This book provides a comprehensive and range of critical reflections of key areas impacting on children’s sport and coaching up to the age of 16 and includes chapters written by academic in various disciplines, including nutrition, psychology, pedagogy, medicine, youth development and sociology.

Section 1: Learning and Skill Development Coaching Children in Sport: A Focus on Learning Coaching Pedagogy Developmental Considerations for Coaching Preschooler Sport Supporting the Development of Sporting Creativity in Children Through an Enskilment Approach To Have Fun: What is Means and its Significance in Sport Creativity-enhancing Approaches in the Coaching of Children in Sport: Present and Future Directions Coaching Psychological and Life Skills Through Sport: Advancing the Contemporary Coaching Agenda Exploring Contextual Factors Influencing Positive Development Through Sport Transitions in Child and Youth Sport The Role of The Coach in Player Retention and Attrition Section 2: Protecting Child Athletes Preparing Children for Sport: The Importance of Athletic Development Sport Readiness and Injury Prevention in Young Athletes: Current Recommendations on When to Enter, Compete and Specialise in Sport Nutritional Considerations for Children in Sport Sports Related Concussions in Children Disordered Eating in Child and Youth Sport: The Role of the Coach Parental Involvement in Organised Youth Sport Making the Cut: Coaches and the Deselection Young Athletes Mental Health and Coaching Children in Sport Child’s Play? Safeguarding and Protecting Children in Sport Coaching Care-Experienced Children and Young People in Sport Section 3: Talent Identification and Development Coaching Elite Junior Athletes What Makes Champions? Childhood Multi-Sport Practice Facilitates Long-Term Development The Impact of Growth and Maturation Upon Children’s Participation in Sport and Physical Activity Digging for Diamonds? The Abstract and Questionable Nature of Talent Identification in Children’s Sport The Child and Adolescent Sport Dropout Problem: Could Modifying the Coaching Micro-System Climate Help? Psycho-Social Maturation and the Implications for Coaching Children Integrating Specificity and Generality of Practice to Enrich Children’s Learning in Sport Sampling and Specialising in Children’s Sport: Implications for Research and Coaching Practice Group Based Strategies in Children’s Organised Sport: Looking Beyond Fixed Chronological Age Section 4: Diversity and Inclusion Children’s Rights and Sports Coaching Coaching Disabled Children: A Brief Look Around and Forward "I treat every Player equally": Coaching Culturally Diverse Children in Sport Addressing the Needs of Indigenous Children?: Coach Education Programs in Canada, Aotearoa New Zeeland and Australia Coaching Children and Youth with Refugee Backgrounds Towards a Critical Inclusion of LGB Youth in Coaching Contexts Exploring the Implications of Ability in Children’s Sport Social Justice Organisations, Community Sport and Coaching Children Section 5: Cultures and Context Coaching Children and Youth Sport Policy Volunteering in Children’s Sport: From Motivation to Child Protection Retaining Volunteer Coaches in Child and Youth Sport The Digital Sideline: What Coaches Need to Know about Children’s Engagement with Social Media A Space to Play: The Geographies of Children’s Sport and Physical Activities The Learning Cultures of Informal Self-Organised Action Sports: Implications for Child and Youth Coaching Scaling Children’s Sport to Augment Motor Skill Acquisition Learning to Coach Children in Sport