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MUAYTHAI CANADA

STRUCTURED HOLISTIC DEVELOPMENT BY GRANT TURNER REVISED: FEBRUARY 28, 2017

STRUCTURED HOLISTIC DEVELOPMENT

1203 Fewster Drive, Unit C, Mississauga, ON L4W 1A2

E-Mail: [email protected]

Revised on: February 28, 2017 Page 1 of 14

MUAYTHAI CANADA’S STRATEGY FOR PROMOTING LIFELONG SPORT PARTICIPATION

The goal of sport in Canada is inclusiveness. At Muaythai Canada we want to create a healthy culture for everyone who

participates in Canadian Muaythai, from a 6-year-old beginner to a 70-year-old coach or official. In order for the benefits of

sport to be felt by our society, a strategy is required; this kind of planning will not and has never occurred by accident. To

involve the largest number of Canadians, our strategy must respect all the steps along the journey, the same as it respects

the individual taking those steps. The most common misunderstanding about athletic development is that it’s purpose is to

provide ‘the rules’ for making champions. It cannot. Those rules don’t exist, the science isn’t there yet and may never be.

Those searching for a set of rules must understand the ‘the rules’ would undermine an individual's search for their strengths,

weaknesses and priorities. Coaching is the process of building towards potential by creating identity within a specific skill

set, forcing an athlete into a rigid structure or timeline is easier for the coach, no the athlete. An athletic success story

doesn’t follow one narrative or pathway towards one outcome, but is a complex tale of someone's athletic life as measured

by four distinct and interconnected outcomes (1-Elite Performance 2-Wellness Participation 3-Coaching Career 4-Adaptable

Athleticism).

Making sure that there is a place in sport for recreation, enjoyment, and opportunities to give back should be just as

important as Gold Medals and professional contracts. Elite performance (Olympic or Professional Athlete status) may be

the classic dream of many youth, but it should not be seen as the only successful outcome of a sport career. Continual

training/play for wellness, the ability to learn a new activity at any age or a coaching career are all equally important as they

contribute to Canada’s physical culture. Discussing how the available sport science can be used to the benefit of Canadian

Nak Muay as they become elite, will be the domain of coaching courses and other Muaythai Canada initiatives.

The goal is to create evidence based suggestions that guide youth and adult development that accounts for individual

differences. Where many strategies have given too much weight to just one outcome and rely on unproven assumptions

based on biology, this plan gives equal consideration of an individual's biological, psychosocial, sport-skill and educational

development. It cannot be overstated that youth development provides the foundation for adult outcomes including

performance, coaching, wellness and adaptable athleticism. However, adult entry into sport should never be discouraged,

just managed with different expectations and strategies. To help as many people as possible achieve any or all of these four

outcomes through Muaythai we need to create as many pathways into our sport as we can, ensuring no one is impeded by

the notion of an ideal pathway and encouraging athlete entry through participation based programs for every age. We will

discuss many of the challenges that commonly undermine an optimal Athletic Participation Trajectory (APT) and in doing

so, we will also describe the solutions research has provided for us to overcome those challenges.

INTRODUCING STRUCTURED HOLISTIC DEVELOPMENT (SHD)

The best example of comprehensive guidelines for the creation of youth athletic programs comes from the International

Olympic Committee (IOC) through a holistic and evidence based list of recommendations. Research has shown that coaches,

parents and support staff all make decisions that influence athletes at the psychological, sociological and biological level.

Our goal is to explain how to use this research for the betterment of the athlete and Muaythai.

IOC GUIDING PRINCIPLES OF YOUTH SPORT PARTICIPATION

• Youth athlete development is contingent on an individually unique and constantly changing base of normal physical

growth, biological maturation and behavioural development, and therefore it must be considered individually.

• Allow for a wider definition of sport success, as indicated by healthy, meaningful and varied life-forming

experiences, which is centred on the whole athlete and development of the person.

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• Adopt viable, evidence-informed and inclusive frameworks of athlete development that are flexible (using ‘best

practice’ for each developmental level), while embracing individual athlete progression and appropriately

responding to the athlete’s perspective and needs.

• Commit to the psychological development of resilient and adaptable athletes characterised by mental capability

and robustness, high self-regulation and enduring personal excellence qualities—that is, upholding the ideals of

Olympism.

