ABSTRACT
Creating a caring and task-involving climate can provide many benefits to coaches and athletes, however, it is not without its challenges. This chapter explores a variety of common challenges that coaches encounter and provides resources and strategies to surmount them. Some of these challenges relate to misperceptions people have about the purpose of youth sport and how coaches can communicate to people the benefits of creating a more positive sport climate. Other obstacles relate to behavioral problems with athletes or lack of commitment from athletes that can sometimes make it challenging to maintain a caring and task-involving climate. Still other challenges occur when athletes share difficult personal experiences that may be hard to navigate without guidance and resources. Finally, creating a caring and task-involving climate takes time and energy and when things are not going well coaches can become overwhelmed or burnout. Therefore, strategies are provided to maintain their own effort and energy.
