Sport
Quality participation in sport happens when a disabled athlete views their involvement in sport as satisfying and enjoyable. The athlete experiences outcomes that are important to them.
Quality participation in sport is the result of repeated and continuous quality experiences in sport activities, including training, competitions, and events. Sport activities that happen outside of training, such as team socials, also contribute to quality experiences.
Quality experiences are built from 6 building blocks: autonomy, belongingness, challenge, engagement, mastery and meaning.
Autonomy
Having independence, choice, control
Belongingness
Feeling included, accepted, respected, part of the group
Challenge
Feeling appropriately tested
Engagement
Being in-the-moment, focused, absorbed, fascinated
Mastery
Feeling a sense of achievement, accomplishment, competence
Meaning
Contributing toward obtaining a personal goal; feeling a sense of responsibility to others
How can I support Quality Participation?
Athletes, coaches, volunteers, sport administrators, classifiers, and supportive others all have a role to play in creating quality experiences that lead to long-term engagement in sport. The CDPP Resources and Blueprints provide clear suggestions to encourage quality participation no matter your role in sport.
Athlete
Athletes play an important role in shaping their own sport experience. Open communication about your goals and willingness to share details about how your body moves best with coaches, instructors or other sport leaders are key to creating a positive experience.
To build a quality experience for yourself, create an environment that supports the quality experiences of your teammates you can think about these building blocks:
Autonomy
- Work with your coach, instructor, or sport leader to find adaptations that work well for your body.
- Provide feedback to your coach about your participation in the activity.
Engagement
- Ask questions to make sure you understand what your coach is asking you to do.
- Become involved in all parts of your activity, for example, help put equipment away after practice.
Mastery
- Keep track of your progress towards your goals and then regularly look back on your progress. Think about how your performance has improved.
Athletes also have an important role in shaping the experiences of their teammates and new participants in sport. Working toward a common vision and goal(s) supports a positive environment.
To create an environment that supports quality experiences for your teammates, you can think about:
Belongingness
- Find ways to include everyone and work together as a group.
- Be a leader or mentor for others in your sport.
Engagement
- Involve your teammates in practices and games.
- Encourage the team toward your common goals.
Mastery
- Provide your teammates with opportunities to be team leaders. This can go beyond being team captain. Find places where everyone can have a chance to lead.
Athletes also have a role in shaping the experiences of their coaches, instructors and caregivers. To create an environment that supports quality experiences of your coaches, instructors and caregivers, you can think about:
Meaning
- Say thank you to coaches and instructors after training
- Say thank you to your caregivers. They put a lot of time and energy into supporting you.
Engagement
- Try to listen to your coaches and instructors. If you are losing focus, let them know when you need a break.
- As much as possible, have a positive attitude towards training
Belongingness
- Work with your coaches and instructors in partnership. Commit to working together to identify and work towards personal goals.
- Check-in with your coach. Ask your coach: “How are you today?”.
Coaches
Coaches’ knowledge, abilities, and the environments they develop influence the quality of athletes’ sport experiences. By establishing supportive relationships with athletes and creating safe environments, coaches can build athletes’ confidence and foster a sense of belonging.
Coaches set expectations for the team and the team environment. Coaches who want to create an environment that supports quality experiences for athletes can think about:
Challenge
- Show that you believe in the abilities of individual athletes.
- Help athletes set goals that challenge themselves in appropriate ways.
Autonomy
- Find ways for athletes to have some choice and control over decisions that influence their training or participation.
Engagement
- Encourage athletes to take on roles that are important for the functioning of the team or group.
Find out more coaching strategies to support quality experiences
Volunteers
Volunteers are often the key to programs running smoothly and effectively. As an extension of the program staff, volunteers have an important role in shaping the program experience.
Volunteers who want to support quality experiences for athletes and program participants can think about:
Engagement
Learn about how equipment, rules, or the program environment need to be adapted for each individual athlete.
Belongingness
Get to know program participants and make them feel welcome in the program environment.
Learn more about building how volunteers can increase quality experiences for athletes
Sport administrators
Creating sport programs that focus on quality experiences enhances long-term participation. How can your program ensure that participants continue to register?
Sport administrators interested in fostering quality experiences in their programs can think about:
Meaning
Provide a variety of options for participants to be involved in your programs. For example, include different levels of competition for athletes.
Learn more about how you can create programs that prioritize quality experiences
Classifiers
Classification can impact a disabled person’s ability to engage in competitive sport. Classification determines which athletes are eligible to compete in a sport, and how they are grouped together for competition. Classifiers are certified officials who evaluate each athlete for the purpose of classification. The classification process is sport-specific and aims to ensure fair competition between athletes with different impairments.
Classification can influence these building blocks:
Belongingness
Classification creates opportunities for athletes to connect with others in the same sport class, and limits feelings of “being out of place” relative to other participants.
Challenge
Appropriate classification increases the likelihood that athletes will experience a suitable level of challenge.
Learn more about how classification can influence quality sport experiences
Supportive others
Family members and supportive others play an important role in shaping sport involvement for participants. Sport provides an opportunity for families to bond and grow. In turn, family bonds can contribute to quality experiences.
Family members and supportive others can support these building blocks:
Belongingness
It’s exciting and fun for athletes and family members to bond over participating in a new activity that all family members can engage in.
Engagement
Participating in an activity alongside family members (for example, as training partners) can increase engagement for disabled athletes.
Meaning
It’s exciting and fun for athletes and family members to bond over participating in a new activity that all family members can engage in.
Why is quality participation important?
Participation, whether in sport, exercise, or play, has been connected to improvements in physical and mental health. It can also contribute to overall satisfaction in life.
In fact, we have we learned through our research that participation is about more than being involved in an activity (Evans, 2018). The quality of participation matters. An athlete or exercisers well-being is more strongly linked with the quality of an experience than how often they participate (Martin Ginis et al., 2024). We believe that supporting these feelings may lead to greater and more meaningful participation
Quality participation results from an individual’s quality experiences. Quality experiences involve feelings of autonomy, belongingness, challenge, engagement, mastery, and meaning.
Quality participation results from repeated quality experiences. This image depicts the components of quality participation.
At the centre is a circle. The circle represents the participant in the activity. The next layer shows a series of arrows circling around the centre. These represent the cyclic nature of participation, in that all components are important for continued quality participation.
The final layer is three sections that form the outside circle. These are the components that must exist for sustained quality participation.
The first section is labelled 1. Building Blocks and represents the six building blocks identified as central to creating quality experiences. They are listed and magnified to the left of the screen in boxes, with a long bar indicating that these support a safe, welcoming, and inclusive environment. The six building blocks are defined and associated with a coloured bar:
- Teal Bar: Autonomy: having independence, choice, control
- Orange Bar: Belongingness: feeling included, accepted, respected, part of the group
- Red Bar: Challenge: Feeling appropriately tested
- Yellow Bar: Engagement: Being in-the-moment, focused, absorbed, fascinated
- Green Bar: Mastery: Feeling a sense of achievement, accomplishment, competence
- Blue Bar: Meaning: Contributing toward obtaining a personal or socially meaningful goal; feeling a sense of responsibility to others.
The second section of the outer circle is labelled 2. Quality Experiences. Quality experiences involve feelings of autonomy, belongingness, challenge, engagement, mastery, and meaning. The third section of the outer circle is labelled 3. Quality participation. Repeated quality experiences are linked to greater and more meaningful participation, increasing overall well-being versus how often someone is participating in an activity.
Visit the full resource library to learn more about CDPP 2.0’s work on Sport