SportsLetter

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A Coach for this Generation’s Athletes

Preferred Coaching Qualities in NCAA Division I College Athletes: a Qualitative Analysis of Basketball Players from the Millennial Generation.  Edward C. Hoffman, Daniel R. Czech, Jonathan Metzler, Trey Burdette, Drew Zwald, Jordan Blazo and Rebecca A. Zakrajsek.  Applied Research in Coaching and Athletics Annual, 24, 2009

The Millennial Generation.  The Echo Boomers.  Generation Y.  According to the authors of this study, this generation is currently populating the ranks of college athletics and is considered by social psychologists to be different from previous generations as they “demand more understanding from people in authority positions, quickness in decision making, more affirmations, and desire a large variety of choices.”  How then to coach athletes from this generation?  Are the “old school” ways still effective, or should coaches modify their teaching styles to connect with this new generation of athletes?  The authors set out to “examine the preferred coaching styles of athletes” by interviewing a small sample size of nine male and female NCAA Division I basketball players.  Open-ended questions about the qualities and characteristics of the “ideal” coach were asked.  Answers by the athletes described a coach “who will sustain multiple roles in their lives, communicate clearly, maximize production, have compassion and be mindful of the entire team’s interest.”  Terms used to flesh out this ideal coach included role model, parental figure, caring, forgiving, accessible, disciplined, fair and democratic.  The authors suggested that those coaches who are cognizant of the needs of the athletes, and who make an effort to fulfill those desires, will draw better performances from their athletes.

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ACL Injuries and the Tale of the Tape

Video Analysis of Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury: Abnormalities in Hip and Ankle Kinematics.  Barry P. Boden, Joseph S. Torg, Sarah B. Knowles and Timothy E. Hewett.  The American Journal of Sports Medicine, 37 (2) 2009

In spite of the growing mountain of reports and analyses concerning ACL injuries, the researchers in this study felt that "the mechanisms of noncontact anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury have not been clearly defined."  Researchers were most interested in foot position and lower extremity joint angles of athletes at the time of ACL injury.  They hypothesized that "compared with uninjured athletes performing comparable athletic maneuvers (controls), athletes with ACL injury (subjects) would show a more flatfooted profile and a more flexed hip at landing after a jump or after a sharp deceleration maneuver."

They reviewed videotapes of ACL injuries to athletes, gathered over a 12-year period (1995-2007) from the NBA and WNBA, physicians, athletic trainers and patients.  Of the 70 videotapes considered, 29 videos were analyzed.  Researchers chose videos that showed non-contact ACL injuries to athletes (defined as minimal contact with other athletes, no direct contact with the knee, no tackling or shoving by an opponent) as well as clear footage of the athlete's foot contacting the ground.  Sports represented in the tapes were a mixture of professional, college and high school sports including basketball, handball, soccer, football, competitive cheerleading and gymnastics.  These 29 "subject/injury" videos were then compared with a "control" group of 27 videos showing professional and collegiate basketball players "performing similar decelerating or landing maneuvers during game situations." 

Researchers studied video of jumping athletes as their feet made contact with the ground after a jump and noticed that the forefeet of the control group athletes contacted the ground first, while athletes of the injury group had "first ground contact with the hindfoot or entirely flatfooted, attained the flatfoot position significantly sooner, had significantly less planter-flexed ankle angles at initial contact, and had a significant larger mean hip flexion angle."  Researchers concluded that jumping athletes who touch down flatfooted or with the hindfoot may have a higher risk of ACL injury.

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The State of ACL Injury Research

ACL Injury in the Female Athlete: a Multifactorial Problem that Remains Poorly Understood. Sandra J. Shultz. Journal of Athletic Training, 43 (5) 2008.

