Athlete Centred Approach - Beginning the Process in Junior Teams

Over the past decade, there has been a renewed call for increasing athlete independence

in coaching in sporting environments. Central to this are athlete-centred

approaches, which have been promoted as an innovative approach “enabling athletes

to succeed in and enjoy their sport participation” (Kidman & Lombardo, 2010,

p. 16). Advocates suggest an athlete-centred approach allows athletes to gain control

over their own athletic lives and take greater ownership and personal responsibility

for their decisions (Kidman & Lombardo, 2010). DeSouza and Oslin (2008) also

suggest an athlete-centred approach provides better opportunities for individual

growth in the physical, cognitive, social and affective aspects, leading to improved

decision-making, engagement, communication, competence and motivation. It

is postulated that this provision leads to improved athlete autonomy and allows

them a greater range of choices in relation to learning experiences used in sport

(Kidman & Lombardo, 2010). This is, in part, because an athlete-centred approach

should enable athletes to develop their own solutions to the many variations in play

via the pedagogical aspects used in the approach