Wade Gilbert

California State University, Fresno | Fresno State · Department of Kinesiology

The purpose of this commentary is to provide a broad overview of the empirical research-based articles published in the International Sport Coaching Journal from its inception in 2014 through 2020. Data from 101 publications were collected and analyzed using Arksey and O’Malley’s six-stage framework for conducting scoping reviews. Data were extract...

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate the Coaching Athlete Purpose Scale (CAPS), designed to measure alignment between coaching purpose and the athlete-centered outcomes of competence, confidence, connection, and character (the 4Cs) Following literature review, a pool of items was developed and submitted for content validation to a...

Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) have shown efficacy with diverse populations. The training periods for sport MBIs range 4-10 weeks, but positive outcomes have been found during the first 2-4 weeks This is promising as athletes have busy schedules. Additionally, smartphone MBIs are gaining in popularity, but research with them is just beginni...

While the impact of coaches on their athletes has been appreciated for more than a century, only recently have researchers reached a consensus concerning the key coaching principles and methods that consistently ensure the most positive outcomes for athletes and coaches. Sport Coaches’ Handbook presents this more holistic approach to coaching and p...

This study investigated whether gratitude predicted burnout directly and indirectly through coach–athlete relationships. National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Divisions I ( n = 305), II ( n = 202), and III ( n = 89) student-athletes ( N = 596, 76.5% women) completed a survey regarding athlete burnout, coach–athlete relationships, trait gr...

There is a growing body of research on positive tactile communication and its impact on athlete performance and team dynamics. The purpose of the present study was to examine the profile and perceived impact of positive tactile communication as a coaching strategy in a high-performance team sport setting. Participants were members of a successful A...

Sport coaches have a tremendous influence—positive or negative—in the lives of athletes. Too often, however, the delivery of quality coaching is left to chance. Athletes deserve coaches who create positive environments, foster skill development, and build character. In Coach Education Essentials, leading coach educators and professionals from aroun...

Humanistic coaching focuses on promoting athletes’ personal growth and development by empowering athletes and fostering positive interpersonal coach-athlete relationships. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the experiences of student-athletes coached by individuals using humanistic principles to foster personal development through...

Gratitude, a character strength of positive psychology, is the affective-cognitive recognition and appreciation that one has benefitted from or received value from others (Emmons & McCullough, 2003; Gabana, Steinfeldt, Wong, & Chung, 2017). Higher levels of gratitude are negatively correlated to lower levels of burnout in NCAA student-athletes (Gab...

Gratitude is the affective-cognitive recognition and appreciation that one has benefitted from or received value from others (Emmons & McCullough, 2003) and is a growing emphasis in research on well-being (Gable & Haidt, 2005). In the sport domain, higher levels of gratitude are negatively correlated to lower levels of burnout in NCAA student-athle...

Competitions in many team sports include short breaks (e.g., intermissions, halftime) where coaches have a unique opportunity to make tactical adjustments and communicate with athletes as a group. Although these breaks are significant coaching moments, very little is known about what successful coaches do during this time. The purpose of this study...

The purpose of the present article is to share the design and impact of a coach-athlete relationship coach education seminar. The seminar is part of the United States Olympic Committee’s (USOC) National Team Coach Leadership Education Program (NTCLEP). Development and delivery of the seminar is facilitated by The People Academy ( www.people.academy...

There is a growing worldwide interest in understanding optimal and healthy pathways for talent development in sport. The purpose of the study was to explore how familial, environmental and social factors facilitated the athletic development of elite Touch representatives who grew up in the small town of Petersville (pseudonym), New Zealand. An inte...

Coaches often identify social learning situations as the most valuable and influential to their learning. Thus, researchers have proposed implementing social learning initiatives, in particular, the community of practice approach. The purpose of the present study was to explore how an existing coach community of practice was created and sustained i...

Abstract: According to self-determination theory, individuals have a need to feel: (a) competent, (b) relatedness, or a sense of belongingness or connections with others, and (c) autonomy, or independence in making decisions (Deci & Ryan, 2000). Self-determination theory has been shown to be an important factor in coaching success and how coaches c...

The three of us combine decades of experience in the sport coaching field, first as athletes who have been coached, then as coaches, coach educators, and coaching scientists. Increasingly we have been asked to act as consultants to guide sport organizations in the development of their coaches. In the high-performance coaching context, a shift from...

