American Press: Applied Research in Coaching and Athletics Annual #13 (1998)

ARCAA Contents & Abstracts Volume 13, 1998

ISBN 978-0-89641-320-7

The Relationships of School Type, Coaching Experience, Gender and Age to New Coaches’ Challenges and Barriers at the Collegiate Level — Jin Wang, Joseph Ramsey — Coaching is a pressure driven career and the coach’s tenure is far shorter than some other professions (Wishnietsky and Felder, 1989; Pastore & Judd,1992). It is even more challenging for the new coaches to overcome their transition pressures and barriers. Many new coaches fail to achieve success when working at a new institution. Thus, this study was designed to develop a new instrument to identify potential challenges and barriers that the new coaches have to face, and also exam the relationships of school type, gender, age, and coaching experience to the new coaches’ transition barriers. The 500 new coaches from public and private institutions around the United States were selected for the study. The Inventory for New Coaches’ Challenges and Barriers (INCCB) was developed with the four sub-scales — “Environmental Concerns,” “Human Relations,” “Coaching Philosophy and Change,” and “Behavior Management of Players.” The results of the independent t-tests and the one way ANOVA tests revealed that there were significant differences found for school type, coaching experience and age in relation to the new coaches’ challenges and barriers at the collegiate level. However, no significant gender differences were found in this study. (1-22)

A Reference List of Mental Training/Sport Psychology Videos — Alan S. Kornspan, Christopher Lantz, Bart S. Lerner, Scott R. Johnson — The continued growth of sport psychology has resulted in an influx of mental training techniques. These techniques are presented in a variety of books, journals and audio/visual materials. While reference lists exist for sport psychology texts (Allen, 1994; Sachs, & Kornspan, 1995) and journal articles (Granito & Wenz, 1995), there remains no such resource for locating and obtaining sport psychology videos. This article presents an extensive list of mental training and sport psychology videos that can be used by sport psychologists, coaches and athletes. In addition, this list provides purchasing information such as addresses, phone numbers, and price of the video. (23-31)

The Instructional Design Process in Coaching Education: The Development of the U.S. Soccer National Youth Coaching License — Ronald W. Quinn, David B. Carr — Youth sports have become extremely popular in the United States and it is estimated that over 35 million youngsters now participate (Martens, 1990; Seefeldt, 1987; Eitzen & Sage, 1989). Youth sports typically include children aged 16 and under who participate in adult organized sport programs (Gould, 1987). In some sections of the country, programs can be found for children as early as three years of age. The vast number of children participating in a wide variety of sports has placed the burden of organization and instruction primarily on adult volunteers. These coaches are in a position to exert great influence on young athletes but, unfortunately, fewer than 20% of the estimated 2.5 million youth sport coaches have received any type of training to become a coach (Martens, 1990; Stewart & Sweet, 1992). This paper presents the steps taken as part of an instructional design process to develop this course, prior to conducting a pilot course. The approach of the course will be from a child development perspective as opposed to teaching specific technical aspects of the game. A ten-step instructional design process was utilized. A pilot study and first course have been conducted which will be reported in future papers. (32-49)

The Application of Task Analysis for Effective Instruction of Motor Skills — Wayne Maschette, Christine Armatas, Rob Sands, Cheyne Sherman — This article explores the relationship between task analysis and effective instruction during the learning of complex motor activities. While the literature on traditional forms of task analysis provides few guidelines for the instructor, guidelines exist in the motor learning literature that can be applied to task analysis of complex motor skills. For motor skill acquisition, the traditional form of task analysis can be thought of in terms of whole/part learning of skills, where a skill is broken down into its components by the instructor. The issue of how components should be practiced, either in isolation or combination, is addressed by proposing a unitary task analysis that takes into account sequential dependencies between components of a skill. The advantages of the unitary task analysis is that it forms a conceptual link between task analysis and effective instruction by acknowledging the efficacy of combining components that form natural units of coordinated activity. From the model described it is argued that task analysis is only useful for motor skill acquisition where sequential dependencies are incorporated in the structure of the instructional process, a claim which can be empirically validated using the unitary model of task analysis. (50-63)

The Effects of Heavy Ropes and Plyometrics on Selected Physical Parameters in Female Athletes — Rodney C. Whittle — The purpose of this investigation was to determine the effects of weighted jump ropes and plyometrics on agility (modified shuttle-run), explosiveness (vertical jump), and overall fitness (VO2 max) in female athletes. Twenty-four female collegiate athletes served as subjects for this study and were divided into three groups. Group 1 received the weighted rope jump training. Group 2 underwent a plyometric training regime. Group 3 served as the control group. Subjects participated in the exercise program three times a week for 10 weeks. Results indicated that while both experimental treatment groups showed improvements from pre- to post-test assessments, neither group was significantly better than the other. These findings suggest that both weighted rope jumping and plyometrics are viable training methods which could be supplemental to or replacements for traditional training. (64-76)

