Promoting positive development: Coaches as trainers in sports-based resilience programs

Objective: To assess the efficacy of a train-the-trainer model for sporting coaches delivering a youth sports-based resilience program.

Design: A quasi-experimental design was applied, with a pre-post comparison, utilising purposive sampling to take advantage of an existing naturally formed group.

Setting and participants: A total of 11 coaches and 86 athletes involved in a community rowing program.

Main outcome measure(s): Coaches responded to paper-based measures of resilience and knowledge/attitudes pre- and post-completion of a training workshop. Athletes responded to online measures of stress, efficacy and life satisfaction pre- and post-completion of a resilience program.

Results: Following the completion of the train-the-trainer workshop, coaches reported significant increases in general knowledge and confidence in teaching resilience skills. Following the delivery of the resilience program, athlete self-efficacy and satisfaction with life scores were significantly higher, with significant reductions in reported stress for athletes trained by the varsity-level coaches.

Conclusion: There is support for investing in a train-the-trainer model for the delivery of a resilience skills program within a sports context. Caution is given to investing in the training and support of the coaches, particularly coaches with less coaching experience. These results are consistent with previous research and demonstrate support for coach-led resilience programs being effective in community settings, with implications for rural and remote locations.