Coaching Masters Athletes

This book is a foundational resource for all coaches and student coaches who are, or who plan to be, working with Masters athletes. This athletic cohort typically includes adults over the age of 35 years who are registered for sport programs/events, and who invest in training to improve themselves for competitions that range from recreational to championship caliber.

As the boom in Masters sport continues worldwide, coaches are increasingly tasked with the development and support of adults’ quality sport experiences, and the implementation of strategies to foster skill acquisition and to facilitate their pursuit of competitive goals. This book presents what is different about coaching Masters athletes and prompts coaches to expand their scope of practice beyond traditional knowledge associated with youth or younger adult cohorts. It is essential for coaches to understand the psychological and social considerations that are unique to coaching adult sports-persons and Masters athletes, and that can be adapted to adults whose training and preparation for competition is quite varied.

Coaching Masters Athletes: Advancing Research and Practice in Adult Sport explores the research and practice specific to planning to coach Masters athletes and divulges what is known about distinctive considerations for delivering coaching interventions to this cohort, expanding on coaches’ abilities to influence adults’ personal development, as well as their own coach education through Masters Sport. Readers and students of Coaching, Physical Activity, Health Psychology, Sport Leadership and Exercises Science will gain valuable applied perspectives grounded in best practice research on how to coach one of the fastest-growing sporting cohorts, to promote quality adult sport, and to keep adult sports-persons engaged and active as they age.

Bettina Callary PhD is the Canada Research Chair in Sport Coaching and Adult Learning and an Associate Professor in the Department of Experiential Studies in Community and Sport at Cape Breton University in Nova Scotia, Canada. She researches topics in coach education, learning, and development, coach developers, psychosocial aspects of Masters athletes and long term development, and qualitative research methods. Dr. Callary is the editor-in-chief for the International Sport Coaching Journal. She is on the editorial board for Sports Coaching Review and the Journal of Aging and Physical Activity. She is also an alpine ski coach and coach developer.

Bradley W. Young PhD is a full professor in the School of Human Kinetics at the University of Ottawa, Canada. He has researched and published widely on topics relating to the psycho-social aspects of lifelong sport participation, the effective programming of Masters sport, and promotional messaging for recruiting more adults to sport. He writes and speaks about how and why older sportspersons commit to sport, the nature of barriers to sport participation in older adults, and instructional approaches with Masters athletes. His work is important to organizations and coaches seeking to use evidence-based practices to ensure Quality Masters Sport experiences for all middle-aged and older adults. A fledgling Masters athlete himself, a former university athletics coach, and currently a community coach, he has served as an advisor to the Coaching Association of Canada on Masters Athletes and is presently an advisor to Active Aging Canada and a member of a pan-Canadian network on Physical Literacy in Older Adults.

Scott Rathwell PhD is an assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology & Physical Education at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada. Scott’s research focuses on the psychosocial factors related to lifelong sport and the mechanisms through which Masters athletes maintain their elite performance. He also researches how university sport can be used to promote varsity athletes’ personal and psychosocial growth. Finally, he is currently studying the influence of psychological factors during athletes’ return to play following a diagnosed concussion.