The impact of humanistic coach training on youth athletes’ development through sport

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of humanistic coach training on athletes’ developmental outcomes. A sample of 148 high school student-athletes between 12 and 17 years old from low socio-economic communities completed questionnaires during their season. The student-athletes were divided into an experimental group composed of student-athletes of 11 head coaches who participated in a humanistic coach training session, and a comparison group composed of student-athletes of 8 untrained coaches. Four questionnaires were used to assess competence, confidence, connection to the coach, and character (prosocial and antisocial behaviours) of the participants. The effects of the humanistic coach training program were assessed using repeated measures analysis of variance models. Results showed that connection to the coach worsened for athletes of untrained coaches. Also, participants from both groups reported an increase in antisocial behaviours at the end of the season, but the athletes of trained coaches reported engaging less frequently in antisocial behaviours compared to athletes of untrained coaches. These findings suggest that teaching humanistic coaching may help practitioners foster positive developmental outcomes in youth sport participants and build positive coach-athlete relationships, while also raising awareness to the use of sport as a tool to promote personal growth and development.