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The Science Behind the Mastery Approach Programs

The Mastery Approach programs for coaches and parents are based on many years of research conducted at the University of Washington by Drs. Ronald Smith and Frank Smoll. The objective of the YESports project was to develop, evaluate, and disseminate child-centered programs that enhance the psychosocial well-being of youth sport participants. Supported by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health and the William T. Grant Foundation, our approach illustrates what is called “evidence-based practice” in the field of medicine. At every stage of the process, scientific research has played a key role in developing YESports programs.

Developers of other coach and parent training programs have focused primarily on development and dissemination, rather than evaluation. Yet, evaluative research is not only desirable, but essential. In the words of Lipsey and Cordray (2000), “… the overarching goal of the program evaluation enterprise is to contribute to the improvement of social conditions by providing scientifically credible information and balanced judgment to legitimate social agents about the effectiveness of interventions intended to produce social benefits.” Accordingly, our systematic approach occurred in three phases, as illustrated in the development of the Mastery Approach to Coaching.

During Phase 1, we found out what kinds of coaching behaviors have what kinds of effects on what kinds of kids. This was done by developing a 12-category behavior coding system that allowed us to observe and record what youth sport coaches do (i.e., what behaviors they perform) during practices and games. Our Coaching Behavior Assessment System has been used by sport psychologists around the world to derive profiles of the characteristic behavioral patterns of coaches in particular situations. In large-scale observational studies, we coded more than 80,000 behaviors of some 70 coaches. Then we interviewed and administered questionnaires after the season to nearly 1,000 children to measure how their sport experience had affected them. We found clear relations between coaching behavior profiles and many aspects of the young athletes’ experiences, including how much they liked playing for the coach, how much fun they had, and how their feelings about themselves were affected. We also found that youngsters low in self-esteem were especially affected by their relationship with the coach.

This information gave us a scientific basis for giving coaches specific behavioral guidelines on how they could provide a better sport experience for youngsters. In Phase 2, we developed a psychoeducational program called Coach Effectiveness Training that became the basis for the current Mastery Approach to Coaching. Our experience in offering educational workshops indicated that coaches welcomed the information because they were highly motivated to be the best coaches they could be. Moreover, our research showed they were able to learn and successfully apply the coaching guidelines.

Finally, in Phase 3, we compared trained and untrained (control group) coaches and their athletes in a series of outcome studies (field experiments). We measured how the coaches behaved and the effects the training had on their athletes. Consistently, we found that the training program had positive effects on both the coaches and the athletes who played for them on such factors as liking for the coach and teammates, increases in self-esteem and reductions in fear of failure, development of healthy achievement motivation, and dramatic reductions in dropping out of sports. The Mastery Approach to Coaching is the only coach training program that has been evaluated in this manner and shown to have positive effects on coaches and athletes.

In the sections below, we summarize the YESports research program. We first describe the Phase 3 outcome studies that evaluated the effectiveness of the Mastery Approach programs. Next, we present a summary of Phase 1 research concerning how coaching behaviors affect young athletes. This is followed by lists of other project-related scientific articles, selected books and manuals, and selected book chapters.

Research Assessing the Effectiveness of Coach and Parent Training Programs

Smith, R. E., Smoll, F. L., & Curtis, B. (1979). CET: A cognitive-behavioral approach to enhancing relationship skills in youth sport coaches. Journal of Sport Psychology, 1, 59-75.
In the first of the outcome studies, Little League Baseball coaches were exposed to a preseason Coach Effectiveness Training program in which the behavioral guidelines were presented. Observations and player reports showed that trained coaches differed from controls in a manner consistent with the behavioral guidelines. Their players also liked them more, more strongly desired to play for them in the future, evaluated them as better teachers, and liked their teammates more. Children who played for the trained coaches also exhibited a significant increase in general self-esteem compared with scores obtained a year earlier, whereas control group children did not. The greatest differences in attitudes toward trained and control coaches were found among children low in self-esteem, and such children appeared most sensitive to coaches’ use of encouragement, punishment, and technical instruction.

