Topics in Youth Sports
Instructor: Peter Motekaitis, Department of Intercollegiate Athletics, College of Letter and Science
Description: This seminar will deal with a variety of current issues in youth sports. Topics covered will include: youth play versus youth sport, the playground versus the sport team, major trends in our society and how they affect youth sport, major trends in the organization of youth sports, questions concerning teaching and coaching models how they positively and negatively affect youth athletes, parents and professional administrators, parental goals and youth goals from youth sports, and a critical look at potential reforms for youth sports. The goals of this seminar are to introduce the above topics through a variety of reading and discussion. The students will gain a new perceptive from both a parental viewpoint as well as professional administrators and coaches.
Format: The seminar will have weekly selected readings. Additionally a panel discussion, which would include a Professional youth coach, an interscholastic AD, and a parent/volunteer coach, will discuss issues from the readings. One afternoon three-hour field trip is planned to visit a park, schoolyard, and three different youth practices. Grading: Grading will be based on a paper on panel discussion (15%); a paper on field trip (15%); a final paper of 3-5 pages (30%); and class participation (40%). This is a Pass/No Pass class.
About the Instructor:Peter Motekaitis has been a Lecturer/Coach at UC Davis for over ten years in the ICA/PE department, where he teaches Elementary Physical Education for the teaching credential program and is the Head Coach for the UCD varsity men’s swim team. He has coached youth swimming for 24 years. His interests include the development of young coaches, and youth sports organizations. His swimmers 2004 year won medals at the Athens Olympics, the World championships in Indianapolis and competed at the Para-Olympics in Athens.