The purpose of this study was to examine the experiences of competitive masters swimmers by asking them to describe desired coaching characteristics and perceived benefits associated with masters swimming. The research questions guiding this study were: What are masters swimmers’ desired coaching characteristics? What are masters swimmers’ percepti...

Commitment to ongoing learning is a hallmark of effective sport coaches. Available literature indicates: (a) coach learning inquiries have become more common but mostly conceptual not empirical; (b) the few available empirical studies provide only brief snapshots of ongoing learning efforts and seldom track learning impact; and (c) ongoing learning...

THE PURPOSE OF THIS ARTICLE IS TO PRESENT RESEARCH-BASED GUIDELINES FOR DEVELOPING EFFECTIVENESS AS A STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING COACH. THE GUIDELINES ARE BASED ON A REVIEW OF SOCIAL-LEARNING APPROACHES TO COACH AND TEACHER EDUCATION. THE ARTICLE OPENS WITH A DEFINITION OF COACH EFFECTIVENESS AND THEN PROVIDES GUIDANCE ON HOW TO DEVELOP COACH EFFECT...

Youth sport settings can, and should, be viewed as principle settings for nurturing a wide range of positive developmental outcomes. Coaches are increasingly being called upon to assume this responsibility. The purpose of this chapter is to provide positive youth development guidelines for youth sport coaches and coach educators. The guidelines are...

The purpose of this study was to investigate coaches’ perceptions on the impact of a coach training program designed to promote youth developmental outcomes. Participants were coaches of youth sport teams. Multiple methods were used to collect data. Coaches reported many benefits for themselves, their athletes, and their teams. They reported an inc...

The 4Cs of positive youth development (PYD; competence, confidence, connection, and character) have been advocated as desirable athlete outcomes of sport participation, and in effect, a useful proxy measure of coaching effectiveness. However, a shortcoming of this framework has been a lack of tangible ways to accurately measure these constructs in...

A follow-up of the 1990s review of qualitative research articles published in three North American sport psychology journals (Culver, Gilbert, & Trudel, 2003) was conducted for the years 2000–2009. Of the 1,324 articles published, 631 were data-based and 183 of these used qualitative data collection techniques; an increase from 17.3% for the 1990s...

The purpose of the present study was to use citation network analysis to identify key publications and influential researchers in coaching science. A citation network analysis was conducted on references of English-language peer-reviewed coaching research articles published in 2007 and 2008 (n=141 articles; 3,891 references). Publications were code...

The present study examined a 10-week psychological skills training (PST) intervention called UNIFORM (Johnson & Gilbert, 2004) with a community college softball team. The intervention was based on the transtheoretical model (Prochaska & Marcus, 1994). Results showed that the athletes learned the skills, enjoyed the intervention, and significantly i...

Continuing professional development (CPD) for sport coaches has been defined as all kinds of professional learning that occurs after initial certification (Nelson et al., 2006), and includes both non-formal and informal learning situations. Despite the fact that within the past decade there has been an increasing number of studies on these learning...

The purpose of this paper is to share recommendations from youth sport coaches and administrators on using the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals (UN MDGs) for teaching citizenship through youth sport. Fourteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with coaches and administrators from one region of the American Youth Soccer Organizati...

The purpose of this article is to offer a tool both for identifying the qualities of effective coaches and for facilitating the professional development of youth sport coaches. We have labeled this tool the Pyramid of Teaching Success in Sport (PofTSS) to reflect the widely held position that effective coaching is dependent upon teaching success. T...

The purpose of the current paper is to present an integrative definition of coaching effectiveness and expertise that is both specific and conceptually grounded in the coaching, teaching, positive psychology, and athletes' development literature. The article is organized into six sections. The first section is used to situate the proposed definitio...

The purpose of this exploratory study was to compare the developmental profiles of successful high-school sport coaches, and to determine if elements of a coach's developmental profile were associated with coaching success. Sixteen high-school coaches in the United States - nine who coach basketball and seven cross-country running - participated in...

Seventy-two college athletic directors (ADs) participated in a survey about (a) previous experience with sport psychology consultants (SPCs), (b) previous exposure to the field, and (c) attitudes toward sport psychology consulting. ADs were confused about appropriate training for SPCs, highlighted by the fact that 66.7% were unaware of any certific...

Repeated calls have been made by prominent sport and education associations for the creation of ongoing professional development networks and learning communities for youth sport coaches. The purpose of this paper is to propose a learning community approach to coach development that complements large-scale coach education programs. This concept pap...