The Effect of Two-Arm Techniques on Baserunning Time using the Rocker Start in Women’s Fastpitch Softball — Cheryl A. Coker — In fastpitch softball, baserunning can win or lose a game. Although current trends recognize the rocker start as most effective in optimizing baserunning speed, variations in the use of the arms remain. This study investigated the effects of starting with the left arm (contralateral) back vs. the right arm (ipsilateral) back on baserunning time using the rocker start in women’s fastpitch softball. Data revealed that starting with the left arm back resulted in significantly faster baserunning times. Consequently, in order to optimize baserunning performance the baserunner should start with the left arm back when using the rocker start technique. (77-84)

“Psyching-up” through Induced Motivation: The Effects of External Instructions on Muscle Endurance Performance in Elite Wrestlers — Boris Blumenstein, Michael Bar-Eli, Jay R. Hoffman, Gershon Tenenbaum — The purpose of this study was to induce motivation, using an external agent, in order to provide improved muscle endurance performance. Two groups of male subjects were examined. The first group (n=8;AT) consisted of elite athletes (wrestlers). The second group (n=7;ST) was comprised of physical education students. Muscle endurance testing was performed 6 times at 75% of the maximum force output on a hand-grip dynamometer. All testing sessions differed on the type of instruction provided to the subject prior to, or during testing. Prior to testing subjects were given one of three types of instructions: general (I), encouragement (I+), or discouragement (I-). At the moment that subjects began to feel fatigued, they were asked to signal with their non-exercising hand. The investigator then provided either a stimulation intended to encourage the effort (S+), or avoided the signal (S). No significant differences between any of the external instruction techniques, either pre-exercise or during performance, were seen in either AT or ST. In addition, no significant differences were observed between ST and AT. However, a 46% difference in muscle endurance was observed between I+ and I–. Furthermore, 21% and 19% differences were also seen between I+ and I and between I and I-, respectively, in AT. None of these trends was apparent for ST. These results suggest that motivational strategies performed prior to exercise in elite athletes may be more effective when techniques used are encouraging rather than discouraging, during muscle endurance performance. (85-98)

Off (to) the Deep End: Psychological Skills Training and Water Running — Britton W. Brewer, Kristin Ihle Helledy — Water running is a low impact activity typically engaged in by injured runners to maintain cardiorespiratory fitness. The purpose of this investigation was to determine the effects of psychological skills training on deep water running (DWR) performance and heart rate (HR) and rating of perceived exertion (RPE) during DWR. Subjects in this study were one male and one female who had prior experience with DWR. A multiple-baseline across individuals design was used with five weekly 20-minute DWR test sessions in which HR and RPE were measured every 10 minutes. Although changes in HR and RPE were minimal, both subjects demonstrated an increase in DWR performance after receiving a PST intervention that included training in relaxation and imagery. The combination of water running and PST is discussed in a case example of an injured female intercollegiate long distance runner. Potential benefits of such an approach include increased enjoyment of and motivation for water running, elevated training intensity, improved psychological adjustment to injury, and enhanced transfer of training effects to running on land. Aspects of water running that are particularly facilitative to PST in long distance runners are highlighted. Recommendations for future research and the combined application of water running and PST are given. (99-118)

Instructional Content Provided to Female Ice Hockey Players During Games — Pamela Seaborn, Pierre Trudel, Wade Gilbert — Although studies on coaches’ behaviors have provided a portrait of how coaches intervene, information on the subject matter being taught by coaches has not been examined. The purpose of this study was to investigate the content of coaches' instruction provided to female ice hockey players (12-15 yrs.) during games. More specifically, the questions to be answered were: (a) What was the content of instruction? (b) When was the instruction given? and (c) How was the instruction communicated to the player(s)? Four coaches were videotaped during games (n=14) and also participated in interviews. The videotapes were analyzed using an event recording procedure developed specifically to answer the three research questions. The coaches emphasized team tactics (67%) over individual tactics (13%), individual techniques (15%), and rules (5%). Many of the interventions by the coaches were short duration prompts, communicated while the play was in progress. The few interventions to players on the bench, or on the ice during a stoppage of play, contained instructions or feedback but rarely a combination of the two. Considering that these coaches utilized only a few of the teachable moments during games, recommendations are presented for individuals responsible for coach education. (119-141)

