ATHLETIC DEVELOPMENT: A PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

#TeamOUsport academics Dr Caroline Heaney, Dr Nichola Kentzer and Professor Ben Oakley have recently published a new book ‘Athletic Development: A Psychological Perspective’. The book examines some of the psychological factors that can help or hinder the development of participants in sport. It shines a unique psychological perspective on the athlete’s development through sport and explores a range of contemporary themes that influence athlete’s development including:

• An introduction to athletic development which orientates a holistic, psychological perspective of the athletic development process.
• Social influences on athletic development, which explores the impact of varied social influences (e.g., coach, family, peers, school) on sports participation and performance from a psychological perspective.
• Athlete wellbeing, which explores various aspects influencing mental health and welfare as an athlete progresses through their sports career.

The book features contributions from experts in the field including #TeamOUsport central academics Jess Pinchbeck and Candice Lingam-Willgoss and associate lecturers Jo Horne and Iain Greenlees and is a core resource in our new module E312 Athletic Development: A Psychological Perspective.

The book comprises fifteen chapters as outlined below.

Section I: Athletic Development: A Holistic View of the Journey Ben Oakley

1. What Is Athletic Development? Ben Oakley
2. How Did We Get Here? Exploring the Evolution of Athletic Development Perspectives Ben Oakley
3. Transitions on the Athlete Journey: A Holistic Perspective Robert Morris
4. Retirement from Sport: The Final Transition Candice Lingam-Willgoss
5. Researching Athletic Development Joanna Horne

Section II: Social Influences on the Athlete’s Journey Nichola Kentzer

6. Coach-Athlete Relationships: The Role of Ability, Intentions and Integrity Sophia Jowett and Katelynn Slade
7. Towards Mutual Understanding: Communication and Conflict in Coaching Lauren R. Tufton
8. Creating an Optimal Motivational Climate for Effective Coaching Iain Greenlees
9. The Family Behind the Athlete Jessica Pinchbeck
10. How Does the School Setting Influence Athletic Development? Nichola Kentzer

Section III: Mental Health and Wellbeing on the Athlete’s Journey Caroline Heaney

11. Understanding Mental Health and Wellbeing in Sport Caroline Heaney
12. Developing Resilience on the Athlete’s Journey Karen Howells
13. Thriving in Athletic Development Environments Daniel J Brown
14. Athlete Welfare for Optimal Athletic Development Daniel J. A. Rhind

Section IV: Conclusions

15. Effective Athletic Development: Closing Thoughts Ben Oakley, Caroline Heaney, and Nichola Kentzer

Congratulations to Caroline, Nichola and Ben and all the contributing authors!

Kieran McCartney, Staff Tutor for Sport and Fitness has recently published a book titled Mobile Education – Personalised Learning and Assessment in Remote Education: A Guide for Educators and Learners, Digital Learning and the Future. In this post he shares how mobile technology allows educators to explore various forms of assessment submissions.

NATO And Russia Can Be A Lesson On How To Alter Assessments In Education

Themes such as democracy and negotiation are evident in education as much as international affairs. The ongoing crisis between NATO and Russia is an example where two sides may continue to disagree and can still use diplomacy to aim to resolve differences. The key words in the last sentence being, aim to. The relationship between educators and learners is no different.

The presence of mobile technology either in classrooms or in eLearning environments presents an opportunity for educators to explore different forms of assessment. This can be achieved by engaging in a level of diplomacy with learners. For example, educators can share the learning outcomes for the subject area they are teaching and explore with students how learning outcomes can be achieved and demonstrated with the use of apps that are available within mobile technology. This approach involves a strong element of democratisation where learners can actively engage with educators to explore how assessment outcomes can be presented in different formats.

Using different formats in assessments may not be limited to typed documents, but also expanded to incorporate audio, audio and visual, or visual representations. Like international diplomacy, there are boundaries around what can be done, and it may fail.  But, by engaging both sides in communication learners and educators can develop an understanding of each other as well as their concerns and from that they can jointly explorer and negotiate the format of assessments to demonstrate the achievement of learning outcomes.

If you would like to learn more about how mobile technology can be used to help educators on students achieve learning outcomes in and away from the classroom, please explore –

McCartney, K. (2021) Mobile Education – Personalised Learning and Assessment in Remote Education: A Guide for Educators and Learners, Digital Learning and the Future, Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang UK, from https://www.peterlang.com/view/title/74019

Congratulations on the publication, Kieran!

Back in 2017, the ICSPE Symposium on ‘Physical Activity and Sport: Understanding the First Ten Years’ took place in Germany and was well attended by many international presenters and delegates.

As part of the planned follow-up to the symposium, a Routledge book titled ‘Physical Activity and Sport During the First Ten Years of Life‘ has been published and Dr Ben Langdown was invited to contribute a chapter on ‘Developing a movement culture in the first 10 years’ (Chapter 14).

The chapter focuses on stimulating young people towards physical activity and sport, explores the evidence underpinning fundamental movement skill (FMS) development, their role in physical literacy and how to observe, analyse and develop movement. The chapter provides an applied focus on best practice in primary education settings to support children towards sustained participation within a positive movement culture.

The book will be available from April 2021.

Congratulations to Ben!

A new edited collection titled Race’, Ethnicity and Racism in Sports Coaching has recently been published by Routledge and co-edited by Dr Jim Lusted, Lecturer in Sport & Fitness in ECYS.

In collaboration with Dr Steven Bradbury from Loughborough University and Dr Jacco Van Sterkenburg from Erasmus University (Rotterdam, Holland), the book brings together leading academics from around the world in the first collection dedicated to exploring issues of ‘race’ and racism in a sport coaching setting.

This topical and timely collection is arranged into three sections, addressing the central topics of representation and racialised barriers in sports coaching; racialised identities, diversity, and intersectionality in sports coaching; and formalised racial equality interventions in sports coaching.

To mark the book launch, an online forum (video and podcast formats) was recently recorded with some of the authors to discuss the similarities and differences in the experiences of minoritised coaches, consider the effectiveness of racial equality interventions in sports coaching and explore what can be done to increase the diversity of sport coaches across the world.

The authors hope the recommendations for practice outlined in the book will be utilised by key stakeholders and practitioners to help embed the principles and practice of racial equality, diversity, and inclusion within sports coaching contexts globally.

Congratulations to Jim and the co-editors!

Following on from her recent conference presentation at the British Educational Research Association (BERA) Special Interest Group on Mental Health and Well-being in Education, Dr Nichola Kentzer has just had a book chapter published focusing on this same area. The chapter, part of a text focusing broadly on the post compulsory education and training sector, takes a view that well-being for students and staff is of key importance and recognises the valuable role that the sector can play in addressing the mental health of young people and adults. The chapter approaches this important topic by offering case studies, reflective questions and exercises on how to improve mental health and well-being, and suggests a number of tools that may be useful in facilitating well-being outcomes for both students and staff.

Congratulations to Nichola and her co-authors!