Assignment: Policy Advice for Supporting Development in Youth Sports

The sport: Triple jump (track and field) OR Basketball (whatever is easier to do)

The purpose of this assignment is for you to apply evidence-based practice to the improvement of a specific youth sports organization. You should plan this advice to be for a specific organization that oversees youth sports (e.g., a regional or state-level sports league) rather than a sports club, because there is more scope to change the developmental structure of sports at a league level. Your assignment will start with a brief assessment of the organization's current developmentally-guided policies. Note that in choosing sports organizations, note that sports whose path to elite levels is through high school competition will likely give less room for your impact. I suggest choosing those organizations tied to sports with discrete age-bands and which include earlier training than high school.

For the advisement piece, your advice should be in the form of discrete items (could be in bullet form or a table), possibly organized by separate factors. Don't try to form a plan to overhaul the structure of their organization. That would be much more complicated and involved.

Don't view this as taking those developing elite paths and making them about participation. If they have elite pathways, how do we support this more effectively? How do we give all athletes a chance to achieve it in a healthy way?

How to submit: The final document can be prepared in Word of PowerPoint,

Details:

STEP 1: Creating a Need Statement First identify and describe the youth sports organization. What is their scope and what is the level of competition? Check their website and try to find any measures they already have in place to support effective development. Describe these measures. If there appear to be none, state this. Use what you find here toprepare a brief paragraph stating the need for improved measures to support athlete development.

STEP 2: The Advisement Document To preparethis document, you need to consider all the things they could be doing to support effective development in the sport. For each element you recommend, provide research evidence supporting your recommendation (just name/year rather than the full reference). - Equal opportunity - what measures are in place to assess their relative age effects? How could they

minimize these effects? Comment on how they organize the initial years of play. Also, do they give

needs-based scholarships to families? - Better long-term development via sampling - how does the organization ensure the opportunity for

diversification exists, especially in the early years? Do they support deliberate play or provide

recommendations for it? Do they have measures to limit overuse injuries? - Does the organization have a reasonable approach to winning? - What measures are in place to manage parent behaviors and influence? - Do they have any positive youth development partners?

- Is there a model program and how can they reward clubs/members who are doing it the right way? - How can parent and coach education help?

Grading:

Criterion	Comment	Importance/weight
Need Statement	Did the student clearly describe the organization and overview any current developmental policies they have? Did the student identify and clarify n a need for improved developmental policies?	20%
The advisement document	Quality of advice - Is the advice based on sound developmental practice? Is the advice usable?	25%
Breadth of advice - does the advice include incorporate several concepts covered in class?	25%
Research evidence - does the student provide research evidence for each piece of advice given?	20%
Presentation - is the document well presented, organized, and written with clear language?	10%