Smoll, F. L., Smith, R. E., & Cumming, S. P. (2007). Effects of a motivational climate intervention for coaches on changes in young athletes’ achievement goal orientations. Journal of Clinical Sport Psychology, 1, 23-46.
The Mastery Approach to Coaching teaches coaches how to create an athletic environment in which effort, fun, commitment to getting better, and skill improvement are defined as success, and pressures to win are minimized. This is called a mastery motivational climate, and such a climate has been linked to many positive outcomes (including better performance) in both educational and sport settings. When athletes adopt this definition of success, they are said to have mastery-based achievement motivation, which is a healthier type of motivation in which people feel successful only if the outperform others. In this study, basketball coaches trained in the Mastery Approach were compared with untrained coaches. The trained coaches obtained higher scores at the end of the season on a measure of mastery motivational climate, and the boys and girls who played for the trained coaches showed increases in mastery-based achievement motivation over the course of the season. There were also indications that the athletes transferred this healthy achievement motivation to their academic activities as well.

Smith, R. E., Smoll, F. L., & Cumming, S. P. (2007). Effects of a motivational climate intervention for coaches on young athletes’ sport performance anxiety. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 29, 38-58.
The Mastery Approach to Coaching is designed to promote a mastery-involving motivational climate, shown in previous research to be related to lower anxiety in athletes. We tested the effects of this intervention on motivational climate and on changes in male and female athletes’ sport performance anxiety over the course of a basketball season. Relative to athletes who played for untrained coaches, those who played for the trained coaches exhibited decreases in anxiety scores from preseason to late season. Control group athletes reported increases in anxiety over the season. The Mastery Approach program had equally positive effects for boys and girls teams.

Smoll, F. L., Smith, R. E., & Cumming, S. P. (2007, Summer). Effects of coach and parent training on performance anxiety in young athletes: A systemic approach. Journal of Youth Development, 2. Article 0701FA002. http://www.nae4ha.org/directory/jyd/index.html
Sport performance anxiety has been linked to reduced enjoyment and performance and to withdrawal form sports. In this study, we tested the Mastery Approach programs for coaches and parents. By teaching coaches and parents to focus on effort and personal improvement as opposed to pressuring children to win and compare themselves with others, we believed that we could reduce fear of failure in young athletes. In line with these expectations, children whose coaches and parents were trained in Mastery Approach principles showed a decrease in sport performance anxiety over the course of the season, whereas athletes whose coaches and parents were not trained showed increases in worry and physical tension as the season progressed. This study shows the positive effects that can occur when both coaches and parents use Mastery Approach principles.

Smith, R. E., Smoll, F. L., & Barnett, N. P. (1995). Reduction of children’s sport performance anxiety through social support and stress-reduction training for coaches. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 16, 125-142.
In another anxiety-reduction study, baseball coaches in an experimental condition received preseason training in how to create a mastery motivational climate and relate more positively to athletes. A control group did not receive the coach training. Children who played for the two groups of coaches were interviewed and administered a measure of sport-specific anxiety before and after the season. Results obtained from players showed that trained coaches differed from controls in accordance with the behavioral guidelines. The training program significantly reduced trait anxiety over the course of the season. The trained coaches were also evaluated more positively by their players, their players reported having more fun, and they liked their teammates more, despite the fact that the two groups of teams did not differ in won-lost records.

Smoll, F. L., Smith, R. E., Barnett, N. P., & Everett, J. J. (1993). Enhancement of children’s self-esteem through social support training for youth sport coaches. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78, 602-610.
In this study, the effects of the coach program on children’s self-esteem was conducted. There is evidence in school settings that a mastery motivational climate has positive effects on children’s self esteem. In this study comparing trained and untrained coaches, we found that the trained coaches differed from controls in player-perceived behaviors in a manner consistent with the behavioral guidelines. Results showed that low-self-esteem children who played for the trained coaches exhibited a significant increase in general self-esteem; low-esteem youngsters in the control group did not.

Barnett, N. P., Smoll, F. L., & Smith, R. E. (1992). Effects of enhancing coach-athlete relationships on youth sport attrition. The Sport Psychologist, 6, 111-127.
Sport dropout, or attrition, is a major problem in youth sports, with about 30% of all children quitting sports in any given year, many of them to get into less savory activities. This study compared trained and untrained coaches, this time over two seasons to assess the impact of training on athlete dropout. At the end of the first season, children in the experimental group evaluated their coaches, teammates, and the sport of baseball more positively than children who played for the control-group coaches. Player attrition was assessed at the beginning of the next baseball season, with control-group youngsters withdrawing from all sport participation at a significantly higher rate (26%) that those in the experimental group (5% dropout rate). There was no difference in their teams’ won-lost percentages between dropouts and returning players, which indicated that the attrition was not due to a lack of team success.

