ABSTRACT
Whether prioritising performance, health or lifelong activity, the actions, decisions and approaches of coaches are significant factors that can dictate how youth swimmers experience their sport. The intention of this chapter is to catalyse a reflective process whereby coaches can ask some introspective questions to interrogate their own practice. To achieve this, the chapter sets out to de-mystify the use of reflection in sport coaching before using a selection of contemporary issues in the coaching of youth populations, inviting readers to self-critique their existing view, position and practice relative to recent writing in the field. The central aim is to encourage reflective thinking as a core coaching behaviour in achieving positive long-term outcomes in youth swimming.
