The Athlete’s View - Fall 1997

Saundra Murray Nettles, Ph.D.
University of Maryland;
Johns Hopkins University,
Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed at Risk

Athletes on the playing field often exhibit some of the factors researchers associate with resilience, the process of bouncing back from adversity. One factor is an attitude of hope and optimism; another is the ability to solve problems. The presence of a caring individual in the individual’s life also contributes to resilience. Athletes often identify a coach as the person who encouraged their performance and taught them to handle success and failure.

Coaching—in sports as well as other areas—can be helpful in building resilience. In a recent study, I examined diverse fields, from business to the arts to sport. I found that effective coaches perform four common functions.

First, coaches teach, using strategies such as modeling, demonstrating, giving instructions, and questioning. Second, coaches structure the learning environment by selecting or preparing a setting to create an optimal environment for learning. Third, coaches assess by identifying targets for performance and measuring knowledge and skill levels of the performer. Fourth, coaches provide social support by listening, protecting, advising, counseling, empathizing, and creating trust.

I combined these functions in the following definition which is applicable to a variety of settings: Coaching is instruction that places the responsibility for learning in the learner and fosters the development of skill through vigorous use of teaching practices, provision of continuous feedback on performance in settings designed for practice or display of mastery, and provision of companionship and other forms of social support.

PASS was one of the programs I reviewed in my study. As I examined teacher trainer materials and evaluation data, viewed a videotape, read press clippings, and talked with Joel and Susan Kirsch, I began to see how PASS is a program which promotes resilience rather than one which prevents failure.

Coaching in its broadest sense—performing the four functions and placing the responsibility for learning in the PASS students—is a hallmark of the program. Teachers undergo 120 hours of intensive training to present the PASS curriculum and to develop supportive relationships with students and their parents. Crystal McClendon, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Maryland, is conducting a detailed study of PASS. Her classroom observations are confirming that PASS teachers make ample and energetic use of coaching strategies.

Another way in which PASS fosters resilience is by building on the qualities of resilience that students have developed through participation in sport. Students know what efficacy (the sense that I can do this) feels like. They know what mastery of a valued skill feels like. They’ve experienced both in sport.

When PASS teachers introduce the Fundamentals of Athletic Mastery (FAMs), the students can reflect upon the ways they’ve already used them. PASS teachers and the students themselves use coaching strategies to assist students in applying the FAMs to academic tasks. In my view, the FAMs—particularly attitude, flexibility, and balance—are remarkably similar to the personal characteristics that researchers cite as facilitators of resiliency.

Research also shows that being resilient in one situation is no guarantee that a person will be resilient in all situations. PASS is important because it attempts to increase the probability that students who’ve proven they can cope with the pressures of sport will enjoy similar success in the classroom.