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In the absence of sport psychology resources for Masters Athletes, mental performance consultants could benefit from information to assist consultancy with older adult athletes. We conducted semistructured interviews to explore 10 Canadian professional mental performance consultants’ (two men and eight women) perspectives of targeted content and the nature of service delivery to Masters Athletes. Following inductive thematic analysis, results for Content of Sport Psychology related to performance readiness (e.g., preparatory routines, mental focus plans); prioritizing sport (e.g., balance/time management, recruiting social support); preserving sport enjoyment (e.g., self-reflection, gratitude/sport as opportunity); and age-related considerations (e.g., managing changing physical realities). Results pertaining to Addressing and Delivering Sport Psychology Services included considerations toward age-related attributes (e.g., values/identity, engaged/invested clients) and accommodating barriers/constraints (e.g., time, stigma). Our results show there are novel considerations when consulting with Masters Athletes, and we discuss what these findings mean for adult-oriented approaches in applied practice.

Evidence suggests Canadian university sport programs can foster positive development. Further, university coaches have claimed to focus on their athletes’ personal and psychosocial development. Despite coaches’ claims, little is known about university coaches’ strategies for enhancing positive development. The aim of the present study was to explore the role of the coach in fostering positive development in the university context from the perspective of coaches. Specifically, this study addressed two research questions: (a) Who was responsible for athletes’ development? and (b) What is the role of the coach in athletes’ development? Semi-structured open-ended interviews were conducted with 14 recommended Canadian university coaches (9 male and 5 female). Interviews were analyzed using an inductive approach. Coaches highlighted the conditions of university sport that foster positive development. In addition, the coaches described how they maximized athletes’ development by establishing a support network, building team culture, and empowering athletes.

This study explored the views of Canadian Masters athletes (MAs; M _age = 51, range 38–62; three men and five women) from 12 sports (10 individual and two team sports) on sport psychology for performance, experiential, and lifestyle enhancement. Using Braun and Clarke’s procedures for thematic analysis, the authors interpreted data from semistructured interviews deductively in relation to five strategic themes in which psychological skills are applied for performance enhancement. Deductive results demonstrated MAs used goal setting, imagery, arousal regulation, concentration, and self-confidence to enhance performance and obtain competitive advantages. The authors also analyzed data inductively to reveal themes related to experiential and lifestyle factors. Inductive results showed that MAs “placed priorities on sport,” which involved cognitively justifying the priority and framing sport as an outlet and as the embodiment of the authentic self. Social strategies associated with continued sport pursuit included cultivation of supportive social environments, social contracts/negotiations, social signaling, and social accountability. Strategies “to fit sport in” included integrating/twinning, scheduling, and managing commitment. Managing age-related concerns involved mindfulness and compensation strategies. Results show how MAs uniquely apply sport psychology to enhance their performance and to support sport adherence.

Conscientiousness, grit, and self-control are personality characteristics that have been shown to differentially predict several criteria of expertise development, including athletes’ deliberate practice and higher skill levels. However, little is known about coaches’ views on (a) how these conscientiousness-related traits translate into behaviors within the daily training environment or (b) the relevance of these traits for athletes’ quantity and quality of practice and development toward expert levels of performance. To fill these gaps, semistructured open-ended interviews were conducted with 11 high-performance coaches (nine males and two females) of individual and team sports, and national and international competitive levels. The interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis guidelines. The coaches’ descriptions evidenced some overlap between the investigated traits and a partial view of these constructs. They generally believed that grit, conscientiousness, and self-control play critical roles on athletes’ quality of practice and skill development. Notably, the coaches highlighted that tendencies to persevere despite adversity and mindfully use self-regulated processes seem to be powerful predispositions for athletes’ development toward expert performance levels. The results suggested potential mechanisms to help explain the observed relationship between conscientiousness-related traits and athletes’ quality of practice and skill development.