• Encourage children to participate in a variety of different unstructured (ie, deliberate play) and structured age-

appropriate sport-related activities and settings, to develop a wide range of athletic and social skills and attributes

that will encourage sustained sport participation and enjoyment.

• Make a commitment to promote safety, health and respect for the rules, other athletes and the game, while

adopting specific policies and procedures to avert harassment and abuse.

• Across the entire athletic development pathway, assist each athlete in effectively managing sport-life balance to be

better prepared for life after sport.

IOC GUIDING PRINCIPLES OF COACHING

• Provide a challenging and enjoyable sporting climate that focuses on each athlete’s personal assets and mastery

orientation.

• Coaching practices should be informed by research-based developmental guidelines that promote flexibility and

innovation, while accommodating individual skills and athletic development trajectories.

• Coaching should be context-specific (eg, participation vs performance focus) and aligned with individual athletic

readiness.

• Coaching education programmes should assist coaches in establishing meaningful relationships that enrich the

personal assets of their athletes and foster their own intrapersonal and interpersonal skills (eg, reflection and

communicative skills).

• Coaches should seek interdisciplinary support and guidance in managing a youth athlete’s athletic development,

fitness and health, and mental and social challenges and needs.

IOC GUIDING PRINCIPLES FOR CONDITIONING, TESTING AND INJURY PREVENTION

• Encourage regular participation in varied strength and conditioning programmes that are suitably age based, quality

technique driven, safe and enjoyable.

• Design youth athlete development programmes comprising diversity and variability of athletic exposure, to mitigate

the risk of overuse injuries and other health problems prompted by inappropriate training and competition that

exceed safe load thresholds, while providing sufficient and regular rest and recovery, to encourage positive

adaptations and progressive athletic development.

• Maintain an ethical approach to, and effectively translate, laboratory and field testing to optimise youth sports

participation and performance.

• Develop, implement and continue to evaluate knowledge translation strategies and resources that will enhance

injury prevention and promote health in youth athletes, such as the Get Set—Train Smarter injury prevention app

developed by the IOC for the 2014 Youth Olympic Games.

• Promote evidence-informed injury prevention programmes, protective equipment legislation and rule changes that

are context specific, adaptable and consistent with maintaining the integrity of the sport and participation goals.

• Strictly adhere to a “No youth athlete should compete—or train or practice in a way that loads the affected injured

area, interfering with or delaying recovery—when in pain or not completely rehabilitated and recovered from an

illness or injury”.






IOC GUIDING PRINCIPLES FOR NUTRITION, HYDRATION AND EXERTIONAL HEAT ILLNESS

• Dietary education for young athletes should emphasise optimal eating patterns to support health, normal growth

and sport participation demands, with emphasis on a balanced intake of nutrient-dense carbohydrates, high-quality

protein and sufficient dietary calcium, vitamin D and iron.

• Youth athletes and their support personnel should be educated on the risks associated with dietary supplements

and energy drinks.

• Emphasise and mitigate the risks of sport-related EDs, DE and RED-S, by raising awareness through education,

improving screening and treatment, and implementing applicable rule modifications.

• Education and training on exertional heat illness risks and effective prevention and risk-reduction strategies

(including practical preparation, offsetting measures and management and immediate response protocols) and

policies should be regularly provided and emphasised to youth athletes, coaches and staff, and others overseeing

or assisting with children and adolescents participating in outdoor sports.

• A written emergency action plan and effective response protocols should be in place and practiced ahead of time

with trained personnel, as well as readily available facilities on-site for managing and treating all forms of exertional

heat illness and other medical emergencies, for all youth athletic activities, especially in the heat. Sport and sports

medicine governing bodies and organisations

• Sport and sports medicine governing bodies and organisations should protect the health and well-being of youth in

sport by providing ongoing education, and fully implementing and monitoring practical, and effective, athlete

safeguarding policies and procedures in all youth athlete programming.

• Youth athlete selection and talent development philosophies should be based on the physiological, perceptual,

cognitive and tactical demands of the sport, and a long-term, individually variable developmental context.

• Diversification and variability of athletic exposure between and within sports should be encouraged and promoted.

