Across the sporting landscape, there has recently been increased interest in how best to facilitate Coach Developer (CD) learning. The framework of Landscapes of Practice (LoP) encourages us to consider how CD learning can be better understood through consideration of individual negotiated identity as a process of engagement, imagination and…

Despite scholarly interest in formal coach education, there is a paucity of research with professional coach educators (tutors). To date, and despite their crucial role in certifying and developing coaches, their perspectives have lacked consideration and/or have been limited to empirical enquiry in a specific team sport. Therefore, the aim of…

Recent studies have provided important initial insights into the relational and micropolitical dimensions of coach educators' and coach developers' work. However, there remains a paucity of inquiry addressing how sporting organisations prepare these members of their workforce to achieve desired goals and objectives. This research uses realist…

The epistemological underpinning of Adventure Sports Coaches' (ASCs) coaching and leadership practice is a growing area of research. The epistemological stance that links to caving instructors, winter mountaineering instructors and rock-climbing instructors practice however has not been considered. Consequently, this paper sought to explore the…

There is a clear need to design more effective professional learning environments, particularly in sport coaching as a developing educational profession. The purpose of this study was to investigate the interplay between theory-informed pedagogic design, the role of the coach developer, and sport coaches' perceived learning in a Higher Education…

This paper investigates beginning BSc Physical Education (PE) students' views and experiences of the outsourcing of PE in the UK. Outsourcing involves the provision of PE by external providers such as sports coaches. PE in the UK (and other neoliberal Western contexts) is a site in which outsourcing has become increasingly normalised. I…

Coach development programs (CDPs) are important, but significantly under-researched and poorly understood, elements in the preparation of sport coaches. This paper draws on the author's experience of carrying out five program evaluations of CDPs in the United Kingdom. Each program evaluation was based on an evaluation model that focused on…

A plethora of work has identified forms and sources of gender inequality in sport coaching. Quantitative studies with psychological framings dominate the literature. However, a smaller and more recent body of qualitative work has identified structural gender hierarchies as the root of inequalities, specifically the prevalence of hegemonic…

The overrepresentation of independently educated athletes amongst Team GB at the London 2012 Olympics was described as 'One of the worst statistics in British sport'. Whilst the ensuing debate referred to independent schools "en masse," the sector is far from homogenous. Within the UK independent (private) sector, a small subset of…

Coach educators' voices rarely feature in the coaching literature. To address this gap, this research explored the journeys and perceptions and understandings of learning of 16 coach educators (tutors) in the United Kingdom (UK). As such, the research enabled the voices of these coach educators to be heard and their socialisation processes to be…

There is increasing interest in the role sports coaches are expected to play in supporting the mental health of elite and sub-elite athletes. This paper presents the first single-sport, mixed-methods, study of UK athletics coaches' mental health literacy (MHL). We extend previous quantitative survey-based UK studies by incorporating the…

Sport coaching researchers have stressed the need for reflection in practitioners whilst the increased growth and impact of online applications has offered new ways to pursue this important goal. Recently, Stoszkowski, Hodgkinson and Collins (2021) showed that Flipgrid, an online communication tool that enables short video-based interactions, was…

The role of the Adventure Sports Coach (ASC) has recently become the focus of academic interest. Although research emerging from the field is beginning to diversify, the majority is limited in terms of sampling and methodology. The current study broadened the participant base by providing a demographic analysis of ASCs. An online survey of 504…

Whilst the issue of how to best educate sports coaches in the UK persists there is, however, a consensus that the use of informal learning helps foster deeper engagement with the process of reflection. This consensus outlines how the cycles of experience, consideration of practice, and subsequent future action can challenge existing coach…

Background: Coaching researchers have stressed the need for critical reflection in practitioners, as an important tool to facilitate development. In parallel, however, coaches' preference for more informal development methods are well documented. The increased impact of social media and other online applications offers new ways to pursue these…