.
Creating a mastery-oriented motivational climate is one of the most important concepts coaches can establish in their coaching environments as this type of environment leads to positive reactions.
References
Benson, D. & Strand, B. (2014). The challenge of sport entrapment. Arkansas Journal, 49(1), 17-22.
Granero-Gallegos, A., Gómez-López, M., Rodríguez-Suárez, N., Abraldes, J. A., Alesi, M., & Bianco, B. (2017). Importance of the motivational climate in goal, enjoyment, and the causes of success in handball players. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 2081. doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02081
Kremer, J., Moran, A., Walker, G., & Craig, C. (2012). Achievement goal theory. Key Concepts in Sport Psychology. SAGE: London. http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781446288702.
Ntoumanis, N., & Biddle, S. J. H. (1999). A review of motivational climate in physical activity. Journal of Sport Sciences, 17, 643-665.
Prichard, A., & Deutsch, J. (2015). The effects of motivational climate on youth sport participants. The Physical Educator, 72, 200-214.
Research and Markets. (2019, Dec. 26). Youth sports market projected to reach $77.6 by 2026- Comprehensive industry analysis & insights. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2019/12/26/1964575/0/en/Youth-Sports-Market-Projected-to-Reach-77-6-Billion-by-2026-Comprehensive-Industry-Analysis-Insights.html
Saville, P. D., & Bray, S. R. (2016). Athletes’ perceptions of coaching behavior, relation-inferred self-efficacy (RISE), and self-efficacy in youth sport. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 28(1), 1-13.
Smoll, F. L. (n.d). The mastery approach to coaching. Retrieved from http://www.wssaaa.com/uploads/5/5/4/6/5546667/mac_description.pdf
Smoll, F. L. (2013, Aug. 6). The key to educating young sport adults. Psychology Today. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/coaching-and-parenting-young-athletes/201308/the-key-educating-youth-sport-adults
Theebom, M., & Weiss, M. (1995). Motivational climate, psychological responses, and motor skill development in children’s sport: A field-based intervention study. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 17, 294-311.
William, J., & Krane, V. (2021). A social-cognitive approach to conducting evidence based coach-training programs. In F. Smoll & R. Smith (Eds.). Applied Sport Psychology: Personal Growth to Peak Performance (pp. 386-408). McGraw-Hill: NY, NY.
