The Development of Coaching Guidelines for Instilling Passion in Sport

Abstract

The article explains the importance for the athlete of the development of passion in sport. Action research is used to define and further clarify the importance of passion with respect to sport. Passion was found to be useful and important in helping an athlete focus and persist with the effort required to achieve excellence throughout the ups and downs of years of competition. A positive, fun, nurturing, and hardworking team environment was determined to be instrumental in stimulating and maintaining passion. On the other hand, negative attitudes and poor work ethic among teammates, inadequate coaching, poor team cohesion, and a lack of administrative support were found to inhibit the development of passion. Coaching guidelines to instill passion in sport for the athlete are provided based on a literature review as well as from action research.