Understanding Youth Sports through Experiential Learning

Youth sport programming, practices, and research often lack clear theoretical underpinnings, particularly related to promoting positive youth development (PYD) outcomes. This lack of understanding is particularly concerning given the dynamic sociopolitical forces that impact both youth and coaches within youth sport systems. To assuage the lack of a theoretical foundation, scholars have proposed the use of experiential learning theory (ELT). Drawing upon prior ELT scholarship, Newman and colleagues defined ELT as the transformative process of facilitated learning that occurs between a facilitator and participant, while also emphasizing how experiences within a socially constructed environment are internalized and reflected upon to inform an individual’s future affect, behaviors, and/or cognitions. Applied to youth sport, ELT describes the active, bidirectional change process between an athlete and coach, which ultimately helps bring transcendent meaning to the values and skills learned through sport participation. The current chapter illustrates the utility of ELT within the Coaching on the Wave Model, and applied insights are discussed.