Bradley Young

Bradley W. Young is a researcher in sport psychology and talent development, sport and aging, sport pedagogy and coaching. His program integrates theory and practice to enhance the sport experience and performance of adolescent, university, national team and masters athletes. Sport organizations, national sport centres, the coaching community and athletes are collaborators in and beneficiaries of his research. 
Professor Young is consistently funded as principal investigator by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Canadian Institutes of Health Research and Sport Canada. He is a Certified Mental Performance Consultant (AASP) who provides services to young athletes, families, teams and organizations. He has served on the boards of Active Aging Canada and the ParticipACTION Advisory Network, and developed resources on masters athletes for the Coaching Association of Canada. He integrates experience as a university coach, secondary school teacher and mental skills coach in his award-winning lecturing.

Professor Young is accepting students for thesis supervision.

• Psychology of sport practice and skill acquisition in competitive sport
• Self-regulated learning strategies and practice behaviour in sport
• Development of sport expertise and youth talent development
• Quality sport experiences for masters athletes
• Sport participation and sport performance in middle and old age
• The integration of adult education principles into sport coaching

Professor Young is a leader in two areas:

1. The Psychology of Optimal Practice: An internationally-renowned program that aims to (a) determine psychological skills that elite athletes use to optimize their sport practice and skill acquisition, (b) translate these skills into curriculum and mental training to support younger athletes on the talent development trajectory and (c) integrate learning around athlete-led, optimal practice into new collaborative models for coaching athletes.
2. Quality Masters Sport Experience (QMSE) — Mobilizing Evidence to Enhance Programs: Based on his prolific work on masters athletes, he aims to (a) describe hallmarks of meaningful programming for middle-aged and older adults, (b) illustrate how hallmarks of a QMSE are effectively represented in coaching and programming in adult sport and (c) demonstrate how a QMSE relates to athletes’ personal gains and enhanced sport communities. QMSE is the lens used to validate whether masters sport experiences have integrity, which concerns anyone who cares about lifelong sport.

See Bradley Young’s publications on ORCID and Google Scholar.

Books and journal articles

• Wilson, S.G., & Young, B.W. (2024). Self-regulating recovery: Athlete perspectives on implementing recovery from elite endurance training. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, advance eprint, 1-25.
• Young, B.W., Bain, L., & Baker, J. (2023). Self-regulated learning in sport practice: Agency, assessment, and actioning. In D. Farrow, J. Baker, & C. MacMahon (Eds.), Developing sport expertise: Researchers and coaches put theory into practice (3rd edn), (pp. 90-99). Routledge.
• Young, B.W. (2023). Masters athletes. In D. Tod, K. Hodge, & V. Krane (Eds), Routledge handbook of applied sport psychology (2nd edn): A comprehensive guide for students and practitioners, (pp. 440-449). Routledge.
• Young, B.W., Tedesqui, R. A. B., McCardle, L., Bartulovic, D., & Baker, J. (2023). Consideration of future consequences and future time perspective perform poorly with respect to deliberate practice and talent development in sport. Journal of Expertise, 6(2), 234-258.
• Young, B.W., Wilson, S.G., Hoar, S., Bain, L., Siekańska, M., & Baker, J. (2023). On the self-regulation of sport practice: Moving the narrative from theory and assessment towards practice. Frontiers in Psychology: Movement Science and Sport Psychology, 14:1089110.
• Bain, L., Young, B.W., Callary, B., & McCardle, L. (2023). The co-regulatory coaching interface model: A case study of a figure skating dyad. The Qualitative Report, 28(4), 1038-1069.
• Wilson, S.G., & Young, B.W. (2023). Revisiting recovery: Athlete-centric perspectives on the meanings of recovery from elite endurance training. Journal of Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology, 12(2), 123-140.
• Larson, H.K., Young, B.W., McHugh, T-L.F., & Rodgers, W.M. (2023). Visual representations of single- and multi-sport participation in a youth swimming sample: Implications for definitions and discussions of early specialization. PLoS ONE, 18(9), e0292038.
• Motz, D., Young, B.W., Rathwell, S., & Callary, B. (2023). How do adult-oriented coaching practices change over time and correspond with changes in key criterion outcomes? An eight-week study. International Sport Coaching Journal. 11(1), 63-75.
• Callary, B., Belalcazar, C., Rathwell, S, & Young, B.W. (2023). A case study of using an adult-oriented coaching survey and debrief session to facilitate coaches’ learning in Masters sport. Case Studies in Sport and Exercise Psychology, 7, 89-97.
• Larson, H., McHugh, T-L., Young, B.W., & Rodgers, W. (2022). Not your average sport parents: How sport scholars make decisions about their own children’s sport involvement. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 63, 102282.
• Currie, C., Young, B.W., & Callary, B. (2022). Mutuality in a coached adult sport team: The Team Sport Model of Interdependence. Sport Coaching Review, 11(3), 298-323.
• Currie, C., Callary, B., & Young, B.W. (2021). Glitter and guts: Narrative portrayal of sportswomen’s experiences on a coached Masters team. SAGE Open. Oct-Dec. 1-21.
• Young, B.W., Eccles, D.W., Williams, A.M., & Baker, J. (2021). K. Anders Ericsson, deliberate practice and sport: Contributions, collaborations and controversies. Journal of Expertise, 4(2), 169-189.
• Young, B.W., Callary, B., & Rathwell, S. (2021). Giving due deliberation to masters athletes: The time has come. SIRCuit Magazine (online).
• Wilson, S., Young, B.W., Hoar, S., & Baker, J. (2021). Further evidence for the validity of a survey for self-regulated learning in sport practice. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 56: 101975.
• Makepeace, T., & Young, B.W. (2021). Mental performance consultants’ perspectives on content and service delivery to Masters athletes. Journal of Aging and Physical Activity, 30(4), 666-677.
• Callary, B., Young, B.W., & Rathwell, S. (Eds). (2021). Coaching Masters athletes: Advancing research and practice in adult sport. Book published by Taylor and Francis.
• Baker, J., & Young, B.W. (2021). Expert performance. In E. Filho & I. Basevitch (Eds.) Sport, exercise, and performance psychology: Research directions to advance the field (pp. 90-103). Oxford University Press USA.
• Rathwell, S., Young, B.W., Callary, B., Motz, D., Hoffmann, M., & Currie, C. (2020). The Adult Oriented Sport Coaching Survey: An instrument designed to assess coaching behaviours tailored to adult athletes. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology. 42(5), 368-385.