The first report of sex differences in the neuromuscular functions of male and female athletes was in 1996. The research emphasis since then has been on determining why there are differences between the genders, and what can be done to reduce risk of ACL injuries in both genders, certainly, but in female athletes specifically. Prevention programs have been created, implemented, and studied for effectiveness. As effective as some of these prevention programs have been, questions still abound as to “the underlying mechanisms for sex differences in neuromuscular and biomechanical function and the extent to which these differences truly predict increased injury risk,” and “the underlying causes for … sex differences -- anatomical, hormonal, or otherwise.”

With these and other questions in mind, a conference was held in Greensboro, North Carolina, in April 2008. The purpose of the “Research Retreat IV: ACL Injuries -- The Gender Bias” retreat was to “continue to examine the factors thought to be associated with females’ increased risk of ACL injuries and to do so via keynote presentations by nationally and internationally known experts in the field, abstract presentations of original research conducted by attendees, and focused discussions.” At the conclusion of this meeting, a consensus statement that had been developed during past retreats was updated and revised, resulting in a clearer picture of “what we know, don’t know, and still need to know” in relation to ACL injuries in general, and females’ increased risk of ACL injuries specifically.

The consensus statement, reports, and articles related to ACL research discussed at the conference can be found in the Sept.-Oct. 2008 issue of the Journal of Athletic Training. The articles from this issue can be accessed from the journal’s Table of Contents.

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The Curveball and Young Pitchers

A Biomechanical Comparison of Youth Baseball Pitches: Is the Curveball Potentially Harmful? Shouchen Dun, Jeremy Loftice, Glenn S. Fleisig, David Kingsley and James R. Andrews. American Journal of Sports Medicine, 36(4) 2008.

Although the curveball has been considered to be a dangerous pitch for young pitchers, no biomechanical studies have been conducted among youth pitchers comparing different types of pitches. The investigators studied 29 pitchers (approximate age 12.5 years). Each pitcher threw 5 fastballs, 5 curveballs, and 5 change-ups with maximum effort in an indoor laboratory setting. The study compared elbow varus torque, elbow flexion torque, elbow proximal force, shoulder internal rotation torque and shoulder proximal force. "In general, elbow and shoulder loads were greatest in the fastball and least in the change- up." Therefore, the curveball may not be more harmful than the fastball for young pitchers. This finding is consistent with other recent epidemiologic research indicating that "the amount of pitching is a stronger risk factor than the type of pitches thrown.

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Kids, Helmets and Skateboarding/Snowboarding

Use of Protective Equipment by Adolescents in Inline Skating, Skateboarding, and Snowboarding. Erica L. Kroncke, Mark W. Niedfeldt, and Craig C. Young. Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine, 18 (1) 2008.

Research has born out what many parents already know: kids don't like to wear protective gear while skateboarding and snowboarding. Still, researchers were curious to know how often and by which group personal protective equipment (PPE) was worn, and the reasons why they did or didn't wear PPE. The study involved 333 participants 13-18 years old, with the mean age of 14.9. There were differences in results across the ages of the participants, and among the three activities examined. Generally, though, snowboarders wore less PPE, and inline skaters wore the most; and "younger adolescents wore more PPE than older adolescents." Overall, the most common reasons given by participants who wore PPE were influence by parents, peers, and rules and requirements of the activity. Lack of perceived need and discomfort were the most common reasons for nonuse. Witnessing or sustaining an injury was the biggest reason for participants to start using PPE, while "almost half of adolescents reported nothing would convince them to wear PPE."

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How does winning and losing in youth sports affect kids' perceptions of their coaches?

Is Winning Everything? The Relative Contributions of Motivational Climate and Won-Lost Percentage in Youth Sports. Sean P. Cumming, Frank L. Smoll, Ronald E. Smith, and Joel R. Grossbard. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 19 (3) 2007.

