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A BEHAVIORAL APPROACH TO COACHING FOOTBALL: IMPROVING THE PLAY EXECUTION OF THE OFFENSIVE BACKFIELD ON A YOUTH FOOTBALL TEAM
Author(s) -
Komaki Judi,
Barnett Fred T.
Publication year - 1977
Publication title -
journal of applied behavior analysis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.1
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1938-3703
pISSN - 0021-8855
DOI - 10.1901/jaba.1977.10-657
Subject(s) - offensive , coaching , football , psychology , applied psychology , athletes , aggression , football players , social psychology , physical therapy , psychotherapist , medicine , engineering , operations research , political science , law
Because of the emphasis on winning, the difficulties involved in assessing performance, and the lack of frequent and contingent reinforcement, a behavioral approach to coaching football was used. The players, all nine‐ or ten‐year‐old males, were members of an offensive backfield on a Pop Warner football team. Three frequently‐run offensive plays were broken down into a series of five behaviorally defined stages, permitting construction of checklists suitable for observing the players during both game and scrimmage sessions. The intervention consisted of the presentation and explanation of the appropriate checklist, and frequent contingent reinforcement in the form of feedback and recognition for instances of desired play execution. Performance gains averaging 20% occurred for each of the three plays after, and not before, the staggered introduction of each intervention. The results suggest that behavioral specification and positive reinforcement of desired play execution is a viable approach to the coaching of football.