Athlete welfare should be of central importance in all sport. This comprehensive volume features cutting-edge research from around the world on issues that can compromise the welfare of athletes at all levels of sport and on the approaches taken by sports organisations to prevent and manage these. In recent years, sports organisations have increased their efforts to ensure athlete health, safety, and well-being, often prompted by high-profile disclosures of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse; bullying; discrimination; disordered eating; addiction; and mental health issues. In this book, contributors lift the lid on these and other issues that jeopardise the physical, emotional, psychological, social, and spiritual welfare of athletes of all ages to raise awareness of the broad range of challenges athletes face. Chapters also highlight approaches to athlete welfare and initiatives taken by national and international sport organisations to provide a safer, more ethical sports environment. As the first book to focus exclusively on athlete welfare, this is an essential read for students and researchers in sports studies, coaching, psychology, performance, development and management, and physical education. It is also a useful reference point for anyone working in welfare, safeguarding, child protection, and equity and inclusion in and beyond sport.

Now available in paperback, the Routledge Handbook of Applied Sport Psychology is a definitive guide to the theory and practice of applied sport psychology. It goes further than any other book in surveying the full variety of issues that practising sport psychologists will confront in their working lives. It introduces the most important tools and skills that psychologists will need to be truly helpful to their clients, and it also adopts a holistic definition of the role of the sport psychologist, explaining how effective counseling, assessment, and therapeutic models can add important extra dimensions to professional practice. The book is divided into seven thematic sections, addressing: counseling; assessment; theoretical and therapeutic models; issues for the individual athlete, from injury and overtraining to depression; issues for teams, from conflict resolution to travel; working with special populations; mental skills, such as imagery, goal setting, and concentration. Moving beyond the traditional tracks of clinical psychology and performance enhancement, the authors in this book argue convincingly that psychologists would benefit from attempting to understand athletes’ social and familial contexts, their health, happiness, and interpersonal dynamics in the broadest sense, if they are to serve their clients’ best interests. With contributions from many of the world’s leading sport psychologists, and with clear descriptions of best practice in each chapter, the Routledge Handbook of Applied Sport Psychology is essential reading for all serious students and practitioners of sport psychology, counseling, applied sport science, health psychology, and related fields.

This progressive and broad-ranging handbook offers a comprehensive overview of the complex intersections between politics, gender, sport and physical activity, shining new light on the significance of gender, sport and physical activity in wider society. Featuring contributions from leading and emerging researchers from around the world, the book makes the case that gender studies and critical thinking around gender are of particular importance in an era of increasingly intolerant populist politics. It examines important long-term as well as emerging themes, such as recent generational shifts in attitudes to gender identity in sport and the socio-cultural expectations on men and women that have traditionally influenced and often disrupted their engagement with sport and physical activity, and explores a wide range of current issues in contemporary sport, from debates around the contested gender binary and sex verification, to the role of the media and social media, and the significance of gender in sport leadership, policy and decision-making. This book is an authoritative survey of the current state of play in research connecting gender, sport, physical activity and politics, and is an important contribution to both sport studies and gender studies. It is fascinating reading for any student, researcher, policy-maker or professional with an interest in sport, physical activity, social studies, public health or political science.

The Routledge Handbook of Coaching Children in Sport provides a comprehensive and extensive range of critical reflections of key areas impacting on children’s sport and coaching up to the age of 16. With coaching related chapters authored by academic across various disciplines, including nutrition, psychology, pedagogy, medicine, youth development and sociology, the text provides detailed reviews of the existing state of research and consideration of the implications of these particular factors upon parents, coaches, administrators and clearly the young people themselves as well as recommendations for future research. This new volume provides in-depth investigation to key topics of coaching topics such as Learning and Child Development, Protecting Young Athletes, Talent Identification and Development and Inclusive Coaching and finally introduce a broad array of contextual considerations for coaches from considering professional learning through to coaching in particular contexts. This book is more than simply an academic text and it offers insights that will further inform practice in children’s sport coaching. The handbook is relevant for students (UG, PG), researchers, academics, parents, coaches and administrators, as well as those interested in children’s sport coaching and the related topics therein. Martin Toms, PhD is a senior lecturer (associate professor) in the School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Birmingham, UK. A former professional sports coach with an MPhil and PhD exploring the sociological issues of young people in junior sport, Martin has been heavily involved in juniors sport all of his adult life. He has published widely and presented extensively around the world on youth sport, including working on international projects and for NBGs/Federations and National Governmental organisations. He has gained European and SCUK funding for youth and coaching related projects as well as being involved in international consultancy. He is a co-editor of the European Journal for Sport and Society as well as the current Editor in Chief of the International Journal of Golf Science. Ruth Jeanes, PhD is an associate professor in the Faculty of Education at Monash University, Australia. Ruth’s research examines inclusion and exclusion within youth sport, particularly examining how sport can be used to achieve broader social policy objectives targeted at young people. Within this, she is particularly interested in the role of coaches in facilitating broader social outcomes for young people. Ruth has published extensively in these areas with over 100 publications across journal articles, book chapters and books. She is widely cited and has been successful in securing extensive funding for her research including two highly competitive Australian Research Council grants.

Stress, Well-Being, and Performance in Sport provides the first comprehensive and contemporary overview of stress in sport and its implications on performance and well-being. It explores how athletes’, coaches', and support staffs' performance can be enhanced while simultaneously optimizing their well-being in contemporary sport. Divided into four sections following the stress process, Stress, Well-Being, and Performance in Sport covers key topics including: Appraising and coping with stress in sport Responses to and outcomes of stress in sport Moderators of the stress process in sport Stress management to promote thriving in sport Bringing together theory and practice, each chapter discusses conceptual and theoretical issues, current research, and innovative practical implications. Written by scholars around the globe, Stress, Well-being, and Performance in Sport offers an international perspective. It is important reading for students of sport psychology as well as coaches, athletes, and support staff.

