Our mission: Provide Leadership, Scholarship, and Outreach to Transform Youth Sport
What we do
- Conducting novel research in critical areas related to youth sport
- Partnering with sport organizations and governing bodies to conduct evaluation, develop training programs, and build organizational capacity
- Conducting outreach and development programs to develop athletes, coaches and sport leaders
- Training and preparing graduate students to be the next generation of scholars in areas related to youth sports
- Coordinating the Sport Coaches’ Summit annual conference
- Providing oversight for three graduate programs in Sport Coaching, Leadership, and Administration
- Distributing a semesterly newsletter – The Youth Sport Report – to provide updates on the work we do
Protecting Youth Athletes
The Institute for the Study of Youth Sports has created three online educational modules to address the issue of abuse in sports. The free learning videos are not available to support coaches, administrators, and caregivers on best practices to protect youth athletes from physical, emotional, and sexual abuse.
Graduate programs in Sport Coaching, Leadership, and Administration
If you are a current or aspiring sport coach or sport leader, and you are looking to extend your knowledge and advance your career, then you may consider applying to one of our graduate programs offered through the Department of Kinesiology. A master’s degree and two graduate certificate programs are offered each year. Courses are taught online by expert faculty.
Sport Coaches’ Summit
The Sport Coaches’ Summit is an annual conference that brings together sport coaches and leaders for instruction on topics from building athlete mental toughness, working with sport parents, designing physical training that optimally challenges athletes, to turning around a struggling program. Workshops are led by MSU faculty, coaches, outside experts, and MSU graduate students, all with expertise in working with sport coaches and leaders. This event provides a great opportunity to meet and network with a range of coaches, administrators, as well as teachers and researchers who study sport science.
How we learn to move
In 2022, Professor Karin Pfeiffer became the director of the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports.
Learn about her vision for the next chapter of the Institute in the 2022 New Educator magazine.
(Photo credit: Amanda Pinckney, WKAR-MSU.)