Capstone Project Draft Proposal

Performance in Sports: How Should Coaching Improve?

I will be researching the effects of coaching on young kids in sports, and how their future and
confidence is altered due to negative coaching. Since soccer has been a large portion of focus in
my life, and coaching can always be a dealbreaker for enjoyment in any sport or related athletics.
I want to improve this aspect for younger children in sports, so it will carry a positive affect for
the rest of their sports career, filled with enjoyment and confidence.

Having a positive influence from a coach figure all the way from your grassroot in soccer,
develops a passion for the sport for the kids that need it, and have the drive to pursue a future in
it. Since a many want to pursue coaching, or working in the future with kids, this can be a
learning experience for me as much as it can for the kids that might hear about this information.
To build to this point, I’ve taken a beginner’s coaching courses and worked a job with younger
girls for a few weeks in the summer. This project can improve my mindset in the of area for my
projected career, either a physio or a coach, as well as playing soccer in university, so this can
improve my mental game and the way I talk to my teammates.

To start this project, I will send out a survey to gather information from my classmates and
peers, of their experience with poor coaching and what came of it. This will be a start to my
research in this topic and will lead me to create driving questions for my interviews that will
occur after the survey results. These interviews will be discussed with coaches and other players
to understand what helps in coaching and what has maybe even led children to quit sports. To
help aid me in this study I will making some community connections and selecting for mentors.
One person I’ve decided to select as a mentor is Andrea Neil, who used to play on the Canadian
Women’s Team. She works with other coaches as a coach for them, to help them improve the
way they treat their team. I want to ask her for advice about how she thinks coaching could
improve either through a call or online, and base more of my questions for mt interviews on her
advice. My friend Brielle also said she’d help me in learning how to film properly as she has a
background in film production.

To present my findings I will be making a documentary, talking about the negative effects and
how to improve on them, showing an example through my younger cousin’s soccer team in a
session. I will constantly be learning aspects of filming, and how to edit it, to put all my
information in one media. I will also be using micro phones for the interviews and for my final
video presentation, and I will need to buy these microphones, and learn how to use them.

The main core competencies that I will be using is communication, where I will be conducting
interviews and sending out a survey to gain information for my project, to then showcase this
information. Social responsibility is another one I’ll be using, where I will be connecting with all
new people, including a younger girls soccer team, and the coaches and players I will be
interviewing. Next, I will have, Personal Awareness and Responsibility, where the whole project
will stem off the well-being of young athletes, through the aspects of their coaches or coaching.
The only setbacks I’ll have for this project, it the weather conditions for my outdoor sessions,
and it some of my mentors aren’t available. I will also be doing some online research to help, and
sources will be provided below.
Research so far:

Chen, L. H., Kee, Y. H., & Tsai, Y.-M. (2009). An Examination of the Dual Model of
Perfectionism and Adolescent Athlete Burnout: A Short-Term Longitudinal
Research. Social Indicators Research, 91(2), 189–201. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27734825

This source talked about the perfectionism pushed onto people, and how it can cause self-esteem
uses especially in sports from coaches.

Edwards, E. (2017). From Grade Schooler to Great Star: Childhood Development and the
“Golden Age” in the World of Japanese Soccer. In S. Frühstück & A. Walthall
(Eds.), Child’s Play: Multi-Sensory Histories of Children and Childhood in Japan (1st ed.,
pp. 205–224). University of California Press.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt1w8h25q.15

This journal explained the importance of kids being in sports and letting them enjoy and learn
the sport for themselves without much forced coaching from parents. This indicatives in Japan
have shown great results on how to influence kids to love sports instead if feeling pressure from
them.

Coop, R. H., & Rotella, R. J. (1991). Sport and Physical Skill Development in Elementary
Schools: An Overview. The Elementary School Journal, 91(5), 409–412.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/1001880

This article discussed the importance of a child’s development of physical skills, but organized
sport can be both good and evil, depending on the perspectives of the coaches, which is a big
highlight in my capstone project.

Hayden, L., Silva, M. R., & Gould, K. (2017). REVEALING SCHOOL COUNSELORS’
PERSPECTIVES ON USING PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND CONSULTING WITH
COACHES. Professional School Counseling, 21(1), 1–11.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/90023512

It discusses the importance of positive physical activity and sport in young children, and how
removing this ability could cause problems for these kids.