Causes and Prevention Strategies for Coaches

Dropouts in Youth Sport:

• Start with dropout statistics and importance of prevention

• Expand on the main reasons of youth drop out

• Provide coaching strategies to prevent dropout

• Suggest any areas of future research

Overview of the PresentationReasons for it and strategies to prevent it

• Make new friends?

• Play with existing friends?

• Most of all, to have FUN!

Why do children start playing sport?

Western Australian School Children in 1996

80% 11-12 year olds play sport

57% of 16-17 year olds play sport

42% of dropouts occurred between year 7-8

In the US in 2010 over 20 million children register for sports

By age 13, 70% of these kids have stopped playing

Study by Ronald Woods in 2005 states that children’s sport is at an all time high, 10-17 year olds at 59%

Over 70% of participants drop out before high school

Dropout Rates and Reasons to Prevent it

• Linked to a decreased rate of school dropout when participating in sport

• Linked to better grades

• Diminishes the growing obesity epidemic

Dropout Rates and Reasons to Prevent it

• Coaches play a critical role in retention and dropout

• Mostly due to negative experiences, a slow cost/benefit situation

• Programming models set by coaches facilitate dropouts

"If children go practice, perform painful drills, and improve their skills, but have no fun, and if the coach constantly hammers at their mistakes, after a while they are going to think, do I really want to be here?". Thomas Tutko, Sport Psychology Professor, San Jose University, California

Causes of youth sport dropouts

Girls

1. I was no longer interested.

2. It was no longer fun.

3. I needed more time to study.

4. There was too much pressure

5. The coach was a poor teacher.

6. I wanted to participate in other non-sport activities.

7. The sport took too much time.

8. The coach played favourites.

9. I was tired of playing.

10. Games and practices were scheduled when I could not attend.

Boys

1. I was no longer interested.

2. It was no longer fun.

3. The sport took too much time

4. The coach played favourites.

5. The coach was a poor teacher.

6. I was tired of playing.

7. There was too much emphasis on winning.

8. I wanted to participate in other non-sport activity.

9. I needed more time to study.

10. There was too much pressure.

Causes of youth sport dropoutsThe top 10 reasons for quitting the sport. Institute for the Study of Youth Sports at Michigan State University

• 4 of the top 5 reasons for youth sport drop out was related to lack of interest/fun and bad coaches

• Therefore coaches job to emphasise fun

• Some studies suggest that that children like competition

• Most recent studies suggest it as a large factor of sport drop out

Coaching Strategies to Prevent Dropout

Coaching children and adolescents should focus on three things

- Fun and enjoyment

- Encourage and praise effort not result

- Skill progression

Reduce emphasis on competition

Coaching Strategies to Prevent Dropout

Frank Smoll Ph.D. & Ronald Smith Ph.D.

Mastery Approach to Coaching

- Emphasises maximum effort and improving skills

- Focus on techniques for providing positive reinforcement

- Encourage effort, demonstrate how to prevent or fix mistake

Coaching Strategies to Prevent Dropout

http://www.digisport.com.au/PassCatchKickTackle.html

Pass, Catch, Kick, Tackle

- Developed by Digisport, Australian Rugby League Foundation

- Multimedia CD-ROM with over 165 different skill activities and games

- Main focus for games is fun and enjoyment

Coaching Strategies to Prevent Dropout

• Studies shown that programmed model/rigid training regimes facilitate drop outs

• Children and youth athletes should be encouraged to do additional extra curricular activities

Coaching Strategies to Prevent Dropout

• Did the child change sport?

• Drop from two to one sports?

• Continue with some other form of aerobic exercise?

• Up to date population based data of Australian children and adolescents.

• Did the child return to sport?

• At what age and how long for?

Future Research Directions

References