ABSTRACT
This chapter provides information on the factors that coaches should consider when they coach adolescent athletes. It is essential that coaches are aware of their behaviour when coaching adolescent athletes, because coach behaviour has a number of implications. The most frequently reported in-game behaviour was the use of silence. Coaches need to be careful when adopting the strategy of silence because some athletes might perceive that a coach is conducting ineffective coaching. The relative age effects demonstrate that athletes who are born in the first two quartiles of a selection year are more likely to be selected for teams and have a greater chance of success, because these adolescents are generally heavier, taller, and stronger. Gardener et al. tracked 324 adolescent athletes over a period of year. During this period, 26 athletes dropped out of sport. One of the reasons given was a poor coach-athlete relationship, in which the athlete does not get on well with his or her coach.