Conferences and presentations

• Young, B.W., & Siekanska, M. (2024, July). Self-regulated sport practice: International perspectives of theoretical, assessment and applied interest. Chaired symposium at the bi-annual meeting of the European Federation of Sport Psychology, Innsbruck, Austria.
• Young, B.W., & Siekanska, M. (2024, July). A view to further enhance work on the psychology of practice: Addressing contextual and personality factors in self-regulated sport practice. Symposium presentation at the bi-annual meeting of the European Federation of Sport Psychology, Innsbruck, Austria.
• Radowits, R., & Young, B.W. (2024, July). “Giving them space for autonomy and reflection”: How coaches describe athletes’ self-regulated learning and view their role in supporting it. Presented at the bi-annual meeting of the European Federation of Sport Psychology, Innsbruck, Austria.
• Young, B.W., Bain, L., Hoar, S., Wilson, S.G., & Baker, J. (2023, October). Are we talking about practice? Mental performance consultants elaborate on integrating the Self-regulation of Sport Practice survey as a dialogue tool with adolescent athletes. Presented at the annual meeting of the Association for the Advancement of Applied Sport Psychology, Orlando, USA.
• Wilson, S.G., & Young, B.W. (2023, October). Athlete-centered recovery: Describing the use of athlete-led skills of recovery self-regulation by elite and non-elite endurance athletes. Presented at the annual Sport Canada Research Initiative Conference, Ottawa, ON.
• Young, B.W. (2023, August). Focus and refocusing during competitive events. Invited speaker at the Chelsea Supercamp, Biathlon Ontario. Chelsea, QC. Invited.
• Wilson, S.G., Hoar, S., & Young, B.W. (2023). How do elite athletes self-regulate their recovery around training? Insights using the experience sampling method. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 45(Supp), s123.
• Young, B.W. (2023, May). The Masters athlete experience: Living and competing as your authentic self. Inaugural invited speaker to the M2M and The First Lap Speaker Series. Ottawa, ON. Invited.
• Bain, L., Wilson, S.G., & Young, B.W. (2022). Mental performance consultants’ perspectives on self-regulated learning and how it relates to practice and performance. Journal of Exercise, Movement, & Sport: Proceedings of the Canadian Society for Psychomotor Learning & Sport Psychology, 53(1).
• Young, B.W., Rathwell, S., Motz, D., & Callary B. (2021, March). What’s so different about coaching adults? How to create quality Masters sport experiences? Webinar presentation to Coaches’ Association of Ontario. Invited.