Parapan

Parapan Am coaching: how autonomy and intrinsic motivation are keys to athletic success

sgupta — Tue, 18 Aug 2015 08:47:27 +0000

Parapan Am coaching: how autonomy and intrinsic motivation are keys to athletic success sgupta Tue, 08/18/2015 - 04:47

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Athletes who feel they have choices and are in control are more likely to stay connected to sport, says Catherine Sabiston, Canada Research Chair in Physical Activity and Mental Health

Veronica Zaretski

Author legacy

Veronica Zaretski

Features

Sport

Parapan

Kinesiology

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“The dynamics of coaching para-athletes is empowering,” says Catherine Sabiston

The Toronto 2015 Parapan Am Games treated spectators to fierce competition, with Canadian competitors bringing in 50 gold, 63 silver and 55 bronze medals.

University of Toronto physicians and therapists, physiotherapists and experts were there to help athletes recover between competitions. But what about the preparation and strategy needed to support athletes long before the competition – and well after they cross the finish line?

Catherine Sabiston, associate professor and Canada Research Chair in Physical Activity and Mental Health, focuses on exercise and health psychology research. She studied the top approaches employed by coaches that work with Paralympic athletes. That includes motivating and empowering athletes so that they continue coming back to the sport.

“If an athlete is more intrinsically motivated they are more likely to turn a loss into motivation to achieve,” Sabiston said. “In those cases athletes are not likely to lose their sense of identity or their desire to play because of a sense of defeat.”

�Թϱ�� spoke with Sabiston about her study on autonomy support and intrinsic motivation when coaching Paralympic athletes.

What are coach autonomy support and the mastery-oriented approach to training?
Autonomy-supportive behaviour means using tactics and structure to help people learn while feeling like they have choices and can control their environments. One example would be teachers offering different strategies for students to learn so that they feel that they have a choice. In sports, it’s driven towards helping athletes learn and develop skills, so it’s about mastery and choice versus winning at all costs and competition. It’s more about the process, not the outcome.

There are many different strategies that coaches take. They range on a continuum from very ego-oriented and competitive to the mastery-oriented, autonomy-supportive approach that helps foster much more positive outcomes in athletes.

Through the mastery-oriented approach, athletes feel really competent in the skills and strategies that they need to succeed in their sport, as well as their own personal goals and what success looks like. Coaches are putting the emphasis on the subjective experiences of each athlete and are offering opportunity for small successes and failures, and reinforcing the choices. There are individual differences of course between what athletes prefer – some athletes want to be told what to do.

The idea of mastery is very important for para-athletes because the strategies of being told what to do often doesn’t work for athletes – depending on different levels of function, the athletes find out what works best for them through trial and error, choices, and some structure that lets them develop as elite athletes.

What were some of your discoveries about coach autonomy support in para-athletics?
We conducted one study from the athletes’ perspectives on coach autonomy support and intrinsic motivation of Paralympic athletes. We found that those who had more perceptions of autonomy from their coach and support staff showed highest levels of intrinsic motivation.

Intrinsic motivation, which is basically involvement for the inherent pleasure, enjoyment, and interest in the task, is what we strive for in sports. Those athletes stay involved in the sport, but they also become involved in their communities – in organizations supporting sport – as officials and coaches. They thrive in success and defeat.

In our findings, coach autonomy support is very important for the athletes’ perceptions of their own autonomy and connectedness. In these mastery environments, athletes feel that they have more control in their own sport, as well as a higher sense of relatedness, to both their team members and other athletes in their field.

In another study, we looked at the role of coaches of wheelchair rugby in the development of athletes with a spinal cord injury. Those coaches provided a ton of examples of the sense of relatedness among teammates. Athletes who felt autonomously supported would stay connected to sport, beyond their practice. They would go out to rehabilitation centres to recruit other new athletes.

How have Para-athletics changed over the years?
We see the same things at the Parapan Am Games as in the Pan Am Games – a mix of skill and attitude and confidence. There are the same undertones of strategy that takes place in the Parapan Am Games and Pan Am Games, with more complexity based on managing the rules of para-sport and strategies for all levels and types of disabilities to perform at the highest level. The dynamics of coaching para-athletes is empowering. As a result, you see more and more athletes who want to get involved in all levels for para-athletics.

