In this episode I speak with one of the masters of sports development and coach research Professor Jean Côté. Professor Côté is a member of the School of Kinesiology and Health Studies at Queen’s University in Kingston (Canada). His research interests are in the areas of children in sport, coaching, positive youth development, and sport expertise.
Professor Côté has published more than 130 research articles on a variety of sport psychology and coaching topics as well as publishing 50 book chapters. His work is among the most widely cited in academic sports literature.
Throughout the podcast we discussed some areas of his research that applied specifically to coaching. These included:
-The role of deliberate play vs deliberate practice
-Why sampling and diversification in sport may be necessary in the developmental years
-The role of parents in sport
-Transformational coaching
-And Professor Côté's very own Developmental model of sports participation
Jean’s discussion about transformational coaching really highlighted what some other guests have also said in terms of coaching the person first. The amount of research Jean and his colleagues have performed in the area definitely supports this idea and for a coach at any level I think it is such an important part of your coaching to develop.
As a believer of games based learning I really liked the way Jean compared deliberate practice with deliberate play and how deliberate play can be so rewarding and effective for young athletes. We as coaches tend to overcoach and over drill through deliberate practice – as jean said we need to remember kids sport is for kids don’t try coaching them like adults.
And finally the ideas Jean discussed around sampling and diversification in sport not just sampling a variety of sports but also having a diversity of experiences within one sort of sport can be so important for developing athletes skills.
To follow Professor Jean Côté on twitter search for @JeanCote46

For 20% off at Elite Performance Journal's use the code "coachdoctor"