Dr Lori Gano-Overway, the WSPAJ and caring environments in coaching

The Women in Sport & Exercise Academic Network Podcast

Dr Lori Gano-Overway is the director of and instructor in the coaching education minor program at James Madison University. She has been involved in coaching education for over 20 years teaching coaching courses and workshops, collaborating with coaches on creating environments that foster positive experiences and performance enhancement outcomes for athletes as an Association of Applied Sport Psychology (AASP)-certified mental performance consultant, assisting with programme development and evaluation, and conducting research on ways the social psychological climate and coaching practices foster positive youth development (1, 2, 3). Lori serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Sport Psychology in Action, the International Sport Coaching Journal, and is the Editor for the Women in Sport and Physical Activity Journal (here is an initial and most recent editorial related to work on the journal). Lori is also a member of the Virginia High School League coaching education committee and serves on the National Advisory Board for the Positive Coaching Alliance (here is a recent blog). She recently chaired the task force to revise the National Standards for Sport Coaches for SHAPE (Society of Health and Physical Educators) America (https://www.jblearning.com/catalog/productdetails/9781284205572).

In this podcast, we talked about:

· Lori’s research on psychological climate and coaching practices to foster positive youth development – what this is and how the idea has evolved.

· Effectiveness of this caring culture and environment according to gender (of both the coach and athlete), and across different cultures and ethnicities

· Steps/processes of teaching this coaching technique

· Lori’s work as editor for the Women in Sport and Physical Activity Journal (WSPAJ). Pros and cons of being an editor and benefits of being a reviewer for this journal.

· Improving intersectional work and intersectionality as part of WSPAJ

· Lori’s future research plans