• Competition formats and settings should be age and skill appropriate, while allowing for sufficient rest and recovery

time between multiple same-day contests.1

Some of what will be discussed in Structured Holistic Development will feel like it is beyond the scope of what coaches and

support staff can control, but, if ignored we are closing doors for potential life altering experiences through Muaythai. Elite

sport success still has a lot to do with chance; finding the right sport, having access to the right coach and having your

parents be able to afford to pay for access to those programs are all chance dependent. Not to take away from the hard

work that comes afterward, but many times it was chance that got an athlete in the right place at the right time in order to

be able to channel their efforts in a winning direction.

RESOURCES FOR STRUCTURED HOLISTIC DEVELOPMENT

Intelligent use of and preservation of all resources that nurture athletes is the focus of Structured Holistic Development as

a developmental model. What must be understood is that while every child is an athlete, the goals of athlete participation

change throughout that athlete’s life; influencing a child is distinctly different than influencing an adult. A child is nurtured;

an adult is coached to actively build one’s own career. Much like a tree must be given the ideal environment to grow, a

young athlete must be given the ideal environment to pursue potential as an adolescent/adult in any given sport. Therefore,

our model discusses best practices in the four fields where youth development creates athletic participation in adulthood

and how to approach those who have missed this foundation:

1 Bergeron MF, et al. Br J Sports Med 2015;49:843–851.






EDUCATION: The most commonly overlooked aspect of creating athletic success stories is education and knowledge.

Muaythai clubs are commonly called ‘schools’ for a reason. The shear volume of knowledge needed for athletic success is

staggering. Healthy sleep, nutrition, injury prevention, movement, dealing with winning and loss, name but a few subjects.

Healthy youth development is based on educating each participant in an individually progressive way. The pedagogy of

athleticism is something that deserves discussion and will be refined in the future. How we teach our athletes affects all

four of the ways we define a successful athletic career.

ATHLETICISM: This refers to all the skills that contribute to success in multiple sports. When we accept that strength,

agility, power and even endurance require a union of both physical adaptation and mental skill, it’s easy to understand how

developing athleticism separate from any one specific sport is essential. This does not require simply providing opportunities

for participation the way gym class does in school, where the fastest learners get the most out of the opportunity. Through

careful instruction and devoting individualized development strategies a coach can hone these skills for those who’ve had

the least opportunities, are the least genetically predisposed or happen to be the slowest learners. No one is ever fully

physically literate. Athleticism creation is a journey that requires constant development of new skills and strategies for

refining/maintaining established ones.

SPORT SKILLS: While similar to physical literacy, sport skills are less transferable and usually require competence with the

tools of the sport, tactical knowledge and further refinement of athleticism. Participating in as many sports as possible at

an early age develops a larger arsenal of sport skills and tactics that ultimately improves the tools at an athlete’s disposal.

This is why late specialization and ensuring that physical literacy is a key component of youth development is necessary to

create optimal trajectories. Tactics and an understanding of offence, defence, misdirection, etc are cognitive skills that

playing multiple sports can help develop.

PSYCHOSOCIAL: Maintaining motivation to learn should always be the most important aspect of instruction for youth and

guide most decisions. Nothing halts a successful athletic journey faster than negative experiences that undermine

motivation to participate. These experiences can erode self-confidence, diminish the rewards of play, dissolve relationships

that promote further participation etc. Therefore, using appropriate and individual strategies that acknowledges people

only invest time into something that they have learned to value. The youth sport environment requires coaches who provide

the psychological and social environment where kids can thrive because they genuinely want to be there. Coachability is on

the other side of the responsibility continuum, so the coach and the athlete are both accountable for making the positive

outcomes a reality.

INTRODUCING THE ATHLETIC PARTICIPATION TRAJECTORY (APT)

Muaythai Canada wanted to create a tool to help monitor, plan and diagnose healthy development of individuals and

programs. This tool is called the APT. While it can be prescriptive about what we’d prefer to see over an athlete's life, it is

most useful as a tool to compare to the ideal and re-orient focus with the largest timescale view possible. This isn’t a macro

cycle or a quadrennial training plan, this is the training plan for someone’s entire life or sport career. Some of the most

successful Muaythai careers didn’t follow the ideal to the letter; any useful structured plan for creating athleticism and

healthy populations must be flexible and welcoming to all at every possible entry point.






