Successful Coaching

Rainer Martens, PhD, has coached at the youth, high school, and collegiate levels and has studied sport as a research scientist. The founder and president of Human Kinetics, he also started the American Sport Education Program, a leading coaching education program for many years. Recognized as a pioneer in the development of sport psychology, Rainer is the author of more than 80 scholarly articles and 18 books. He has been a featured speaker at over 100 conferences around the world and has conducted more than 150 workshops and clinics for coaches and athletes at all levels.

After receiving his PhD in physical education from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana in 1968, Martens was a member of its faculty for 16 years. A past president of the National Academy of Kinesiology, he has been recognized for his contribution to sport by the National Recreation and Park Association and by his induction into the National Association for Sport and Physical Education Hall of Fame. He has received Distinguished Alumni awards from Hutchinson High School, Emporia State University in Kansas (where he earned a bachelor’s degree), the University of Montana (where he earned a master’s degree), and the University of Illinois.

Rainer played slowpitch softball for 45 years and coached the most successful senior slowpitch team in the United States, the Florida Legends. In 2009, he was inducted into the National Senior Softball Hall of Fame.

Rainer began playing pickleball in 2016 after retiring from slowpitch softball. He has won several national championships and, along with Julie, his wife of 30 years, has built Pictona, a 49-court pickleball facility in Holly Hill, Florida, which is widely acclaimed as the best pickleball facility in the country. As part of their philanthropic efforts, Rainer and Julie donated the facility to the City of Holly Hill. They also helped launch a community center next to Human Kinetics in Champaign, Illinois, which carries their name: the Martens Center.

Rainer is an avid wildlife and landscape photographer, traveling the world in pursuit of the unusual and exotic. Rainer and Julie live in Ormond Beach, Florida.

Robin S. Vealey, PhD, is a professor in the department of sport leadership and management at Miami University in Ohio, where she has worked for more than 30 years. She has dedicated nearly her entire adult life to youth sports, whether as a coach, administrator, educator, researcher, or consultant. She is internationally known for her research on the psychological aspects of youth sport and coaching effectiveness. Vealey, who has authored three books, has won several professional awards throughout her academic career, including being named a fellow by the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP) and the National Academy of Kinesiology. She previously was president of AASP, is a certified consultant in sport psychology as recognized by AASP, and is on the U.S. Olympic Committee Sport Psychology Registry. In addition to serving on numerous journal editorial review boards, Vealey is a past editor of The Sport Psychologist.

In 2011, Vealey was named to the Marshall University Athletic Hall of Fame after a stellar playing career in women’s basketball. Vealey went on to serve as a collegiate volleyball and women’s basketball coach and an athletics administrator. She currently enjoys playing golf and continues to remain active in various sports as a sport psychology consultant for youth athletes and teams.