Youth Athletes' Interpretations of Punitive Coaching Practices

Investigating Sport Stakeholders’ Understanding of Behaviour Management within a Competitive Youth Baseball Team

“…To maintain participant confidentiality, a pseudonym was assigned to each participant, and all personal identifiers were removed. Youth athletes’ perspectives were sought given previous research which has suggested punitive strategies may have a detrimental impact on developmental outcomes (e.g., diminished fun) [ 19 , 20 ]. Furthermore, athletes’ perspectives must be considered if stakeholders truly wish to formulate and/or revise policies and programmes concerning behaviour management that are developmentally appropriate [ 38 ].…”

“…Despite the adoption of more positive disciplinary approaches in other child-populated domains, research on behaviour management in sport suggests that punishment continues to be used to modify athlete behaviour. For example, researchers have examined common forms of punishment used in sport, such as excessive exercise (e.g., push-ups or sprints until exhaustion), yelling, and benching (i.e., removal of playing time) as consequences of perceived undesirable behaviour (e.g., poor attitude, arriving late, and inadequate performances) [ 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 ]. Collectively, these punitive methods have been associated with negative outcomes for youth athletes, which include but are not limited to fatigue, injuries, negative perceptions of the self, tarnished sport relationships, impaired learning, and a lack of desire to continue playing [ 19 , 20 , 23 ].…”

“…Based upon the evidence of harms associated with punishment use, and the shift from the use of punitive to disciplinary strategies in other youth-populated domains, a question is raised about why punishment continues to be used in sport contexts. While researchers have examined the perceived reasons for use and effects of behavioural management tactics in youth sport [ 19 , 20 , 30 ], to-date, no research has investigated how stakeholders understand and interpret punishment and discipline, and whether common behavioural management tactics are viewed from punitive or disciplinary lenses. Understanding stakeholders’ interpretations of behavioural management strategies is important to prevent harms that may result from punishment use and to better understand where interventions are needed to advance the use of developmentally appropriate disciplinary strategies.…”

Motivation and challenges in a humble beginning: The case of potential young Filipino (Batang Pinoy) boxers

“…Coaches need to teach players through the learning process how they can fix those mistakes and improve. By constantly punishing players, the team is not creating an environment conducive to learning (Battaglia et al, 2017). Instead, it creates an environment where players never step outside of their comfort zone or take risks because they are afraid to make a mistake.…”

The Intimidation of Trainers: Prompting Martial Arts Athletes to Practice

“…All of these psychological effects have also been reported as a consequence of emotional abuse in parent-child relationships (Iwaniec et al, 2006;Stirling & Kerr, 2013). Likewise, emotional abuse has negative effects on the well-being of athletes, including depression, eating behavior, anxiety, and fear of the environment (Battaglia et al, 2017;Kerr et al, 2020). Emotional abuse in an athlete-coach relationship occurs when athletes show a lack of confidence in their own abilities (Gervis & Dunn, 2004).…”