Specific ages are omitted from the x-axis of a general Athlete Participation Trajectory as development as an athlete can

happen after youth has passed. Every skill that can be learned in childhood, could in theory be gained once someone reaches

adulthood, so every reader should know that it is never too late to start. No one should be discouraged by missed

opportunities in childhood, it just means that having a realistic goal and timeline for achieving it are essential to not being

discouraged. While it would be disadvantageous for an athlete to have missed all the preliminary stages, knowing how to

approach the youth/adult differences is the most important aspect of this model being useful to any stakeholder.






The late start, non-athlete is one of the most difficult pathways to manage as a coach, and unfortunately one of the most

common pathways for Muaythai today.

As the adult entry trajectory shows, youth participation facilitates success, but does not guarantee it, nor does missing out

on the optimal years guarantee ‘failure.’ While we contend that anyone can enter Muaythai at any age with hopes of

receiving many positive benefits, more data is needed in order to create realistic timelines, benchmarks and protocols.

During this data gathering period the APT will be an important measurement tool.

It is important to realize that over a participant's lifespan their goals will change and so should coaching methods along with

them. As a participant ages the more complex the choices and coaching strategies will become. As illustrated in the

trajectory the foundation for excellence and the positive benefits of physical activity in the biological, educational,

psychological and social realms start with participation. Education should be an aspect of well designed programs almost

immediately, but participation with friends (free play) should also be acknowledged as essential despite our inability to

‘program’ those activities. However, having an adult to model one’s behaviour after will only accelerate learning and

eliminate bad habits. Only once certain fundamentals are fully grasped will performance oriented programming be logical

or recommended. Transitioning a participant through the different age groups and the incremental increases in the

complexity of goals and strategies should always be individual.






STAGES OUTLINED IN THE TRAJECTORY

Categorizing any aspect of the human experience will always overlook the exceptions and sport participation is not different.

The age group classifications that follow are important to acknowledge, but how much they affect coaching decisions should

be limited. In order for a categorization scheme like this to be useful it’s essential view it as an ideal case. No one that you

ever coach will live up to this ideal and each athlete will fail to fit into one stage at least once as they mature. The main

reason it is laid out in this way, is to show how you can’t cut corners when building a champion and how you won’t know

who will become a champion until well after you’ve helped them. The structure in holistic development comes from both

an athlete’s maturation process and what needs to be learned. Each stage comes with specific objectives attached that will

be discussed below.

• Stage 1: Athleticism Socialization (0-10)

• Stage 2: Pre-Specialization (10-15)

• Stage 3: Non-Specialization (10+)

• Stage 4: Excellence Focused Preparation (15-20)

• Stage 5: Competition Focused Preparation (18+)

• Stage 6: Lifelong Involvement in Sport (0+)

Individual trajectories are mitigated by many things, including participation in the previous stage and biological vs

chronological age. So as much as age is important in team sports, other considerations can take precedence in many

scenarios, fluidity is essential to make the best decisions for each individual. Growth and maturation rates confound any

clear categorization based on age. It is therefore essential that early and late developers are to be treated differently, even

if their chronological age says that they belong in another category. Because of the nature of Muaythai competition and






training, our sport is actually easier to apply to the exceptions than it would be for other (especially team) sports. We already

divide our participants by weight, thereby eliminating much of the relative age effect.

STAGE 1: ATHLETICISM SOCIALIZATION (AGE 0-10) Purpose: Create a love for all physical activity, while creating athletic competence and comfort with as many different

sports as possible.

Competition/Practice Ratio: Competition should only be for fun/introductory purposes to teach sportsmanship etc.

Practice should include fun and skill/athleticism building.

Key Skills to Gain: Everything that can be learned while maintaining motivation and engagement. Most important thing

is to never stop learning new things/conquering new challenges.

Key Physical Attributes to Develop: Every characteristic of athleticism starting with coordination and strength.

Education Focus: Creating healthy habits, such as hydration etc.

Psycho-Social Focus: Create a positive relationship with sport/physical activity, while socializing them to teams/groups.

STAGE 2: PRE-SPECIALIZATION (AGE 10-15) Purpose: Continue learning in only a slightly more focused way. Still playing lots of sports and creating athleticism in a

prosocial way.

Competition/Practice Ratio: Provides limited access to some competition if mature enough and it is necessary for their

individual growth.

