David A. Feigley, Ph.D
Associate Professor/Department Chair
Loree Gymnasium, Room 107
70 Lipman Drive
Douglass Campus
732-932-9525
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Dr. Feigley came to Rutgers in 1977 as a Sport Psychologist whose professional coaching and academic research expertise includes assisting athletes with techniques for coping with fear in high risk sports such as gymnastics and tower diving. His expertise also includes combating psychological burnout and he is considered a national leader in coaching education. His Ph.D. is in Psychobiology from the Graduate School of Rutgers University.

Dr. Feigley is the founder and former director of the Youth Sports Research Council which, since 1988 has trained more than 160,000 volunteer youth sports coaches in its SAFETY training course.

He was an author of the legislation which provided significant civil immunity protection for volunteer coaches who take such safety training. The Sports Council’s primary mission under the leadership of Dr. Feigley is to provide adults who work with young athletes with information on child development within the context of organized youth sports.

Dr. Feigley was a key member of the National Task Force of National Association for Sport and Physical Education which established standards for coaching education programs, an event which has lead to development of the National Accreditation Council for Coaching Education.  He has coached elite athletes in two different sports - gymnastics and springboard/platform diving. He was the owner/director of Feigley’s School of Gymnastics for 35 years, and during his active coaching careers, his women’s gymnastics teams were nationally ranked 7 of 12 years that he coached. He was the springboard diving coach at Rutgers from 1971 to 1973.

Dr. Feigley became chair of the Department of Exercise Science & Sport Studies in 1995.

Currently, he teaches courses in Sport Psychology, Sport Sociology and Statistical & Research

Design for Exercise Science. He was named College/University Teacher of the Year by the Eastern District Association of the American Alliance of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance. He was awarded the prestigious Presidential Award for Distinguished Public Service by Rutgers University President Francis Lawrence.

He has presented papers nationally and internationally including keynote addresses at the International Society of Sports Psychology Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1985 and the Pan American Congress in Physical Education in 1997 in Quito, Equador. He is an extremely active presenter in the field of applied sport psychology, especially related to elite gymnastics and youth sports.

Courses  taught:

01:377:275. Basic Statistics in Exercise Science

01:377:413. Statistics & Research Design in Exercise Science