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The development of life skills has been associated with participation in sport, football and other physical activities. A factor in enabling this ambition to be realized is the actions and behaviors of sports coaches. Drawing on the concept of positive youth development through sport, the first part of this paper considers the types of environments coaches need to create in order for players to develop life skills. The second part of this paper discusses formal coach education and it's role in developing coaches' knowledge of life skills development. The third and final section of this paper offers an alternative explanation of how people's exposure to certain social contexts results in the development of life skills. A review of literature in these areas reveals that the role sport and football has played in players' development of life skills is unclear and in need of future research attention.given the paucity of research in this area, research in sport more generally will be drawn upon.Recent decades have witnessed a growth of interest among policy makers and practitioners in the promotion of skills seen as integral to preparing young people and adults in dealing with everyday challenges and risks, and enable productive participation in society (Hodge and Danish, 1999; Miller and Kerr 2002). Often called 'life skills', these skills have gained currency in the fields of health, education and social policy. Sport has also been increasingly recognized as a means by which people are able to develop skills that allow them to positively contribute toward society. This is perhaps hardly surprising given that the inherent nature of sport requires people to demonstrate such things as perseverance when attempting to learn new skills, or social and cognitive skills as people are required to work independently and interdependently to solve problems and make decisions.Intimation of the power of sport to extend beyond the physical to improve players' lives more generally continues to be made as if they are truisms. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said that "Sport is the best health policy, education policy, anti-crime policy and anti-drugs policy", while the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, proposed team games as a cure for gang violence, and the former Education Secretary, Michael Gove, identified football, and other competitive team games as the 'better' games for 'building character' (Erdozain 2012). Similar claims can be found in the enthusiast endorsements of sport from politicians around the world. That is, the often taken for granted assumption that taking part in sport leads to positive outcomes being developed. Of course, it is difficult to know whether politicians genuinely consider sport to have such power, or it is in their political interests or agendas to promote it as such.These assertions are not limited to politicians, however, and have received support in the field of academia. Indeed, Petitpas et al. (2005) claimed that sport is able to provide the basis for youth to learn about themselves and a...

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Learners are central to the coaching process, yet elementary-aged (i.e. 5-11 years) children's perspectives and experiences of sport are under-represented in the current sports coaching literature. One reason that research with these populations may not be forthcoming in these sporting contexts could be due to the employment of research methods. The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the viability of visual methods (i.e. photovoice and drawings) in offering a furthered understanding of elementary-aged children's perspectives and experiences of sport and sports coaching. The drawings and photographs provided as examples in this paper were generated from a combination of two different contexts (school and club) where children participated in two different sports (swimming and football). The processes of data generation allowed for the reflection on some benefits of using these methodologies as well as revealing some challenges. Although these methods proved challenging due to their time-consuming nature, the drawings and photographs provided stimuli for conversations between the children and the researcher. Specifically, children were able to speak freely and openly about their experiences related to the coaching and playing of sport in specific contexts. However, if children's experiences of playing sport are to be positive, researchers and practitioners must consider listening to respond to their perspectives and experiences, rather than merely listening. These methods may therefore be invaluable in enabling coaches to re-examine their taken for granted assumptions regarding children's perspectives and experiences.