Key Skills to Gain: Everything that can be learned while maintaining motivation and engagement. Most important thing

is to never stop learning new things/conquering new challenges.

Key Physical Attributes to Develop: Maintain a balanced approach to athleticism development, ideally based on individual

deficits with awareness of the complex biological growth factors associated with this period. (Best resource Youth

Physical Development Model***)2

Education Focus: Integrating an Integrated Support Team into the lives of these kids. The educational resource that each

professional can offer will pay dividends later.

Psycho-Social Focus: The athlete should be encouraged to discover who they are through sport and find out what they

enjoy the most. Collaboration with a sport psychologist, sport councillor or coach should be helpful in narrowing down

where the athletic efforts will pay the most dividends for all four outcomes.

STAGE 3: NON-SPECIALIZATION (AGE 10+) Purpose: To provide an environment for those who want the benefits of sport for non-competitive reasons.

Competition/Practice Ratio: Scaled down competition scenarios like technical sparring that eliminate most of the injury

risk and downside of competition. Clear majority of training hours (over 90%) can be practice/training.

Key Skills to Gain: Most important thing is how targeted effort impacts results and how that impacts self concept,

physiological/neurological adaptation, along with the positive health benefits of physical activity.

2 Lloyd RS and Oliver JL, Strength & Conditioning Journal, 2012,34:61-72.






Key Physical Attributes to Develop: Positive transfer to physical literacy and capacity for day to day life. Strength and

coordination are still the foundation on which everything else is laid.

Education Focus: Whatever will translate most into their day to day and their successful future, as anything that holds

them back in sport/training will hold them back outside as well.

Psycho-Social Focus: Self-confidence and understanding attributions through training. How exercise impacts their mood

is a key for adherence. Cause in training and affect in life is important to review with the athlete so they are getting the

most out of their time

STAGE 4: EXCELLENCE FOCUSED PREPARATION (AGE 15-20) Purpose: To prepare the athlete for the rigors of training and competition at an elite level.

Competition/Practice Ratio: Introduce more competition scenarios while keeping in mind the cost benefit of time lost to

potential injury, weighed against what can be learned in the ring for that athlete. Still 8-1/10-1 (including sparring).

Key Skills to Gain: Using Benchmarks and a comprehensive Gap Analysis, now is the best time to strengthen weaknesses

for long term success.

Key Physical Attributes to Develop: While the impact of Peak Height Velocity and the lack of coordination that can result

from growth will still be felt, the main goal is to provide a balanced approach to developing all physical characteristics to

ensure that their is nothing that needs to be worked around in adulthood.

Education Focus: Accountability and responsibility for all aspects of performance and addressing injury in a

responsible/learned way.

Psycho-Social Focus: Emotional regulation and focus on task. Now is when an athlete becomes a genuine adult about

their training/improvement.

STAGE 5: COMPETITION FOCUSED PREPARATION (AGE 18+) Purpose: Macro-cycle preparation designed to peak at the right times.

Competition/Practice Ratio: Largely dependent on the robustness of the athlete and their goals. Making sure that all

bouts are timed strategically to not take away from the mandatory competitions required for selection

Key Skills to Gain: Learning how to win and how to prepare to win when it matters most.

Key Physical Attributes to Develop: Understanding how athletes don’t just prepare to be continuously ready to compete.

Understanding the cyclical/strategic nature of preparing for the highest levels of competition.

Education Focus: Assessed individually and collaboratively decided within IST.

Psycho-Social Focus: Assessed individually and collaboratively decided within IST.

STAGE 6: LIFELONG INVOLVEMENT IN SPORT (AGE 0+) Purpose: Create a society where sport is seen as an important element of a healthy society.

Competition/Practice Ratio: Taken on an individual basis.

Key Skills to Gain: What can’t sport/Muaythai teach you?






Key Physical Attributes to Develop: All, especially those that impact health outcomes (flexibility, bone and joint integrity,

cardiovascular health).

Education Focus: Bust myths that get passed on to kids. Everything should be done with the awareness that at some

point everyone will impact the life of a child and the quality of that impact is dictated by that individual's understanding.

Psycho-Social Focus: Creating experiences that make people so committed to the positive impact of sport that they will

make sacrifices in order to ensure that others gain the same experiences.