A study involving "268 male and female youth basketball players, aged 10 to 15 years" examined how coaching styles and winning-percentage influence the way young athletes feel about their athletic experiences and their coaches. Athletes with coaches who stressed learning, self-improvement, task-mastery and effort had positive evaluations of their coaches and athletic experiences. Athletes with coaches who emphasized wins and losses, and who encouraged behavior with that goal in mind, had slightly more negative evaluations of their experiences. While "winning did not relate to enjoyment," won-lost percentage did have a impact on athletes' estimation "of the coach's teaching ability and knowledge of the sport." The authors concluded that it was important for youth sport coaches to recognize that "athletes' enjoyment of the sport experience and evaluations of coaches are more closely tied to the motivational climate that they create than to their won-loss records."

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Can coaches be trained to make sports more enjoyable for kids?

Effects of a Motivational Climate Intervention for Coaches on Young Athletes' Sport Performance Anxiety. Ronald E. Smith, Frank L. Smoll and Sean P. Cumming. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 29 (1) 2007.

Do youth coaches contribute to feelings of performance anxiety in their young athletes? Can they be trained not to? These questions were the focus of a study involving "37 coaches (33 males and 4 females) and 216 athletes (117 boys and 99 girls) between the ages of 10 and 14 years who participated in community-based basketball programs" in the Seattle area. About half of the coaches participated in a 75-minute workshop on teaching athletes to take satisfaction from playing to the best of their abilities, to learn from their mistakes, and to simply enjoy the game, the practices, and interactions with teammates. This positive coaching, as opposed to "critical or punitive feedback" and an overemphasis on winning, did in fact have a dramatic effect on reducing the amount of stress in the athletes. These athletes reported having feelings of success from just playing well, and from not feeling anxious (or queasy) when they felt they did not perform well.

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ACL injuries in female collegiate soccer players

A Randomized Controlled Trial to Prevent Noncontact Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury in Female Collegiate Soccer Players. Julie Gilchrist, Bert R. Mandelbaum, Heidi Melancon, George W. Ryan, Holly J. Silvers, Letha Y. Griffin, Diane S. Watanabe, Randall W. Dick, and Jiri Dvorak. The American Journal of Sports Medicine, 36 (8) 2008.

This study tested whether an on-field warm-up program called Prevent Injury and Enhance Performance (PEP) Program can reduce non-contact ACL injuries. The PEP Program consists of warm-up, stretching, plyometrics and sport-specific agility exercises. The sample involved 61 NCAA Division I women's soccer teams with a total of 1435 athletes, who were divided into randomly assigned intervention or control groups (852 control athletes; 583 intervention). The athletes in the intervention group performed the PEP Program three times per week. Teams kept track of participation in practices and games and reported any knee injuries. "The overall anterior cruciate ligament injury rate among intervention athletes was 1.7 times less than in control athletes," representing a 41% decrease. Noncontact ACL "injury rate among intervention athletes was 3.3 times less than in the control athletes," a 70% decrease. The authors concluded that "implementation of an alternative warm-up program" like the PEP Program "may reduce the risk of noncontact ACL injuries in collegiate female soccer players."

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High school athletes and protein supplements

Protein Supplement Users Among High School Athletes Have Misconceptions About Effectiveness. Margaret C. Duellman, Judith M. Lukaszuk, Aimee D. Prawitz, and Jason P. Brandenburg. The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 22 (4) 2008.

To support protein synthesis (for muscle growth) athletes require more protein than nonathletes. This additional protein need not come from protein supplements, however. "To date, no studies have shown an advantage of ingesting protein supplements over natural, protein-containing foods." Yet, many high school athletes regularly consume protein supplements in an effort to improve speed, strength and agility. Researchers were interested in determining where young athletes were getting this misinformation about the need for protein supplements over dietary sources of protein. Researchers gave 61 high school football players a survey questionnaire and queried them about the sources of information regarding protein supplement consumption. Of the 61 players participating, 39 used protein supplements and 22 did not. Interestingly, the results indicated that those athletes taking supplements had "greater level of misconceptions" than those who did not take protein supplements. The researchers determined that "coaches, parents and friends were the primary source of advice about protein supplements." As a result, the researchers concluded that "it would be valuable to provide nutrition education to these groups concurrently with education to young athletes."