American Press, Applied Research in Coaching and Athletics Annual #31 (2016)

ARCAA Contents & Abstracts, Volume 31, 2016

ISBN 978-0-89641-553-9

A Model for Positive Leadership in Sports — Howard Gauthier — The aim of this paper is to present an adaptation of a model on positive leadership as it applies to the sports industry. The original model was published in the journal, Strategic Leadership Review. The model presents five strategies or dimensions a leader uses to promote a positive organization. These strategies include (a) building a positive structure, (b) executing with a positive purpose, (c) creating a positive climate, (d) developing positive relationships, and (e) interacting with positive communications. The outcome of these strategies leads to motivated participants, increased performance, and increased success. (1-18)

The Academic Dimension: Its Impact on the Model of Coaching Efficacy — Sean Dahlin, Donna L. Pastore — Belief in oneself (i.e., self-efficacy) can depend upon successfully achieving an anticipated outcome (Bandura, 1997). In the world of sport, this is particularly important for head and assistant coaches of their respective teams to reach their planned objectives. Due to the nature of sport within the United States and around the world, coaches are constantly judged by their effectiveness. One way to determine coaches’ effectiveness is through coaching efficacy (Feltz, Chase, Moritz, & Sullivan, 1999). The coaching efficacy model created by Feltz et al. (1999) is comprised of four key dimensions: teaching technique, game strategy, motivation, and character building. In addition to these dimensions, this paper contends that coaches must also have confidence to motivate their athletes academically as well. The purpose of this paper is to propose an additional academic efficacy dimension to the coaching efficacy model (i.e., athletes’ graduation, academic eligibility, and team-GPA). A review of literature on coaching efficacy and academics is provided. The working model of coaching effectiveness (Horn, 2008) and the impact coaching efficacy has on coaching effectiveness will also be discussed. Finally, implications of the proposed dimension are described and future research recommendations are made. (19-44)

Coaching Preferences: Do Female Athletes Prefer Male or Female Coaches — Chuck Waddington, Chelsea Gibson — Do female athletes have a preference when it comes to the gender of their coaches? 66 female collegiate athletes from a private university in the southeastern part of the United States were surveyed to investigate this question. The athletes completed a survey composed of 21 questions. After the data was collected descriptive statistics were figured to determine a conclusion. The distributions found that most female athletes feel that the characteristics of their coach are more important than their gender. For those who did have a preference about gender, they explained that the reason they have a preference has to do with the way the coach interacts with the player, and how well the coach understands the athlete. Overall, based on the results of this study, female athletes were more interested in having the best coach than a coach of a particular gender. (45-68)

A Case Investigation of the Coaching Philosophy of Scottish Elite Distance Running Coaches: To What Extent Are They Humanistic? — Seth E. Jenny — This investigation explored to what extent the coaching philosophy of Scottish elite distance running coaches is humanistic through interviews with eight coaches, eight athletes, and training session observations. Findings indicated that the majority of the coaches were humanistic in regards to individualizing goal setting and training sessions as well as having collaborative coach/athlete program planning processes. The greatest deviation from the humanistic philosophy was that half of the coaches dictated individual training sessions to athletes who were not involved in planning individual workouts due to either athlete choice or the experience level of the athlete. This appeared to be corresponded to the majority of coaches perceiving their athletes were dependent on them for their training schedules and nearly half of the athletes reporting they would not feel comfortable writing their own workout schedule. Implications include that a dependency on the coach may occur in areas where coaches dictate to the athletes. (69-101)

The Effects of Extra-Curricular Mental Training on Self and Externally Paced Tasks in Adolescent Physical Educations Students — Boris Blumenstein, Iris Orbach, Danny Moran, Dikla Ziv, Yitzhak Weinstein — The purpose of this research was to examine the effect of extra-curricular mental training (i.e., relaxation and imagery), as part of a pre-performance routine, on self- and externally-paced tasks (i.e., free throws in basketball and 30 m sprint time, respectively) among adolescent physical education (PE) students. Sixty-five adolescent PE students participated in two experiments. In each experiment the students were assigned to two conditions: (a) experimental-regular training together with extra-curricular mental training; (b) regular training together with relaxing activities. After baseline measurements participants were tested on self- and externally-paced tasks two times during a 10-week period. The main findings of the current study reveal that the application of regular training together with mental training led to improved performance in both experiments compared to regular training only. Possible practical applications from this study are that basketball and track and field coaches will learn how to incorporate relaxation and imagery when teaching PE students self- and externally-paced tasks. (102-122)

