Sport Knowledge: The Effects of Division I Coach Communication on Student-Athlete Learning Indicators

Author(s):  
Rikishi T. Rey ◽  
Gregory A. Cranmer ◽  
Blair Browning ◽  
Jimmy Sanderson

Sporting environments are informal contexts of learning that are dependent upon coaches’ use of effective instructional communication strategies. Coaches’ use of power while communicating instruction to athletes is especially germane, as coaches must appropriately use relational influence to inspire optimal athletic performance. Using French and Raven’s power bases (i.e., expert, referent, reward, legitimate, and coercive power), this study considers Division I student-athletes’ reports of affective learning for their sport and coaches, cognitive learning, state motivation, and team winning percentages as a function of their coaches’ use of power. Data collected from 170 student-athletes participating in team sports at Power 5 institutions revealed two significant canonical correlation roots. The first demonstrated that the increased use of prosocial power and avoidance of antisocial power were associated with greater amounts of affective learning for coaches, cognitive learning, and state motivation. The second revealed that expert power was associated with increases in cognitive learning and winning. This research has heuristic implications for expanding the assessment of athlete experience, as well as practical implications regarding the identification of effective modes of relational influence in coaching.

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 237-247 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Kaier ◽  
Danielle Zanotti ◽  
Joanne L. Davis ◽  
Kathleen Strunk ◽  
Lisa DeMarni Cromer

Sleep concerns are prevalent among student-athletes and can result in impaired athletic and academic performance. The current study investigated the feasibility and effectiveness of a brief sleep workshop for student-athletes. Athletes (N = 152) completed baseline and follow-up questionnaires (n = 104) after the intervention. Greater than half of the athletes (51%) who attended the workshops and followup reported at least one change in sleep behaviors. Results revealed a significant decrease in sleepiness from baseline to follow-up and an improvement in daytime functioning. Although athletes reported an increase in problematic sleep hygiene behaviors, they recorded significant increases in sleep knowledge from baseline to follow-up, which was maintained at the second follow-up. These longitudinal data provide evidence that a brief psychoeducation sleep workshop for student-athletes is promising for improving sleep knowledge and daily functioning.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 262-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory A. Cranmer ◽  
Ryan J. Gagnon ◽  
Joseph P. Mazer

Coach confirmation—a behavior that encompasses coaches’ recognition, endorsement, and acknowledgment of athletes—has been forwarded as an effective coaching behavior that redresses ineffective and antisocial patterns of coaching. Empirical evidence of its effectiveness, however, has been limited to athlete affect and based on data from retrospective samples of former high school athletes. This study addresses these limitations by exploring the effectiveness of coaches’ use of confirmation with collegiate student-athletes and considers its influence on their satisfaction with coaches and sport, competitiveness, and cognitive learning. Data obtained from 177 Division-I student-athletes revealed that coaches’ use of challenge increases student-athletes’ satisfaction, motivation, competitiveness, and learning, whereas the use of acceptance only determines satisfaction. These findings demonstrate that confirmation is an effective coaching behavior, its dimensions function independently, and challenge best fulfills the multidimensional nature of coaching effectiveness. The implications of this data reveal that confirmation theory functions uniquely within the athletic context, and coach effectiveness is largely determined by the implementation of strategies and efforts to refine skill sets and assist in development.


2017 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 317-328 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa M. Rubin ◽  
Ron A. Moses

Over 400,000 student-athletes participate in NCAA intercollegiate athletics programs. Due to their dual roles as student and athlete, they have a different college experience than the general student population. Specialized academic centers and resources for student-athletes are part of the reason they are separated and often isolated from the rest of campus. Teams have their own unique academic subculture that influences each student-athlete in his or her academic pursuits. The purpose of this study is to explore the athletic academic subculture among student-athletes at the Division I level and the role the athletic academic center and special resources play in cultivating a separate culture from the campus culture. Symbolic interactionism was the framework used as the lens to view the results of this study in the context of neoliberalism.


Author(s):  
Howard P. Chudacoff

This chapter discusses the NCAA's efforts to restore academic respectability to college sports. For decades, the college sports establishment promoted rules of fair play and a level playing field in public, while coaches and boosters surreptitiously sought ways to evade those rules. However, the alarming spate of cheating and fraud in the 1970s and 1980s stirred up efforts at reform. Those efforts, however, did not lead in the direction that might have been anticipated from the overt events. Though related to the scandals, the major turning points of the era had mixed consequences. Changes in the playbook of college sports between 1973 and 1991 were bounded by two major landmarks. The first, the 1973 NCAA legislation putting Division I athletic grants-in-aid (scholarships) on a one-year renewable basis, highlighted the transformation of the student-athletes into athlete-students, whose commercial value could sometimes prompt others to cheat in order to attract and retain them. The second, the 1991 Knight Foundation report, “Keeping Faith with the Student Athlete,” revealed how pervasive the need for ethics reform had become and, in its weak aftereffects, the power the athletic establishment could exert to contain reform and continue the quest for revenue in what had become a high-stakes business.


