Intercollegiate coaches’ experiences and strategies for coaching first-year athletes^*

Abstract

University student-athletes have reported difficulties balancing the rigors of academics, athletics, and their personal lives (Heller, Bloom, Neil, & Salmela, 2005). These challenges may be exacerbated for first-year athletes who are transitioning from high school and often living away from home for the first time. Given that coaches significantly influence their athletes' experiences (Bloom, Falcão, & Caron, 2014), their coaching styles and support may ease this transition process. Thus, the purpose of the current study was to investigate university coaches' perceptions, experiences, and strategies used with first-year university student-athletes. Eight highly successful and experienced Canadian university coaches were individually interviewed. The interview data was analyzed with thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006). The results revealed that coaches' ultimate goal of helping their athletes succeed in life after university influenced their coaching practices throughout the athletes' entire university experience from first year to graduation. Coaching first-year athletes started with recruiting individuals who were highly skilled and who would fit in with the other athletes on their team both on and off the field. Once selected, coaches began building trusting relationships with their first-year athletes that were supported by the leadership skills of their senior athletes and by incorporating team building activities into training. Coaches developed their first-year athletes' athletic skills by creating training programs that addressed each players' weaknesses. At the same time, coaches ensured their academic success by monitoring their progress and encouraging the use of academic resources that were available from their university. The coaches also attended to their athletes' personal needs which resulted from coaching individuals who were living away from home for the first time and who were susceptible to social opportunities that could distract them from their academic and athletic responsibilities if not carefully monitored by the coaches. In sum, this study adds to the body of literature of effective coaching practices for university coaches by providing one of the first empirical accounts of coaching first-year student-athletes. The current results benefit both coaches and athletes by highlighting the common challenges of a first-year university athlete, as well as by offering useful strategies that can help resolve such challenges and ease this transition process.iii Résumé Les étudiants-athlètes universitaires ont de la difficulté à équilibrer les rigueurs associées aux études, aux sports et à leurs vies personnelles (Heller, Bloom, Neil, & Salmela, 2005). Ces défis peuvent être exacerbés pour les étudiants-athlètes de première année qui sont en transition du secondaire à l'université et qui vivent souvent loin de leur domicile pour la première fois. É tant donné que les entraîneurs influencent l'expérience de leurs athlètes (Bloom, Falcão, & Caron, 2014), leurs styles d'entraînement et de...

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