Evaluating Increased Public Exposure in Concussions in the Media and Its Influence on High School Participation Rates: A Pilot Study — Tywan G. Martin, Kysha Harriell, Justin Tatman, Warren Whisenant, Victoria A. King — Concussions in sport-related activities have captured the attention of many government officials, well-respected organizations, and various influential entities inside and outside of sport. The topic was so important that President Obama gathered a myriad of individuals to the White House for a summit to discuss concussions in sports. Public health organizations estimated 1.6 to 3.8 million concussions occurred each year as a result of sport-related activities and it was suspected the numbers could be much higher given an unknown number of underreported or non-reported incidences. Therefore, the purpose of this pilot study was to analyze athletic directors’ perceptions of concussions, the impact of sport-related traumatic head injuries on high school participation rates in football, and the measures instituted to improve athlete safety in the sport. High school athletic directors from public and private high schools were surveyed for the study. The study produced mixed results between public and private school athletic directors’ assessments of the future of football at the high school level. A vast majority of the surveyed high school athletic directors acknowledged the need to implement active steps to improve the safety of the game. (123-155)

Do Coaches Need Coaches? Mentoring in Athletics — Evelyn Gordon — Mentoring is a common practice in academic areas that increases the retention rates of new teachers. Athletics pose different problems and situations for new teachers entering the coaching profession. One area that has been overlooked in research is the need for mentoring of new coaches in athletics. This article defines coaching and mentoring, examines the literature on mentoring practices in academics, discusses the trials and tribulations experienced by new coaches, and offers suggestions on ways to incorporate mentoring techniques into athletics to assist with the retention and development of new coaches. (156-171)

The Case of a Coaching Change: Do Volleyball Student-Athletes Attitudes and Stereotypes Change Too? — Thomas J. Aicher, Janelle E. Wells, Melissa K. Rosely — In an effort to explain the decline of female head coaches, this study sought to determine how gendered leadership stereotypes affect student-athletes’ attitudes towards a new head coach, and investigate if these same stereotypes impact their evaluation and comparison of a man and woman head coach. Utilizing social role and role congruity theories as a theoretical foundation, semi-structured interviews were conducted with student-athletes from a women’s volleyball team that recently encountered a head coaching change. Findings revealed the woman head coach was perceived as less qualified when she possessed traits inconsistent with her expected leadership role, and was not afforded the same respect or leniency with evaluation as the male head coach. (172-206)

COACHES' CORNER

Nutritional Education Intervention and the Effects of Nutritional Knowledge of Male Athletes — Brent A. Mitchell, Shelley L. Holden, Brooke E. Forester, Larry R. Gurchiek, Robert J. Heitman — The purpose of this study was to determine if a nutritional education program was an effective means of intervention to increase the nutritional knowledge of college athletes. Nutritional knowledge was measured by Parmenter and Wardle’s Nutritional Knowledge Questionnaire (NKQ) (1999) which is divided into four sections (Dietary Recommendations (DR), Sources of Nutrients (SON), Choosing Everyday Foods (CEF), and Diet-Disease Relationships (DDR)). Each correct answer in the section was worth one point and each section had a corresponding maximum score: DR= 11, SON= 69, CEF= 10, DDR= 20 and TS= 110). Subjects were assigned to a control group (n=27) or an experimental group (n=30) from two university men’s baseball teams in the southeastern United States. Groups were pretested using the NKQ and after six weeks, both groups were posttested. The experimental group received five hours of formal nutritional education administered in one hour sessions each week, for six consecutive weeks. Data was statistically analyzed using independent t-tests for the pretest comparison between the experimental and control groups and the posttest comparison between groups. Results showed significant differences for TS (t(55)=8.49,p<.000), DR (t(55)=5.78,p<.000), SON (t(55)=6.45,p<.000, CEF (t(55)=4.74,p<.000), and DDR (t(55)=7.64,p<.000) between the experimental and control groups. (207-223)

Learn What the Luxury Suite Customer Wants — Jim Blair, Peter Titlebaum, Matthew T. Brown, Ronald Dick — The purposes of this study, understand value of luxury-suite packages; successful sales techniques; and unbiased third-party surveying. Online surveys were completed by 51 luxury suite salespeople and current luxury suite holders of a National Hockey League (NHL) team. Likert scales were used in the participants’ rating of motivation factors, sales approaches, purchase intentions, follow-up methods, relationship building tools, and renewal and retention methods. This exploratory study found insights about luxury suite holders, including their perception that parking was the most valuable part of their luxury suite package and a high value on personal communication and a relationship with the luxury suite sales person. (224-248)

BOOK REVIEWS

Fair Play the Ethics of Sport Reviewed by Tara R. Niemann (249-250)

Sport Industry Research and Analysis: An Approach to Informed Decision Making, Reviewed by Warren K. Simpson (251-252)

Social Counseling and the Student Athlete: College Careers, Identity and Culture, Reviewed by Warren K. Simpson (253-254)

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