2013 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 76-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Johnson

In an effort to standardize academic risk assessment, the NCAA developed the graduation risk overview (GRO) model. Although this model was designed to assess graduation risk, its ability to predict grade-point average (GPA) remained unknown. Therefore, 134 individual risk assessments were made to determine GRO model effectiveness in the identification of academic risk for Division I student-athletes as determined by semester GPA. Pearson correlations and least-squares multiple-regression analyses revealed the GRO model as an effective means by which to assess academic risk. Academic advisors and other stakeholders of college student-athlete well-being can use this model to identify student-athletes most at risk for academic struggles and advise them accordingly.


2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 128-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pär Rylander

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the relationship between team sport coaches’ power and coaching effectiveness using French and Raven’s (1959) taxonomy of power bases as a theoretical framework. Coaching effectiveness (CE) was conceptualized as an umbrella concept and four different CE outcomes were used; athletes’ satisfaction with the coach, coaches’ general influence, adaptive training behaviours, and collective efficacy. Hypotheses were made on the specific relationships between the individual power bases and the effectiveness criteria. The total sample consisted of 820 athletes (47% females), representing 56 elite and nonelite teams from three team sports (soccer, floorball, and team handball). Data were analysed separately for adults and youths. Structural equations modelling showed that 30% (in the youth sample) and 55% (in the adult sample) of the proposed hypotheses was supported. Overall, coaches’ bases of power were strongly associated with coaching effectiveness, explaining between 13% and 59% of variance in the effectiveness outcomes used. Expert power was consistently positively related to coaching effectiveness; reward and coercive power had mixed relationships (positively, negatively, unrelated) as had legitimate power (negatively, unrelated) and reward power (positively, unrelated). The results are discussed in relation to coaching effectiveness, limitations, practical implications and future research.


2003 ◽  
Vol 23 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 50-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joy L. Gaston-Gayles

Seven directors of academic support services for student athletes with relatively high graduation rates were interviewed about the elements of their programs that contribute to student athlete success. Data on current graduation rates among six Division I-A conferences and the results from interviews with directors are presented. Implications for administrators of academic support programs and advisors of student athletes are discussed.


Author(s):  
Scott Bukstein

Recent discussion amongst scholars and practitioners related to current issues in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I college athletics has focused on areas such as the widespread commercialization of amateur sports, consistent corruption within athletics departments at NCAA member institutions, extensive exploitation of student-athletes and the necessity of a “pay for play” employee compensation model for student-athletes (see, for example, Benedict & Keteyian, 2014; Branch, 2011; Huma & Staurowsky, 2012; Nocera & Strauss, 2016; Southall & Staurowsky, 2013; Staurowsky, Maxcy, Karcher, Southall, Berri, & Otto, 2015). However, there has been minimal scholarly and industry discourse on how to leverage some of the revenues generated at the NCAA, conference and individual athletics program levels in order to develop innovative and sustainable higher education solutions that would prepare all student-athletes for career and personal success after participation in college athletics.  The primary objective of this journal article is to encourage a more informed conversation about important issues in college athletics in part by proposing several practical strategies that would improve the overall student-athlete experience and further align participation in college athletics with the core goals of institutions of higher education.  This research note provides an overview of the college athletics business model at Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) institutions within Division I of the NCAA.  In addition, this article reviews the current NCAA Division I governance structure.  An accurate knowledge of the business and governance realities within college athletics is essential to understanding that paying student-athletes an hourly wage or annual salary is actually not one of the main system issues or central student-athlete wellbeing priorities of advocates for student-athletes, athletics leaders and higher education administrators.  This article analyzes the primary issues and areas in which key college athletics stakeholders presently seek change and improvement.  This article also spotlights innovative, culturally relevant student-athlete career and professional development programs recently developed by the University of Central Florida, Oregon State University and Vanderbilt University.  Finally, this article provides a series of recommendations for all stakeholders involved in college athletics to optimize the student-athlete academic and athletic experience and to improve the level of career preparedness of all student-athletes. 


2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 425-440 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen L. Hartman

This autoethnographic account analyzes the culture of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), its rules, and the 1-year scholarship through a personal narrative of the author’s experience as a Division I basketball player who had her 1-year scholarship revoked before her senior year. The author seeks to provide a voice of resistance through an experience few have access to, as well as respond to calls for more communication scholars to use personal narrative research in sport. This scholarly commentary concludes with recommendations to change the culture of the NCAA to make it more amenable to multiyear scholarships and student-athlete rights: Communication between the NCAA and institutional members must continue to advocate for student-athlete rights; if schools are not going to offer multiyear scholarships, the NCAA needs to change the deadline for when schools must notify of nonrenewal; and student-athletes need to be encouraged to join associations that support their rights.


2007 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 261-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary Bennett

In recent years, Division I athletics programs have hired counseling or clinical psychologists as a resource for student-athletes who need assistance with clinical issues, personal difficulties, and performance issues. This article documents the evolution of this type of position at Virginia Tech and includes a discussion of the goals of the clinical sport psychologist position, an overview of the daily activities the position entails, and a discussion of the issues that comprise the assessment, conceptualization, and treatment of student-athlete concerns. Models for conceptualizing and delivering sport psychology interventions are also discussed. Evidence indicates that having access to a mental health professional familiar with the issues facing college athletes can be instrumental in helping many of these student-athletes achieve success in the university setting.


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