Sousa, C., Smith, R. E., Cruz, J. (2008). An individualized behavioral goal-setting program for coaches: Impact on observed, athlete-perceived, and coach-perceived behaviors. Journal of Clinical Sport Psychology, 2, 258-277.
In this study, done with Spanish soccer coaches, coaches were trained individually rather than in a group workshop, as was the case in all previous studies. Four coaches were observed and videotaped during two matches early in the season. Then they were exposed to Mastery Approach principles and behavioral guidelines. The coaches then watched the videotapes and each selected three mastery climate behaviors that he wished to improve on. Later behavioral coding of the coaches’ behaviors, as well as athletes’ ratings of the coaches’ behaviors, revealed that two of the coaches achieved positive changes on all three of their targeted behaviors. A third coach improved on two of the three targeted behaviors. The fourth coach, who exhibited low motivation to change his behavior, did not achieve any of his goals. Positive behaviors like reinforcement and encouragement were highly related to athletes’ enjoyment. This study demonstrates that the Mastery Approach to Coaching can also be administered to individual coaches.

Research on Coaching Behaviors and Their Effects on Young Athletes

Smith, R. E., Smoll, F. L., & Hunt, E. B. (1977). A system for the behavioral assessment of athletic coaches. Research Quarterly, 48, 401-407.
The Coaching Behavior Assessment System (CBAS) consists of 12 behavioral categories derived from content analyses of coaching behaviors during practices and games. The categories include such behaviors as positive reinforcement, encouraging after a mistake, technical instruction, punitive behaviors, and organizational behaviors. Virtually anything the coach does can be coded using the 12 categories. The CBAS provided the tool we needed to find out how specific coaching practices affect athletes, and it has become an important tool in research around the world.

Smith, R. E., Smoll, F. L., & Curtis, B. (1978). Coaching behaviors in Little League Baseball. In F. L. Smoll & R. E. Smith (Eds.), Psychological perspectives in youth sports (pp. 173-201). Washington, DC: Hemisphere.
This was the first study to find out what coaches do and how their behaviors affect athletes. Fifty-one male Little League Baseball coaches were observed by trained coders during 202 complete games. A total of 57,213 individual behaviors were coded into 12 Coaching Behavior Assessment System (CBAS) categories, and a behavioral profile based on an average of 1,122 behaviors was computed for each coach. Additionally, several self-report measures were administered at the end of the season to assess the coaches’ beliefs, attitudes, and self-perceptions of how often they engaged in the 12 CBAS behaviors. Data from 542 players were collected after the season during individual interviews and questionnaire administrations carried out in the children’s homes. Included were measures of their recall and perception of the coach’s behaviors, their liking for the coach and their teammates, the degree of enjoyment they experienced during the season, and their general self-esteem. The results showed important relations between coaching behaviors and children’s attitudes toward the coach and their sport experience that, combined with the two studies below, became the basis for the coaching behavior guidelines.

Curtis, B., Smith, R. E., & Smoll, F. L. (1979). Scrutinizing the skipper: A study of leadership behaviors in the dugout. Journal of Applied Psychology, 64, 391-400.
The Coaching Behavior Assessment System was used by trained observers to classify the behaviors of coaches toward their players, players were interviewed at the end of the season concerning perceptions of their coach’s behaviors and attitudes toward their experience. Behavioral data provided by observers and players related significantly to the won-lost record and team attitudes toward both the coach and team. Perceptions of their own behavior by coaches were unrelated to the data provided by observers and players, showing that coaches have little awareness of how they behave.

Smith, R. E., Zane, N. W. S., Smoll, F. L., & Coppel, D. B. (1983). Behavioral assessment in youth sports: Coaching behaviors and children’s attitudes. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 15, 208-214.
Another observational study, this one of basketball coaches, showed important relations between coaching behaviors and athletes’ attitudes toward their experience that were consistent with the two studies above. The frequency with which coaches criticized players for mistakes predicted negative attitudes toward the coach, whereas technical instruction was related to positive attitudes.

