Teaching Adult Athletes: Canadian Pros’ Approaches Dr. Bettina Callary1 Dr. Scott Rathwell2 Dr. Bradley W. Young3 Glenn Cundari4 1Cape Breton University 2University of Lethbridge 3University of Ottawa 4PGA of Canada
Adult Golfers Age Formal registration Competitive Orientation 35 years + Formal registration Club or Tournament Competitive Orientation Rule governed Degree of Competition (varies)
Why Do Adult Golfers Matter? Golf is Canada’s #1 sport (Sport Partcipation, 2010) ~225 thousand adult golfers (aged 35-54) (Sport Partcipation, 2010) 16% of have a coach (Sport Partcipation, 2010) 36.9% participate in tournaments (Sport Partcipation, 2010)
Are All Golfers The Same? Pedagogy: A term derived from the Greek words paid (meaning "child") and agogus (meaning "leading") Andragogy: A term derived from the Greek words aner (meaning "man”) and agogus (meaning "leader of“)
Andragogy in Practice Model (Knowles et al., 2012; Merriam, 2001) Adult Learning Principles Need to Know Prior Experience Motivation to Learn Self-Concept Orientation to Learning Readiness to Learn
Purpose Partnering with PGA of Canada, we sought to examine how golf instructors are catering to their adult clientele coachingmastersathletes.com
Methods Participants: 227 Canadian golf instructors Instruments Mean Age: 46.69 Gender: 199 males, 28 females Instruments 38 item Instructional Perspectives Inventory (IPI; Lubin, 2013) 51 item Adult Coaching Catalogue (Callary et al., 2015, 2017) 7 point scale; 1 = ‘Never’; 7 = ‘Always’) Analyses Descriptive statistics
Orientation to Learning Results 7 Point Scale M = 5.66, SD = 0.82 Adult Learning Principles Need to Know Prior Experience Motivation to Learn Self-Concept Orientation to Learning Readiness to Learn M = 5.24, SD = 0.95 M = 6.16, SD = 0.61 M = 5.91, SD = 0.93 M = 5.73, SD = 0.76), M = 5.24, SD = 0.95
How to: Andragogic Coaching Need to Know: Explained purpose of drills Prior Experience: Individualize coaching Motivation to Learn: Incp Fun and social Self-Concept: Involve athletes in decisions Orientation to Learning: Focus on process/tasks Readiness to Learn: Related learning to life
How to: Andragogic Coaching
Discussion Golf instructors’ techniques align with andragogy (Knowles et al., 2012; Merriam, 2001) Andragogic principles should theoretically predict positive outcomes (Fraser-Thomase et al., 2013) We currently do not know whether this is true But we are on it!
Construct Survey Coach Data Athlete Data Discussion Valid Survey Instrument Psychosocial outcomes Initial Coaching Profile Effective strategies
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