ABSTRACT
This chapter provides information on the factors that coaches should consider when they coach adult athletes, who are classified as being 18 years of age and older. Pedagogy literally means teaching children. The term that refers to the understanding of and supporting learning among adults is called ‘andragogy’. In addition to giving participants choice regarding the time structure for practice, other research has indicated that giving athletes a choice over the amount of practice they do may also enhance learning. From a coaching perspective, the findings indicate that allowing participants to control the amount of practice they have might reap immediate and long-term benefits in performance. Researchers have explored how supportive a coach is in relation to giving his or her athletes choices among adult athletes and the effects of such behaviour and found that it was associated with an athlete’s mental health and burnout. Stebbings et al. examined the antecedents of such behaviours among a sample of 443 coaches.