This article discusses the various sources of athlete stress and the strategies that coaches can use to help young athletes cope with it. The information is based on a study with a competitive adolescent soccer team and its two coaches, and a review of the coaching and sport psychology literature. The suggested coaching strategies can help to allev...

The purpose of this research report is to present an overview of an ongoing, international project designed to chart the developmental paths and activities of sport coaches. This brief report includes three sections: (a) conceptual framework used to guide the project, (b) project design and methodology, and (c) results from pilot studies with a sam...

The purpose of the article is to provide an overview of an applied sport psychology intervention designed for high school student-athletes. To illustrate the process, as well as the product, each year of the two-year project is presented separately. Problems encountered with this type of intervention, such as working in the high school environment,...

The study followed a four-phase design. In Phase I an exhaustive search was conducted for all English language coaching research published in journals from 1970 to 2001. In Phase II, copies of the research were obtained. An expert panel conducted a manual search and a review in Phase III to address validity. Analysis of the research was completed i...

Similar to a belief system, a role frame acts as a perceptual filter that influences how practitioners define their professional responsibilities (Schön, 1983). The purpose of this article is to present the role frame components of model youth team sport coaches. The results are based on a two-year multiple-case study with six coaches. On average,...

Literature on youth ice hockey indicates that there is a need for changes so children can play a safer game in a more fair-play environment. Throughout this paper we argue that with the existing training programs for coaches and the others involved in youth ice hockey it will be difficult to move in that direction. The adoption of values like integ...

Description The latest volume in this ongoing series enhances your understanding of both the injuries incurred in the game of ice hockey and the techniques used to decrease the risk of these injuries. Twenty-three peer-reviewed papers address a diverse range of topics from the fields of sports science, sports medicine, athletic training, biomechani...

Part of the on-going dialogue on qualitative research in sport and exercise psychology, this review portrays the qualitative articles published in three sport psychology journals and examines how qualitative research can deepen our knowledge in applied sport psychology. Eighty-four of the 485 research ar-ticles published in these journals used a qu...

The present study examined how model youth sport coaches learn to coach through experience. Yin's multiple-case study approach was used with six youth team sport coaches. Data were collected over an entire sport season through a series of semi-structured interviews, observations, and documents. All six case study coaches developed and refined coach...

The purpose of the present study was to provide a profile of rule infractions at the Bantam (14-15 years old) level of ice hockey. For each penalty, information is provided on the: (a) category and type, (b) period of the game, (c) number of players penalized, and (d) zone and area on the ice surface where the infraction occurred. Gamesheet reports...

The purpose of this study was to examine the views of youth ice hockey coaches (n = 12) when asked to discuss their game behaviours related to (a) rule infractions, (b) aggressive play, and (c) injuries. A total of 48 stimulated recall interview transcripts were analyzed. Results show that (a) rule infractions, aggressive play, and injuries became...

Description The latest volume in this series enhances our understanding of both the injuries incurred in the game of ice hockey and of the techniques used to decrease the risk of these injuries. 25 peer-reviewed papers cover: • Injury Surveillance--discusses the injury surveillance system and the principles of ice hockey injury research. • Protecti...

Description The latest volume in this series enhances our understanding of both the injuries incurred in the game of ice hockey and of the techniques used to decrease the risk of these injuries. 25 peer-reviewed papers cover: • Injury Surveillance--discusses the injury surveillance system and the principles of ice hockey injury research. • Protecti...

This study provided a descriptive analysis of the interactive decision making factors considered by coaches of youth ice hockey (aged 10-15 years) during games. Using a multiple-case study design, data were collected using a combination of semi structured interviews and an adapted version of stimulated recall interviews. An inductive analysis of th...

Last month, 70 members of the U.S. Congress, including Henry Hyde, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and J. C. Watts Jr. Republican Conference Chairman, signed a letter urging the federal government to ban all research on stem cells obtained from human embryos and fetuses. The letter calls upon the U.S. Department of Health and Human Servi...

Résumé Les travaux de recherche en pédagogie de l'entraînement sportif ont surtout porté sur l'analyse des comportements des entraîneurs et des athlètes. À l'opposé, l'étude du domaine cognitif est peu développée même si plusieurs auteurs reconnaissent que le milieu sportif est un contexte qui s'y prête très bien. Le but de cette étude1 était de me...