Cumming, S. P., Smoll, F. L., Smith, R. E., & Grossbard, J. R. (2007). Is winning everything? The relative contributions of motivational climate and won-lost percentage in youth sports. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology,19, 322-336.
This study showed that the motivational climate established by the coach was nearly 10 times more important than the team’s won-lost record in how much players enjoyed their experience and how much they liked their coach and wishes to play for him or her in the future. A mastery climate was positively related to these outcomes, whereas a win-win (ego) climate was negatively related to enjoyment and liking in this sample of 268 10-to-15 year old male and female youth basketball players. Consistently, we have found that winning is far less important to young athletes than are coaching behaviors.

Smith, R. E., Smoll, F. L., & Cumming, S. P. (2009). Motivational climate and changes in young athletes’ achievement goal orientations. Motivation and Emotion, 33, 173-183.
This study of 47 youth basketball teams showed that the motivational climate established by the coach influenced children’s achievement goals over the course of a season. A mastery climate led young athletes to adopt mastery goals, feeling that they were successful when they gave maximum effort and worked hard to become the best they could be. Those exposed to coaches who created an ego climate came to define success in terms of how they compared with others and how often they won games.

Smith, R. E., & Smoll, F. L. (1990). Self-esteem and children’s reactions to youth sport coaching behaviors: A field study of self-enhancement processes. Developmental Psychology, 26, 987-993.
Not all children are equally affected by their relationship with the coach. This study showed that children who are low in self-esteem are especially affected by how supportive the coach is and how much technical instruction he gives to help them improve their skills. Children low in self-esteem responded most positively to coaches who were reinforcing and encouraging and most negatively to coaches who were low on this supportiveness dimension. A similar pattern was found in their responses to technical instruction designed to help them become more competent in sports. Moderate and high self-esteem children were less affected by these variations in adult leader behaviors. It is low self-esteem children who are most in need of a good sport experience. This finding inspired the study described in the previous section that showed that low self-esteem children exposed to coaches trained by us showed significant increases in self-esteem over the course of the season (see above: Smoll, Smith, Barnett, & Everett, 1993).

Smoll, F. L., Smith, R. E., Curtis, B., & Hunt, E. (1978). Toward a mediational model of coach-player relationships. Research Quarterly, 49, 528-541.

Smoll, F. L., & Smith, R. E. (1989). Leadership behaviors in sport: A conceptual model and research paradigm. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 19,1522-1551.
These articles present the theoretical model that has guided our research through the years. It specifies coach and athlete individual difference variables, situational factors, and mental processes assumed to influence coaching behaviors and athletes’ reactions to them. The research approach suggested by this model requires the measurement of observed coaching behaviors, player perception and recall of these behaviors, and players’ evaluative reactions to the coach and other aspects of their athletic experience.

Smith, R. E., Shoda, Y., Cumming, S. P., & Smoll, F. L. (2009). Behavioral signatures at the ballpark: Intraindividual consistency of adults’ situation-behavior patterns and their interpersonal consequences. Journal of Research in Personality 43, 187-195.
In this study, we examined how consistently coaches behaved similarly in winning, losing, and close game situations. We found evidence for stable and individually distinct situation-behavior patterns across the season. Moreover, we found that particular behaviors had different effects, depending on the situation. For example, positive reinforcement delivered while the team was winning had strong positive relations with liking for the coach after the season, whereas reinforcement delivered in losing situations has no impact. Punishment delivered while the team was losing had an especially strong negative impact on liking for the coach. Punishment while winning had little effect. We believe that the mood state of the child at the time the behavior occurs affects how they respond to certain coaching behaviors.

Selected Books and Manuals

Smoll, F. L., & Smith, R. E. (2009). Mastery approach to coaching: A leadership guide for youth sports. Seattle: YESports.

Smoll, F. L., & Smith, R. E. (2008). Coaches who never lose: Making sure athletes win, no matter what the score. (3rd ed.). Palo Alto, CA: Warde.