STRUCTURED HOLISTIC DEVELOPMENT KEY ELEMENTS:

Education Athleticism Sport Specific Skills Psycho/Social

Foundational Elements Learning about one's capabilities, fostering curiosity, enhancing creativity

Coordination of body to create force and velocity

Technical movements/endurance levels/strategies that serve the rules of each sport

Self-concept, playful environment, re-frame win vs loss

Structural Elements Communication, experimentation

Muscular, neural and structural adaptation

Offense/defense and the attached physical skills that create both

Motivation, grit, coach/parent/team relationships

Visible Elements Constant improvement, knowledge of sleep, nutrition etc.

Strength, power, speed, agility

Ability to participate in a specific sport at an age appropriate level

Commitment to improvement of self and community

BIOLOGICAL CHALLENGES

An individual may have little or no sport participation history prior to their first involvement in Muaythai, presenting the

most important limitation faced in learning technique, developing athleticism, being a good team member, understanding

the nutritional needs of training etc. An individual’s training age, above any other variable (genetics, biological age or

‘talent’) dictates how long it takes coaches to transition them to the next stage.

When a participant starts, their posture, basic movements and body awareness are key skills to pass on, especially

contextually, as the main emphasis is on preparing a new sport participant first. Our challenge is to ensure we accept the

mindset that we could be preparing a future basketball player not necessarily a Muaythai competitor. Regardless of how

quickly a child learns a specific skill or how good his/her parents happen to be at it, we should avoid the trap of thinking

that any youngster is ‘meant’ to perform a specific sport. Complex psychological reasoning is the basis for this assertion and

will be discussed below. It is important to understand that spotting talent, even by the most scientific means, has a low

chance of success. The search for talent in sport at relatively young ages is far more prevalent and systematised than in the

past; formal talent identification programmes can be traced to the former socialist East European countries, often labelled

as ‘scientific selection’. Success of Scientific Selection systems predicated on physical parameters and juvenile levels of

performance has been limited. 3

Sampling sports/physical activities until a child reaches approximately 15 years of age is the best way we know how to

create superior athletes. Being an ambassador for sport in Canada requires that we look at the big picture for these athletes

by helping them learn about fundamental movements and how our sport fits into them. Muaythai is primarily a rotational

3 Bailey R, et. al. Participant Development in Sport: An Academic Review, 2010 (51-53).






sport, but linear lower body (jumping) power is also an element. A dance pirouette, golf swing, throwing, catching and jumping

all have transferable elements to Muaythai movements. How to specifically build certain physical aspects of athleticism will

be discussed in coaching courses in reference to elite development. The foundation is learned through participating in the

process of Neuromuscular Integration. While this can be achieved in adulthood, the task is much easier when the brain is

developing, especially before the adolescent growth spurt. There is no excuse for the present decline in athleticism and

participation, given its wide consequences for society. And while it is difficult to define what a person high in athleticism

can actually do, most know it when they see it.

PSYCHOLOGICAL-SOCIOLOGICAL CHALLENGES

As Muhamad Ali said “The will must be stronger than the skill.” Not only that, the arguments for not specializing in one

sport too early largely come from the psychological domain. So it is of primary importance to pay homage to strategies that

promote motivation to stay in sport, by promoting our young participants to try many other sports. The Society of Sport

Psychology position stand on sampling vs. specialization, suggested that:

• Sampling does not hinder elite development in sports where peak performance is achieved after maturation;

• Sampling is linked to longer sporting careers and has positive implications for long-term sport participation;

• Sampling favorably affects positive youth development;

• Deliberate play provides a foundation of intrinsic motivation; and

• Deliberate play establishes a range of motor and cognitive experiences.4

It is important to know why youth participate in sport if we are to create programs that foster their long term involvement.

Comparing these motivations to those of adults is especially revealing:

YOUTH MOTIVATIONS FOR SPORT INVOLVEMENT

• Have fun;

• Do something that I am good at;

• Play as part of a team;

• Learn new skills; and

• Improve my skills (why children play sports).

