Sociocultural Competencies for Sport Coaches: A Proposal for Coaches and Coach Education

Abstract

As social and cultural diversity increases in the United States, coaches frequently interact with athletes from a wide range of backgrounds. Therefore, it would be useful if coaches had established guidelines for best practices to support their socially and ethically responsible work with athletes. However, coaching organizations have not published best practice standards specifically for coaches’ work with socially and culturally diverse athletes. This article proposes Sociocultural Competencies for Sport Coaches (SCSC) to support positive coach-athlete relationships. Specifically, the paper (a) reviews standards for social and cultural competencies used in similar professions, (b) introduces SCSC to the field of coaching education, and (c) presents competencies, standards, and benchmarks to guide the implementation of SCSC with diverse athletes.