About Human Kinetics and ASEP

In the mid-1970s, Rainer Martens, sport psychologist and professor at the Children’s Research Center, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, was studying the psychological aspects of youth sport. Through his research and the pioneering work of the Coaching Association of Canada, Martens thought that a major way to improve amateur sport in the United States was to improve the education of coaches. So in 1976 he founded the American Coaching Effectiveness Program (ACEP), which later became the American Sport Education Program (ASEP). Today educational programs for coaches, officials, sport administrators, parents, and athletes are all part of the ASEP mission.

In 1981, Martens produced the first ASEP course, which focused on coaching philosophy and the basics of sport science, sports medicine, and sport management. By 1986, ASEP had 1,400 certified instructors who had trained more than 50,000 coaches. In 1990, ASEP began working with state high school associations to deliver educational programs nationwide to high school coaches. In 1994, ASEP added educational programs and resources for volunteer coaches, officials, parents, and sport administrators of youth sport organizations.

Today, nearly 40 state high school associations, 200 colleges and universities, 13 national governing bodies of Olympic sports, and hundreds of park and recreation departments and youth sport organizations use, require, or recommend ASEP courses and resources to qualify coaches for their organizations.

ASEP is a division of Human Kinetics, Inc., based in Champaign, Illinois, and founded by Martens in 1974. Human Kinetics is an international publisher of sport, physical activity, and health resources with more than 300 employees and subsidiaries in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. Over the years, Human Kinetics and AFCA have collaborated on dozens of football texts, through which the schemes, strategies, drills, alignments, plays, tactics, and coaching philosophies embraced by many of the game’s greatest minds have been shared.