ADULT MOTIVATION FOR SPORT INVOLVEMENT

• They want to feel in shape;

• To improve or maintain health;

• To feel a sense of achievement; and

• Independence.5

While fun can be very hard to define, it’s important to note that fun and play aren’t synonyms. This is especially dependent

on age, personality and other psychological characteristics like ‘perceived competence.’ However, crucial psychological skills

are often the preserve of support programmes aimed at performers competing at elite levels. Psychobehavioural skills

4 Coˆte´, J, Lidor, R, and Hackfort, D. ISSP position stand: To sample or to specialize? Seven postulates about youth sport activities that lead to continued participation and elite performance. Int J Sport Exerc Psychol 2009, 9: 7–17. 5 Seefeldt V, Ewing ME and Walk S (1992) Overview of youth sport programs in the United States. Washington, DC: Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development.






should be developed alongside athleticism regardless of their current perceived talent. It has been proposed by Abbott and

Collins that the intent of a systemized progression through psychological skills is to encourage children to:

• Realise their level of competence and to self-reinforce;

• Take responsibility for their own development; and

• Aspire for excellence by achieving autonomous development.6

Ultimately, some of the key psychological skills that youth sport should foster are below and how we create

effective/individualized transitions between learning and competence will be a personal challenge for each coach and

participant’s relationship:

PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF DEVELOPING EXCELLENCE

• Goal Setting;

• Realistic performance evaluations;

• Imagery;

• Planning and organizational skills;

• Commitment;

• Focus and distraction control;

• Coping with pressure; and

• Self-awareness.7

While the above biological and psychological domains include much of what coaches looks for in their athletes, the

understanding of physical and attitudinal aspects of Muaythai success are incomplete if we include all variables that control

sport success in Canada.

SOCIOLOGICAL The sociological aspects of Muaythai in Canada may be what creates the largest divide between how it’s experienced here

compared to Thailand, where Muaythai enjoys status as the national sport, improved potential to make a living wage

through Muaythai and being a major source of sport tourism.

The sociological concept of identity is an extremely important one for this discussion; few kids grow up dreaming of being

a Muaythai athlete the way kids in Canada typically dream of playing hockey. One can assume that because of the blue

collar image sports like boxing have acquired in Western society, that Muaythai being a largely unknown martial art would

suffer from a similar bias. Therefore, creating ambassadors who are proud of their sport and can speak publicly about how

it created success for them as individuals will be very important in our communities. Many Muaythai practitioners come

from different and atypical walks of life that our identities as Nak Muay will create change if we discuss openly how our

identities were forged in training, competing or coaching Muaythai. We are all aware of how our identities and confidence

has been boosted (and in some cases created) by our participation in the sport and our status as role models should never

be taken for granted. With this status in mind, we must remember that family can be either an enabling force or a liability

in the lives of our young participants. Knowing which camp our students fall into and creating programs that eliminate

6 Activity and Health Research (1992) ‘Allied Dunbar National Fitness Survey: Main Findings’, London: Sports Council and Health Education Authority. 7 Abbott A and Collins D (2004) ‘Eliminating the dichotomy between theory and practice in talent identification and development: considering the role of psychology’, Journal of Sports Sciences, 22: 395-408.






barriers of entry for those whose families can’t help for socioeconomic reasons for example, will be key to creating goodwill

long term.

SOCIOECONOMIC One of the key aspects of sport participation that is rarely discussed is socioeconomics. It is always astounding when you

look at the data about how sport success is tied to family income. From the top all the way to grassroots sport, the sport of

Muaythai's image will dictate recognition by not for profits and governmental organizations, creating opportunities for

funding that can eliminate this barrier of means for deserving participants. Our sport has very little presence in rural Canada,

making geography a limiting factor for participation as well. The larger we grow the more we will be able to spread out of

major metropolitan centres, making our sport available to a larger proportion of Canadians.

GENDER Lastly, gender is still a factor that undermines universal sport participation. The resounding message from global data is that

boys play more sports than girls. Muaythai is uniquely positioned to smash through gender stereotypes and in some clubs

this is already happening. As female Muaythai instructors coach successful male and female Muaythai athletes, generations

of students are being socialized with the idea that this is perfectly normal and beneficial to all. This is not to say that females

should be treated exactly the same as males; research has shown that in other sports, negative physical and emotional

experiences have resulted in drop out by females. Many female participants find sport too competitive and don’t see

themselves as competent. Remembering that a participant does not have to reach elite performance to be an ambassador

for our sport will be key for promoting our success with gender issues moving forward. Allowing elite success to naturally

flow from greater participation and enjoyment of the sport without pressure to compete should be the same among male

and female youth and adults.


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