Identifying athletic talent and developing that talent to its full potential is a central concern in sport. Understanding talent identification and its implications for both positive and negative developmental outcomes is crucial to sporting success. This is the first comprehensive resource for scientists, researchers, students, coaches, analysts and policymakers looking to improve their knowledge of the talent identification and development process. With contributions from leading researchers and practitioners, this book offers a complete overview of contemporary talent identification and development from in-depth discussion of methodological and philosophical issues through to practical applications. Adopting an international and multi-disciplinary approach, it addresses all key aspects of the talent identification and development process, including skill acquisition and motor learning, psychological factors and family influences, creating optimal environments for performance, and dealing with injury and rehabilitation. Presenting an unrivalled wealth of research, the Routledge Handbook of Talent Identification and Development in Sport is an essential resource for any undergraduate or postgraduate degree course in sport studies, sport science, sport coaching or sport management, as well as for sport policymakers, analysts and coaches.

Sports development has become a prominent concern within both the academic study of sport and within the organisation and administration of sport. Now available in paperback, the Routledge Handbook of Sports Development is the first book to comprehensively map the wide-ranging territory of sports development as an activity and as a policy field, and to offer a definitive survey of current academic knowledge and professional practice. Spanning the whole spectrum of activity in sports development, from youth sport and mass participation to the development of elite athletes, the book identifies and defines the core functions of sports development, exploring the interface between sports development and cognate fields such as education, coaching, community welfare and policy. The book presents important new studies of sports development around the world, illustrating the breadth of practice within and between countries, and examines the most important issues facing practitioners within sports development today, from child protection to partnership working. With unparalleled depth and breadth of coverage, the Routledge Handbook of Sports Development is the definitive guide to policy, practice and research in sports development. It is essential reading for all students, researchers and professionals with an interest in this important and rapidly evolving discipline.

Doping has become one of the most important and high-profile issues in contemporary sport. Shocking cases such as that of Lance Armstrong and the US Postal cycling team have exposed the complicated relationships between athletes, teams, physicians, sports governing bodies, drugs providers, and judicial systems, all locked in a constant struggle for competitive advantage. The Routledge Handbook of Drugs and Sport is simply the most comprehensive and authoritative survey of social scientific research on this hugely important issue ever to be published. It presents an overview of key topics, problems, ideas, concepts and cases across seven thematic sections, which include chapters addressing: The history of doping in sport Philosophical approaches to understanding doping The development of anti-doping policy Studies of doping in seven major sports, including athletics, cycling, baseball and soccer In-depth analysis of four of the most prominent doping scandals in history, namely Ben Johnson, institutionalized doping in the former GDR, the 1998 Tour de France and Lance Armstrong WADA and the national anti-doping organizations Key contemporary debates around strict liability, the criminalization of doping, and zero tolerance versus harm reduction Doping outside of elite sport, in gyms, the military and the police. With contributions from many of the world’s leading researchers into drugs and sport, this book is the perfect starting point for any advanced student, researcher, policy maker, coach or administrator looking to develop their understanding of an issue that has had, and will continue to have, a profound impact on the development of sport.

Applied sport psychology knowledge has advanced rapidly in recent years. Traditionally, literature focused primarily on a narrow range of topics associated with performance enhancement, giving rise to a model of helping labelled psychological skills training. Although the psychological skills training model has considerable value, the literature has broadened to address a greater diversity of athlete and team issues; a greater range of methods; and a greater recognition of the knowledge, skills, and attributes practitioners need to help clients. The first edition of the Routledge Handbook of Applied Sport Psychology was seminal work, bringing together the full range of knowledge and skills sport psychology practitioners needed to help clients. The second edition continues that vision and draws on the full range of related disciplines, including sport and exercise psychology, clinical psychology, and counselling psychology. This comprehensive range of topics provides professionals what they need to build strong relationships with athletes and enhance clients’ performance, mental health, well-being, happiness, and meaning in life. This new volume is the guide to the theory and practice of applied sport psychology. Adopting a holistic definition of the role of the sport psychology practitioner, it introduces the most effective tools and skills that sport psychology practitioners need to help their clients and explains how effective counselling, assessment, and therapeutic models add necessary dimensions to professional practice. This book is divided into seven thematic sections, addressing: Counselling Assessment Theoretical and therapeutic models Psychosocial issues presenting in individual athletes Psychosocial issues presenting in teams Inclusion in sport psychology Mental skills interventions

Sport performance analysis techniques help coaches, athletes and sport scientists develop an objective understanding of actual sport performance, as opposed to self-report, fitness tests or laboratory based experiments. For example, contemporary performance analysis enables elite sports people and coaches to obtain live feedback of match statistics and video sequences using flexible internet systems, systems that have become an indispensible tool for all those involved in high performance sport. The Routledge Handbook of Sports Performance Analysis is the most comprehensive guide to this exciting and dynamic branch of sport science ever to be published. The book explores performance analysis across the four main contexts in which it is commonly used: support for coaches and athletes; the media; judging sport contests, and academic research. It offers an up-to-date account of methodological advances in PA research, assesses the evidence underpinning contemporary theories of sport performance, and reviews developments in applied PA across a wide range of sports, from soccer to track and field athletics. Covering every important aspect of PA, including tactics, strategy, mechanical aspects of technique, physical aspects of performance such as work-rate, coach behaviour and referee behaviour, this is an essential reference for any serious student, researcher or practitioner working in sport performance analysis, sport coaching or high performance sport.