Read Sabiston’s study on coach autonomy support and intrinsic motivation of Paralympic athletes published in the Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport.

Read the study on the role of coaches of wheelchair rugby in the development of athletes with a spinal cord injury, published in Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health.

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Beyond Parapan: promoting inclusiveness in sport at the community level

sgupta — Wed, 12 Aug 2015 14:34:25 +0000

Beyond Parapan: promoting inclusiveness in sport at the community level sgupta Wed, 08/12/2015 - 10:34

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Igniting Fitness Possibilities brings students with and without physical disabilities together to develop skills and confidence in sports and fitness (photo by William Suarez)

Veronica Zaretski

Author legacy

Veronica Zaretski

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The Parapan Am Games are in full swing, showcasing what elite athletes can accomplish and how they can perform on the world's stage.

What the University of Toronto's David Onley has called the “raw athleticism” of the world-class athletes is drawing spectators to a wide range of sports. And, thanks to two �Թϱ�� researchers, excitement and inclusiveness in sport is also growing at the community level.

Assistant Professor Kelly Arbour-Nicitopoulos and Associate Professor Virginia Wright have developed a pilot program called Igniting Fitness Possibilities that brings together children and youth of all levels of abilities to gain skills and confidence in sport and fitness. It was created as a collaboration between Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital and the Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education with funding from The National Bank, Milos Raonic and the �Թϱ�� Connaught New Researcher Award.

�Թϱ�� spoke to Arbour-Nicitopoulos about the program and what it means to build a life-long enjoyment of fitness in both non-athletes and future athletes alike.

How does Igniting Fitness Possibilities work?
The program brings children and youth in grades 4 to 12 with and without disabilities together, first and foremost for the social aspect. The kids involved build new friendships and are getting motivated to be more active.

There are two phases to the program. The first is the Quick Start phase. The sole focus of this phase is to help build sports and fitness skills, and participating in sports, but also other existing programs in the community.

The kids get to take part in fitness activities, sports development and collaborative games. The games could be wheelchair basketball, for example, where the students learn how to use a wheelchair and how to manoeuvre it. The fitness portion consists of aerobic and muscular endurance activities performed as a group as well as in partners, such as circuits and yoga.

In the second phase, “Give it a Try”, the kids start in an existing program offered within their community. A lot of kids lack the skills or confidence initially, which they get in the “Quick Start” phase. In this phase the kids join such programs as wheelchair basketball, swimming, gymnastics, fencing, judo – basically any sport or fitness program that is of interest to them. We have a coach who supports them throughout both phases. This coach works with every six kids, trying to pique their interest to see what they might want to give a try.

The program is in its early stages, but so far we piloted IFP at Variety Village (Fall 2014 – grades 4-6) and at the Abilities Centre (Winter 2015 – grades 6-8) in Whitby. We will be piloting another two programs at �Թϱ�� (with youth in grades 9-12) and again at the Abilities Centre (with youth in grades 6-8) this Fall.

How important is it to get kids involved early?
By the end of Quick Start the kids surprise themselves by how much they enjoy sports. They see that sports do not have to be regimented and that there are different ways of playing sports. My hope is that when we follow up with those kids later on they would have a different view about the variety of sports that they can play and enjoy.

We’re trying to do a better job than we were doing years ago. Many of the kids who are disabled would not have had the opportunity to participate in different sports within their neighbourhoods. The level of awareness for sports for people with different abilities has exploded in a big way.

Bringing the Parapan Am Games here is making people aware of the different sports in which para-athletes participate.

How does that benefit the city?
I think that having the Games here in Toronto is raising more awareness about how we use the term ‘disability’. What do we mean by that? What does it mean to have a disability? When you look at the Para Pan athletes I don’t think anyone can say that they have a disability. It gets people thinking more about the term ‘ability’ as well as accessible spaces.

When I went to Nathan Phillips Square (for Panamania), I was amazed how every space was accessible. The city and the government have contributed quite a large amount of funding to make spaces more accessible for the games, and as a result Torontonians now have more accessible spaces to be active in their community.

At the �Թϱ�� reception of the Parapan Am Games, Joanne Berdan spoke of the term paratough, which was recently coined by the Canadian Paralympic Committee. That’s so true. The disability part is slowly going away, and people are recognizing the tremendous talent of these individuals. I’m hoping that the IFP program will provide one of many similar opportunities for kids in the future.

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