Smoll, F. L., & Smith, R. E. (2005). Sports and your child: Developing champions in sports and in life. (2nd ed.). Palo Alto, CA: Warde.

Smoll, F. L., & Smith, R. E. (Eds.). (2002). Children and youth in sport: A biopsychosocial perspective (2nd ed.). Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt.

Smith, R. E., & Smoll, F. L. (2002). Way to go, coach! A scientifically proven approach to coaching effectiveness (2nd ed.). Portola Valley, CA: Warde.

Smith, R. E., Smoll, F. L., & Smith, N. J. (1989). Parents’ complete guide to youth sports. Reston, VA: American Alliance.

Smoll, F. L., & Smith, R. E. (1987). Sport psychology for youth coaches: Personal growth to athletic excellence. Washington, DC: National Federation Press.

Smith, N. J., Smith, R. E., & Smoll, F. L. (1983). Kidsports: A survival guide for parents. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

Smoll, F. L., & Smith, R. E. (Eds.). (1978). Psychological perspectives in youth sports. Washington, DC: Hemisphere.

Smith, R. E., Smoll, F. L., & Hunt, E. B. (1977). Training manual for the Coaching Behavior Assessment System, JSAS Catalog of Selected Documents in Psychology, 7:2. (Ms. No. 1406)

Selected Book Chapters

Smith, R. E., Smoll, F. L., & O’Rourke, D. J. (2010). Anxiety management. In T. Morris & P. Terry (Eds.), Rethinking sport and exercise psychology. Morgantown, WV: Fitness Information Technology.

Smith, R. E., & Smoll, F. L. (in press). Athletic coaching. In I. B. Weinert & W. E. Craighead (Eds.), The Corsini enclopedia of psychology (4th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Smoll, F. L., & Smith, R. E. (2010). Conducting psychologically oriented coach-training programs: A social-cognitive approach. In J. M. Williams (Ed.), Applied sport psychology: Personal growth to peak performance (6th ed., pp. 392-416). Boston: McGraw-Hill.

Smoll, F. L., Smith, R. E., & Cumming, S. P. (2007). Coaching behaviors, motivational climate, and young athletes’ sport experiences. In C. E. Goncalves, S. P. Cumming, M. J. Coelho e Silva, & R. M. Malina (Eds.), Sport and education (pp. 165-175). Coimbra, Portugal: Coimbra University Press.

Smith, R. E., & Smoll, F. L. (2007). Social-cognitive approach to coaching behaviors. In S. Jowett & D. Lavallee (Eds.), Social psychology in sport (pp. 75-90). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Smoll, F. L., & Smith, R. E. (2006). Enhancing coach-athlete relationships: Cognitive-behavioral principles and procedures. In J. Dosil (Ed.), The sport psychologist’s handbook: A guide for sport-specific performance enhancement (pp. 19-37). Chichester, United Kingdom: Wiley.

Smoll, F. L., & Cumming, S. P. (2006). Enhancing coach-parent relationships in youth sports: Increasing harmony and minimizing hassle. In J. M. Williams (Ed.), Applied sport psychology: Personal growth to peak performance (5th ed., pp. 192-204). Boston: McGraw-Hill.

Smith, R. E., & Smoll, F. L. (2005). Assessing psychosocial outcomes in coach training programs. In D. Hackfort, J. L. Duda, & R. Lidor (Eds.), Handbook of research in applied sport psychology: International perspective (pp. 293-316). Morgantown, WV: Fitness Information Technology.

Smoll, F. L., & Smith, R. E. (2003). Enhancing coaching effectiveness in youth sports: Theory, research, and intervention. In R. M. Malina & M. A Clark (Eds.), Youth sports: Perspectives for a new century (pp. 227-239). Monterey, CA: Coaches Choice.

Smith, R. E., & Smoll, F. L. (2002). Youth sports as a behavior setting for psychosocial interventions. In J. L. Van Raalte & B. W. Brewer (Eds.), Exploring sport and exercise psychology (2nd ed., pp. 341-371). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Smoll, F. L., & Smith, R. E. (2002). Coaching behavior research and intervention in youth sports. In F. L. Smoll & R. E. Smith (Eds.), Children and youth in sport: A biopsychosocial perspective (2nd ed., pp. 211-133). Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt.

