Frank Smoll

Image of Frank Smoll

Frank Smoll, Ph.D.

Professor Emeritus
(425) 827-3127
Guthrie 076
Advising: Does not accept or train psychology graduate students.
Interests: Developmental Sport Psychology
Links:

Research

More than 60-million children and adolescents compete in community and school-sponsored athletics in the United States. That represents over half of the young people in the 6-to-18 age range—an amazing number of participants! In collaboration with my colleague, Dr. Ronald Smith, research was pursued on the effects of sport competition on youngsters’ personal and social development. The Youth Enrichment in Sports project was designed to develop, evaluate, and deliver educational programs for coaches and parents. The project initially involved development of Mastery Approach to Coaching (MAC) and Mastery Approach to Parenting in Sports (MAPS) workshops. The interventions were then tested in a series of field experiments and proven to have desirable effects on young athletes' psycho-social development. Since the early 1980s, I personally conducted over 550 MAC and MAPS workshops for youth sport organizations throughout the USA and Canada.

Given the success of our evidence-based interventions, we entered the dissemination phase of our work. This involved transforming the MAC and MAPS workshops into self-instruction videos and publishing “how to” books on the Mastery Approach. I plan to continue distribution of the programs during retirement.

Education

University of Wisconsin (1970)

  • Smoll, F. L. (2024). Sports and your young athlete: Developing champions in sports and life. Warde. developingyoungathletes.com
  • Smoll, F. L., & Smith, R. E. (2021). A social-cognitive approach to conducting evidence based coach-training programs. In J.M. Williams & V. Krane (Eds.), Applied sport psychology: Personal growth to peak performance (8th ed., pp. 386-408). New York: McGraw-Hill.
  • Smoll, F. L., & Smith, R. E. (2017). Coaching young athletes: Sport psychology theory, research, and intervention. Indian Journal of Psychology, 92 (Special Issue, July), 126-139.
  • Schwebel, F. J., Smith, R. E., & Smoll, F. L. (2016, March). Measurement of perceived success standards in sport and relations with athletes' self-esteem, performance anxiety, and achievement goal orientation: Comparing parental and coach influences. Child Development Research, Article ID 7056075.
  • Smith, R. E., Smoll, F. L., & Cumming, S. P. (2009). Motivational climate and changes in young athletes' achievement goal orientations. Motivation and Emotion, 33, 173-183.
  • Smoll, F. L., Smith, R. E., & Cumming, S. P. (2007). Effects of a motivational climate intervention for coaches on changes in young athletes' achievement goal orientations. Journal of Clinical Sport Psychology, 1, 23-46.
  • Smoll, F. L., Smith, R. E., & Cumming, S. P. (2007, Summer). Effects of coach and parent training on performance anxiety in young athletes: A systemic approach. Journal of Youth Development, 2. Article 0701FA002. http://www.nae4ha.org/directory/index.html