While there are many, many factors that affect the youth sports experience, we as coaches have influence over some more than others: whether the team environment is positive or negative, how athlete-focused we are, what priority we put on race placement and podiums, and how we create equity, for example.

Here are five takeaways and accompanying suggestions for NICA coaches striving to create the best possible experience for their student-athletes:

#1. Organized sports provide a safe and positive environment for young people.

Findings:

• 87% of student-athletes currently participating say they feel physically safe in organized sports. 82% feel like they learn about how to play, 86% have fun, and 83% feel happy.
• Most players say organized sports help improve their mental state (81%), physical health (90%), and social connectedness (84%).

NICA Coach Takeaway:

Create and cultivate a culture on your team that places the highest importance on physical, emotional, and social safety. Start out every season teaching and reinforcing OTB 101 and 201 skills before taking groups riding on trails, and assess trails and athletes for appropriate levels of technicality versus ability. Offer challenge by choice. Pay attention to the vibe within your athlete groups and step in when you sense exclusion, teasing, or bullying. As a coach, you have the power to prevent and break down barriers that might keep athletes from realizing the benefits of riding with a team.

#2. Athletes expect to have coaches who care—to them, that’s the rule, not the exception.

Findings:

• When players were asked to pick their favorite things about playing organized sports, only 13% put “having a coach who cares about me” on their list.
• They were more likely to rank playing with friends, learning skills, challenging themselves, and having fun all higher.

NICA Coach Takeaway:

Just because athletes aren’t consciously putting caring coaches on their favorite things list doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter to them. Gone are the days of “my way or the highway” coaches yelling commands and abiding solely by a playbook. It’s far more common now for teens to think of coaches as guides and mentors; not dictators.

Still, put in that extra effort to support your athletes. Care about their wellbeing, and let them know you do. They might not say out loud what they need from you. They might not even know it themselves.

For insight on what student-athletes expect or want from their coaches, author Sara Erdner put out an eye-opening book called Dear Coach, What I Wish I Could Have Told You. It’s a collection of confidential “letters” written by athletes, saying what they would have liked to have said to coaches in their lives.

#3. When coaching is bad, it’s a much bigger deal in athletes’ eyes.

Findings:

• When asked to list their least favorite things about playing organized sports, players put “bad coaching” above everything else.
• 13% of NICA student-athletes who participated specifically indicated bad coaching as something that would cause them to quit organized sports.

NICA Coach Takeaway:

As seen in the previous findings, quality of coaching isn’t top-of-mind when things are good. That all changes, though, when athletes have a negative experience with coaching. Bad coaches are noticed. They diminish the youth sports experience. At worst, they can turn kids off of organized sports entirely.

The fact that you’re reading this article is a great indication that you want to be a good coach. Keep it up!

Don’t let bad coaching worm its way into your team from elsewhere, though. Keep an ear to the ground and listen for indications of leadership that doesn’t align with your team’s values. Welcome and encourage honest communication from your kids and fellow coaches, and have hard conversations before morale can take a hit.

#5. Understanding differences in mindset between genders supports equity.

Findings:

• Dropping out of sport occurs at a relatively flat rate for boys from ages 8-17, but for girls it jumps significantly once they become teenagers.
• Girls are less likely than boys to agree that sports help them improve mentally, physically, emotionally, and socially. Notably, girls are more likely to say their mental state, control of emotions, and social connectedness gets worse when participating in organized sports.
• Girls are more likely to place importance on having a coach that cares about them; are twice as likely to say sports help them escape personal problems; and are less likely to rank winning above other things.

NICA Coach Takeaway:

In NICA, we work with athletes at ages where physical and psychological differences between girls and boys emerge or become more pronounced. This is a crucial time in girls’ lives where a coach’s understanding and knowledge can make or break their experience and decisions to keep playing or leave organized sports altogether.

What you and all the coaches on your team can do is educate yourselves about these differences and changing needs. Fortunately, the NICA Education Center has a bunch of excellent resources in this area. Check out the courses A Guidebook to GRiT and Coaching Her (you’ll earn CEUs when you do). Also, explore the GRiT resources link in the Education Center’s sidebar.

Explore all the findings

The full results of the National Youth Athlete survey are available as a PDF on the Aspen Institute’s website, and they’re a fascinating read. If you’re in more of a TLDR mood, Project Play put together an article with 15 key findings and why they matter.

This content was authored by NICA’s coach education team. NICA’s comprehensive coach education program provides new and existing coaches with the high-quality training and resources they need to be confident, competent, and empowered leaders on their youth mountain bike teams. NICA coaches not only create amazing experiences for student-athletes, they create a foundation for building healthy mountain bike communities. NICA coaches change lives! 

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