Research into the Masters (or adult) sport context has revealed important socially mediated participatory motives for Masters athletes, including a strong connection between their learning in sport and the relationships they have with their coaches. The purpose of this insights article was to identify and describe links between relevant relational perspectives in sport coaching and dominant themes extracted from research pertaining to the psychosocial aspects of coaching adults. Three theoretical perspectives are purposively explored: interdependence theory, humanistic coaching, and andragogy. We considered how these parallel bodies of literature ascribe to the particularities of coaching adults to provide insight on how to frame effective coaching approaches and coach–athlete interrelations for this unique athletic sample. We make the case for ongoing research using an andragogical model of coaching in Masters sport in understanding how coaching Masters athletes is a complex and nuanced phenomenon.

Coaches working with Masters Athletes (MAs) are tasked with facilitating learning and enhancing performance and quality of experience specifically for an adult cohort. In education, the Andragogy in Practice Model (APM) characterizes adult learners and provides teachers with principles for how to best facilitate learning (Knowles, Holton III, & Swanson, 2012). The purpose of the current study was to explore how coaches describe approaches with their MAs to discover how they align with andragogical principles. Eleven coaches were interviewed regarding their approaches in working with Masters swimmers. Data were thematically analyzed according to the six APM principles. The results revealed the bidirectional pattern of communication between the coaches and MAs, the coaches’ awareness of the athletes’ matured self-concept and prior experiences, the personalized goal oriented approach, the various approaches coaches used to motivate, and strategies that the coaches used to prepare MAs for training. The findings suggest that coaches who reported approaches in keeping with andragogical principles more effectively accommodated their MAs’ interests. When their approaches countered the principles, there appeared to be a disconnect between the coaches’ approaches and the MAs’ preferences. Together, these results provide evidence of the importance of coaches’ understanding of adult learning principles when coaching MAs.

Masters Athletes (MAs; adult athletes typically over 35 years old who prepare in order to compete at levels ranging from very recreational competition to serious competition) want coaches to cater their approaches to working with adults. Using adult learning principles, we previously found that some coaches cater their approaches in ways to accommodate the manner in which adult athletes prefer to learn. The purpose of this article is to articulate swim coaches’ perceptions of how they learned to work with MAs and whether their formal coach training meets their needs related to coaching MAs. Eleven swim coaches were interviewed regarding how they learned to coach MAs, and were questioned specifically about their coach development broadly and coach education specifically. The data were thematically analyzed and results revealed six main learning sources: coaching experiences (e.g., interacting with MAs, reflection, advice from MAs, coaching youth), experience as an athlete, reading books and Internet searches, networks and mentors, formal coach education, and non-swimming experiences. Results also revealed key themes about coaches’ perceptions regarding coach education, specifically the lack of connection between coach education programs and the Masters sport context, and coaches’ interest in coach education specific to MAs.

The Adult-Oriented Sport Coaching Survey assesses how often coaches use practices tailored to adult and older adult athletes. Cross-sectionally, said practices contribute to a quality masters sport experience for masters athletes (MAs); however, the stability of adult-oriented coaching over time and whether changes in coaching over time correspond with psychosocial outcomes for MAs is unknown. Therefore, coaches (N = 32; M _age = 49.0) and MAs (N = 103; M _age = 51.5) completed the Adult-Oriented Sport Coaching Survey twice 8 weeks apart. MAs also completed criterion measures for facets of the coach–athlete relationship, basic needs satisfaction, and thwarting. Our first question was whether mean group values for adult-oriented coaching changed over time. Repeated measures analysis of variance demonstrated stability of coaches’ and MAs’ scores. Our second question was whether changes in adult-oriented coaching corresponded with changes on criterion measures. Path analyses showed increased perceived frequency of adult-oriented coaching that, generally, was associated with enhancing three facets of the coach–athlete relationship, relatedness satisfaction, autonomy satisfaction, and reducing competency thwarting. The discussion centers on how adult-oriented coaching might facilitate quality sporting relationships, empowerment, and mastery in adult sport programming. These nonintervention results are interpreted with an eye toward considerations in future Adult-Oriented Sport Coaching Survey-based coaching interventions.