Coach development continues to be positioned as a 'problem to be solved' for national governing bodies (NGBs) with policy makers persisting in their quest to find an effective solution to bring about sustained change. Here, we suggest that coach development should instead consider a strength-based approach to change in an effort to build on…

A growing body of research has investigated the virtues and complexities of mentoring in sports coaching. Yet, a paucity of research exists to consider 'how' both mentors and mentees come to understand their respective role(s). Attempting to redress this gap in research, the aim of this project was to examine the developmental experiences of…

This paper explores how an enskilment approach could be harnessed to guide coach education in Australian football (soccer). To do so, we first overview current coach education practices in Australian football, looking specifically into the foundation of Football Australia's coach education model, rooted in a transmissive metaphor. Then, drawing on…

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…

Life skills refer to a person's ability to do life well through the successful completion of everyday tasks and a meaningful engagement at school, at work, at home and in the community. However, several scholars have critiqued existing approaches to life skills teaching in sport, often situated as individualistic and focused on economic…

The contexts in which young people participate in sport are diverse. In Scandinavia, as in many other countries, child and youth sport is mainly organised in non-profit, membership-based and voluntary driven sports clubs. In Sweden, this model is now challenged by commercial businesses providing child and youth sport services. The overall aim of…

Since a critical turn was embarked on two decades ago, research into sports coaching has increased in quality and quantity [see Jones, R. L. (2019). "Studies in sports coaching." Cambridge Scholars Publishing]. Despite such welcome advances, the essence or heart of the activity remains contested terrain [Abraham, A., & Collins, D.…

The purpose of this insight article is to explore the relevance and value of some of Bruce Lee's ideas that influenced his coaching philosophy, (re)viewed through the lens of contemporary discussions in movement skill acquisition. To achieve this aim, we highlight empirical and anecdotal examples of many of the important concepts that support…

There has been a growing trend of elite athletes being fast-tracked into post-athletic high-performance coaching roles in association football and rugby union in England and Wales. This has been facilitated by an increase in bespoke and condensed formal coach education courses that are designed to accelerate current and/or former elite athletes in…

In the 2016 International Olympic Committee Consensus Statement on harassment and abuse, it was outlined that psychological abuse in sport research has been heavily focused on the coach--athlete relationship resulting in a lack of research on other members of the athletes' support system such as their 'entourage.' Researchers of abuse have further…

Problem-based learning along with other game and player-centred approaches have been promoted as valuable alternatives to more traditional, skill-based, directive, and leader-centric pedagogical approaches. However, as research has shown, they are not unproblematic or straightforward to apply. Heeding to calls for more empirical studies of…

Psychosocial coaching competencies, including psychological, pedagogical, philosophical, and sociocultural aspects, which underpin an athlete-centred coaching approach, have been largely overlooked by the United Kingdom Strength and Conditioning Association (UKSCA) coach education. It is possible to understand why psychosocial competencies have…

Formalized mentoring programmes have been implemented increasingly by UK sporting institutions as a central coach development tool, yet claims supporting formal mentoring as an effective learning strategy are often speculative, scarce, ill-defined and accepted without verification. The aim of this study, therefore, was to explore some of the…

The general purpose of this article is threefold. Firstly, it is to further the notion of coaching as orchestration through developing insight into precisely how and what coaches orchestrate. Secondly, it is to firmly position coaching as a relational practice, whilst thirdly it is to better define coaching's complex nature and how it can be…

The analysis of sport performance in competitive contexts has become synonymous with the use of a range of software applications and hardware e.g. heart rate monitors and gps systems. With the prevalence of technology in mind, a small but growing corpus of literature has begun to consider this phenomenon and its influence upon the coaching…