Smith, R. E., Smoll, F. L., & Passer, M. W. (2002). Sport performance anxiety in young athletes. In F. L. Smoll & R. E. Smith (Eds.), Children and youth in sport: A biopsychosocial perspective (2nd ed., pp. 501-536). Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt.

Smith, R. E. (1999). The sport psychologist as scientist-practitioner: Reciprocal relations linking theory, research, and intervention. In R. Lidor & M. Bar-Eli (Eds.), Sport psychology: Linking theory and practice (pp. 15-34). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Smoll, F. L., & Smith, R. E. (1999). Coaching behavior research in youth sports: Sport psychology goes to the ballpark. In G. G. Brannigan (Ed.), The sport scientists: Research adventures (pp. 113-132). New York: Addison Wesley Longman.

Smith, R. E., Smoll, F. L., & Wiechman, S. A. (1998). Measurement of trait anxiety in sport. In J. L. Duda (Ed.), Advancements in sport and exercise psychology measurement (pp. 105-127). Morgantown, WV: Fitness Information Technology.

Smoll, F. L., & Smith, R. E. (1996). Reduction of athletes’ competitive anxiety through coach-based intervention. In H. Heiny (Ed.), Children and adolescents in athletic competition: Rewards and adversities (pp. 53-76). Eugene, OR: International Institute for Sport and Human Performance.

Smith, R. E., & Smoll, F. L. (1990). Athletic performance anxiety. In H. Leitenberg (Ed.), Handbook of social and evaluation anxiety (pp. 417-454). New York: Plenum.

Smoll, F. L. (1989). Sports and the preadolescent: "Little League" sports. In N. J. Smith (Ed.), Common problems in pediatric sports medicine (pp. 3-15). Chicago: Year Book Medical Publishers.

Smoll, F. L., & Smith, R. E. (1989). Competitive stress and young athletes. In C. C. Teitz (Ed.), Scientific foundations of sports medicine (pp. 375-390). Toronto, Ontario: B. C. Decker.

Smith, R. E., & Smoll, F. L. (l989). The psychology of "mental toughness": Theoretical models and training approaches. In C. C. Teitz (Ed.), Scientific foundations of sports medicine (pp. 391-402). Toronto, Ontario: B. C. Decker.

Smoll, F. L., & Smith, R. E. (1988). Reducing stress in youth sport: Theory and application. In F. L. Smoll, R. A. Magill, & M. J. Ash (Eds.), Children in sport (3rd ed., pp. 229-249). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Smoll, F. L., & Smith, R. E. (1987). Principles of effective coach-athlete interactions. In V. Seefeldt (Ed.), Handbook for youth sports coaches (pp. 225-248). Reston, VA: American Alliance.

Smoll, F. L. (1987). Conducting a sport orientation meeting for parents. In V. Seefeldt (Ed.), Handbook for youth sports coaches (pp. 249-269). Reston, VA: American Alliance.

Smoll, F. L. (1986). Stress reduction strategies in youth sport. In M. R. Weiss & D. Gould (Eds.), Sport for children and youths (pp. 127-136). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Smoll, F. L., & Smith, R. E. (1984). Leadership research in youth sports. In J. M. Silva & R. S. Weinberg (Eds.), Psychological foundations of sport (pp. 371-386). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Smoll, F. L., & Smith, R. E. (1984). Improving the quality of coach-player interaction. In J. R. Thomas (Ed.), Motor development during childhood and adolescence (pp. 237-256). Minneapolis, MN: Burgess.

Smith, R. E., & Smoll, F. L. (1983). Approaches to stress reduction. In N. J. Smith (Ed.), Sports medicine: Health care for young athletes (pp. 203-221). Evanston, IL: American Academy of Pediatrics.

Smith, R. E., Smoll, F. L., Hunt, E. B., Curtis, B., & Coppel, D. B. (1979). Psychology and the Bad News Bears. In G. C. Roberts & K. M. Newell (Eds.), Psychology of motor behavior and sport - 1978 (pp. 109-130). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Smith, R. E., & Smoll, F. L. (1978). Sport and the child: Conceptual and research perspectives. In F. L. Smoll & R. E. Smith (Eds.), Psychological perspectives in youth sports (pp. 3-13). Washington, DC: Hemisphere.