Youth Basketball Coaches’ Perceptions and Implementation of Fundamental Movement Skills Training: Toward a Realist Evaluation

Purpose: To investigate youth basketball coaches’ perceptions and implementation of fundamental movement skills training. Method: Snowball and criterion-based sampling approaches were used to survey youth basketball coaches (n=79) beliefs and experiences relating to their perceptions and implementation of nonbasketball-specific skills and fundamental movement skills into practice. Realist evaluation inspired the analysis of descriptive statistics (means and frequencies) and reflexive qualitative thematic analysis to inform the results. Results: It was found that the participants had a comprehension of fundamental movement skills and acknowledge their value in the long-term development of youth players. However, there appeared to be varying levels of uptake among the surveyed coaches. Discussion: Based on these findings, coaches appear to hold sports specialization in a higher regard than the broader aspects of player development, illustrating a dichotomized perspective of fundamental movement skills and basketball. Conclusion: The findings suggest there is a need for governing bodies to develop innovative strategies to persuade youth basketball coaches to adopt nonsports-specific movement skills to improve their practice.