Qualitative Analysis of Experienced and Inexperienced Basketball Coaches During Practice — Rebecca L. Ahlgren, Lynn Dale Housner, Dennis Floyd Jones — The study compared 10 experienced high school and 10 inexperienced junior high and middle school basketball coaches as they executed a 30 minute practice session on the "give and go" play in basketball. The coaches were provided with 30 minutes to plan a practice session. Following planning, coaches implemented their practice plan. Five experienced coaches viewed videotapes of the participants' instruction and verbal protocols. Their observations were recorded and transcribed. In contrast to marginal differences between experienced and inexperienced coaches found in behavioral analyses of practice behavior; qualitative analyses of verbal protocols revealed substantial differences regarding the quality of instruction provided. The findings indicated that experienced coaches were careful to design lessons that were progressive, and included tasks specifically linked to the objectives of the lesson. They also modeled appropriate performance of the skills involved in the "give and go" and provided specific and accurate feedback to students. Conversely, inexperienced coaches often required students to practice tasks unrelated to the objectives of the lesson and frequently permitted students to exhibit marginal or incorrect performance. Limitations of research based on the behavioral analyses of the frequencies of thoughts and behaviors are discussed and directions for future research are presented. (142-163)

Comparing Football Recruiting Services Rankings to NFL Draft Selections — Patrick G. McKeown, Craig A. Piercy — Recruiting is recognized by all college football coaches to be an essential component of a successful program. Recruiting has become such a big part of college football that there now exist private recruiting services that analyze high school players and rank them as to their potential success at the college level. These services primarily provide two services to their subscribers: (a) ranking high school players prior to national signing day and (b) ranking college football programs based on the perceived quality of their recruiting classes. In this paper, we compare post-signing day rankings of recruiting classes provided by 4 of these recruiting services to the weighted number of National Football League (NFL) draftees coming from each recruiting class. The results of these analyses show that only 1 of the 4 recruiting services rankings predicted the number of NFL draftees from the recruiting classes when all teams were considered. When the consensus teams were excluded, none of the recruiting service rankings were valid predictors. (164-189)

COACHES CORNER

Sport Promotions, Sponsorships and Resource Generation for the 21st Century — William F. Stier, Jr. — The author was a guest speaker at two back-to-back international conferences held in the Republic of México between October 6th and 12th, 1997. This article is a synopsis of several of the author’s presentations dealing with sport promotions, marketing and resource generation at those conferences. The two conferences were (1) “Alianza Estratégica Para La Educación Física, El Deporte Y La Recreación” [“Strategic Alliance for Physical Education, Sport and Recreation”], and (2) “La Educación Física Ante Los Problemas De La Vida Moderna” [Physical Education Before the Problems of Modern Life]. The Superior Physical Education School of México City (Escuela Superior Educación Física, ESEF), located in the southeastern part of México City, hosted both conferences. (190-210)

BOOK REVIEWS

Athlete’s Guide to Career Planning: Keys to Success from the Playing Field to Professional Life by Al Petitpas, Delight Champagne, Judy Chartrand, Steven Danish, & Shane Murphy, reviewed by Veronica Snow (211-212)

Coaches Guide to Drugs and Sport by Kevin Ringhofer and Martha Harding, reviewed by Holli Goddard (212-214)

Coaching for Character by Craig Clifford and Randolph M. Feezell, reviewed by Warren K. Simpson (214-216)

Complete Conditioning for Baseball by Pat Murphy and Jeff Forney, reviewed by Jeff Howle (216-219)

Ethical Decisions in Sport by Edward J. Shea, reviewed by Warren K. Simpson (220-221)

Football's West Coast Offense by Frank Henderson and Mel Olson, reviewed by Kevin Todd Winfrey (221-224)

High-Performance Soccer . . . Techniques and Tactics for Advanced Play by Paul Caligiuri with Dan Herbst, reviewed by Jason D. Wharton (224-227)

Kicking the Football: Skills and Drills for Placekickers and Punters by Bill Renner, reviewed by Rusty Oglesby (227-229)

Playing Better Baseball: Inside Tips to Improve all Areas of Your Game by Rick Wolff, reviewed by Warren K. Simpson (229-230)

USA Team Handball Member School Program 1-800-PLAY-THB, reviewed by Warren K. Simpson(230-233)

Fitness In-Line Skating by Frank J. Fedel and Suzanne Nottingham, reviewed by Scott Haner (233-235)

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