How to Use the Toolkit?
Start with Self-Education
Complete the TrueSport Coaching Certification or review the character-building lesson bundles to ground yourself in TrueSport principles.
Integrate Lessons into Practice
Use the lesson topics and discussion prompts during team meetings or practice sessions to reinforce life skills and values.
Address Athlete Well-Being
Regularly reference mental wellness resources and proactively discuss topics like stress, social media, and self-care with your athletes.
Model and Reinforce
Consistently demonstrate sportsmanship, ethical behavior, and healthy habits in your interactions with athletes, fellow coaches, parents, opponents, referees, and the broader community.
Engage Parents and Guardians
Share audience-specific resources to foster a unified support system for athletes.
Join the TrueSport Network
Subscribe to the TrueSport Newsletter for articles, videos, and updates on all things TrueSport.
TrueSport Coach Topics
Certification & Documents
As a coach, you’re one of the biggest influences in a young athlete’s life. That’s why quality coaching matters so much! Our interactive coaching modules help you reflect on your coaching philosophy, build a positive team culture, and stay up to date on key topics like energy drinks, supplements, and performance-enhancing drugs. The TrueSport Coaching program is designed for coaches at every level who want to keep learning and help their athletes succeed on and off the field.
After completing the series, you’ll be able to:
- Know your “why” as a coach
- Create an ethical, positive team environment
- Understand the risks of energy drinks and supplements (and how to spot red flags)
- Recognize signs of performance-enhancing drug use
- Handle tough conversations with athletes and parents
Take the next step for yourself and your team with TrueSport Coaching!
Access the Modules today!
Bring TrueSport values to life in your program with TrueSport Lessons! While you already know how to teach the X’s and O’s, these lessons go beyond sport skills—giving you practical, ready-to-use tools that help coaches and athletes grow together. TrueSport Lessons are designed to equip coaches with knowledge in areas like nutrition, decision-making, clean sport, mental wellness, and building positive team culture—skills you might not have covered in traditional coaching courses.
With these resources, you’ll help your athletes develop life skills and core values and feel confident addressing important topics that matter most in youth sports today. Change the culture of your team for the better—with TrueSport!
Train the Trainer
The TrueSport Train-the-Trainer is your guide to best practices, tips, and tricks for implementing the TrueSport Lessons while promoting collaboration and fun along the way.
Handouts & Publications
What People Are Saying
This was my third year in attendance. Each year I have been able to take so much back to my program, staff, and athletes. We are better because we attended.
TrueSport’s dedication and commitment to their educational initiative is obvious, and it was meaningful for the audience to be coaches this time around. As coaches, we need more reminders around mental wellness and this was the perfect venue to address these issues.
Exceeded expectations. Presenters were knowledgeable, prepared, and could make the material enjoyable. Most importantly, there were ‘actionable’ items in all sessions.
Practical Tools & Articles
Building a TrueSport Mindset: Coaching Athletes to Set Goals, Tackle Challenges, and Learn from Setbacks
As a youth sport coach, your impact goes well beyond wins and losses—you help young athletes set meaningful goals, tackle challenges, and learn from setbacks. By encouraging your team to see challenges as chances to grow and setbacks as learning opportunities, you’re building a positive mindset that lasts a lifetime. Celebrate their effort, talk through lessons learned after tough days, and highlight progress every step of the way. Your supportive coaching style helps athletes develop perseverance, smart decision-making, and the confidence to take on whatever comes their way—on and off the field.
Support your athletes in setting goals that will help them remain focused and reach their dreams.
One-of-a kind, interactive learning experience featuring TrueSport Athlete Ambassadors that explores how their focus on developing key life skills and core values helped drive their success both in athletics and life.
Help your athletes unlock their full potential this season—discover practical goal-setting strategies, guidelines, and coaching tips in the TrueSport Goal-Setting lesson!
Empower your team to reach new heights—explore how perseverance drives peak performance, builds character, and learn actionable ways to foster it in your athletes with the TrueSport Perseverance lesson!
Guide your athletes to smarter choices—discover key decision-making strategies, ways to learn from mistakes, and coaching tools for building confident, thoughtful teams in the TrueSport Decision Making lesson!
Fueling for Performance Coaching Healthy Habits
As a coach of youth athletes, you play a key role in shaping the choices your team makes around fueling for peak performance. Teaching the importance of balanced nutrition and regular hydration helps your athletes stay energized, focused, and ready to perform at their best—whether on the field or in daily life. It’s also crucial to guide young athletes in making safe decisions about dietary supplements and to discuss the value of clean sport, emphasizing integrity and competing without banned substances. By promoting smart habits around what athletes eat and drink, you’re not only supporting their physical development but also instilling lifelong healthy routines and strong values. Your leadership ensures athletes are informed, healthy, and prepared to build success the right way—on and off the field.
Discover tips on fueling for peak performance, hydration, gut health, and safer supplement use—empowering athletes of all levels to make healthy, confident food choices.
This easy-to-understand guide helps athletes at all levels and their families make smart choices about supplements.
This guide provides practical information to help caregivers, athletes, and coaches identify possible risk factors for Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (REDs), determine appropriate strategies for prevention, and provide support for athletes at risk for REDs and the associated health effects.
Empower your team to reach new heights—explore how perseverance drives peak performance, builds character, and learn actionable ways to foster it in your athletes with the TrueSport Perseverance lesson!
Mind & Body Building Healthy Young Athletes
Prioritizing mental wellness is key for both coaches and athletes. When you support mental well-being alongside physical health, your athletes feel more confident, resilient, and ready to enjoy their sport. Taking care of your own mental health also sets a great example and helps you coach with energy and empathy. Additionally, when mental wellness is a team priority, athletes are better equipped to handle challenges and build confidence.
Everyone experiences anxiety at different points in their life. Here are 5 simple steps to help you F.I.G.H.T anxiety.
Stress is easier to handle when you are intentional about how you manage feeling uncomfortable. Use this exercise to support young athletes when they are feeling stressed.
Creating a TrueSport Team Culture Coaching Life Skills Through Sport
As a coach of young athletes, your influence extends far beyond teaching skills—you shape the entire team culture and set the tone for how your athletes learn and grow. By leading with TrueSport values like respect, integrity, and teamwork, you help your athletes develop into confident, resilient people. Creating an environment that encourages open communication and provides strong emotional support is just as important as skill development. When athletes know they can talk openly, share challenges, and feel supported by both their coach and their teammates, they are better equipped to navigate setbacks and celebrate successes. Through positive communication, you help athletes build essential life skills—like leadership, cooperation, and problem-solving—that serve them well both on the field and in everyday life. By focusing on values, character, and emotional well-being, you ensure your team culture helps every athlete thrive, connect, and succeed in all areas of life.
TrueSport recognizes coaches as one the most influential people in an athlete’s life, who are not only responsible for developing their athlete’s sport-specific skills, but also the life skills that will transcend the playing field.
Developing alignment on team goals can be tricky. Try this activity to facilitate values-driven behavior on a team, which will both drive team success and reduce conflict.
Read more from Dr. Peter Scales and the Search Institute on how to build a Developmental Relationships culture and a Compete-Learn-Honor culture where you can promote safety, fun, and growth simultaneously.
How are you doing at creating a Developmental Relationships culture?
How are you doing at creating a Compete-Learn-Honor culture?
Recent Articles for Coaches
Coach with TrueSport
Lead With Purpose
Inspire the next generation on and off the field. Our proven tools, certification, and resources are designed to help you build character, teach life skills, and create a culture of clean, healthy sport.
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