The Education of Sport Coaches: What Should They Learn and When Should They Learn It?

Abstract

Around the world, there is a growing movement to improve sport coaching education. In recent years, the International Council for Coaching Excellence (ICCE) has begun to address questions related to the education, training and development of sport coaches through the publication of the International Sport Coaching Framework (ISCF) and the Sport Coaching Bachelor Degree Standards (SCBDS). In the United States, because sport coaches can undertake a wide variety of coaching-related educational opportunities, the United States Olympic Committee has taken steps to address the disparity in training through the publishing of the Quality Coaching Framework (QCF). All of these documents provide valuable information about the best principles for educating and training sport coaches. While principles, standards and theories provide valuable overarching information about how to organize education, specific information about what topics should actually be taught in education programs is still lacking. In this manuscript, utilizing principles of participation versus performance sport and professional knowledge, intra- and interpersonal skills, information about what and when to teach important sport coaching topics is proposed.

Coaches’ acquisition of sport science knowledge and the role of education providers

“…These findings corroborate the findings of Hedlund et al(2018) who cite Nelson et al (2006) in suggesting that many coaches possess limited sport science knowledge, but that key professional knowledge areas such as age-related changes (i.e., maturation and growth, physical and psychological development) and physical literacy should be introduced to entry-level courses specialising in participative sport coaching, whilst topics such as conditioning, periodisation, nutrition and anatomy should be prevalent in performance sport coaching. The ICCE standards (ICCE, 2016) further reinforce the potential impact of degree-level sport coaching education on the expertise and professional development of sports coaches, though it is unclear whether a distinction is made between participation and performance in these standards.…”

“…The expert coaches in this study identified NGB coach training as a source of sport science knowledge, whilst also sharing their frustrations at the dearth of knowledge, particularly in the 'ologies' (Abraham et al, 2006), contained within this format of coach learning. Findings therefore reinforced previously documented research that recognise the value of formal means of education to develop and maintain knowledge despite reservations pertaining to the quality of both content and approach (e.g., Erickson et al, 2008;Piggott, 2012;Stoszkowski & Collins, 2016;Hedlund et al, 2018;Stodter & Cushion, 2019b). These finding are also in common with other research that has highlighted coaches' concerns with formal training not meeting their individualised knowledge needs (Nash & Sproule, 2009;Piggott, 2012;Fullagar et al, 2019), as well as the research specifically examining sources of sport science knowledge in British, Portuguese and Turkish sport coaches (e.g., Nelson et al, 2006;Mesquita et al, 2010;Martindale & Nash, 2013;Kilic & Ince, 2015) as well as the work of Williams (2005;Williams & Kendall, 2007a).…”

The Organisation of Formal Education of Fencing Coaches in Hungary, Great Britain and the Czech Republic

“…These documents provide valuable information on the principles of the development of systems of coach education. Specific information on what, how and when to teach is stated in a study by Hedlund, Fletcher, Pack and Dahlin (2018).…”

Evaluating the impact of a coach development intervention for improving coaching practices and player outcomes in netball: The MASTER coaching randomized control trial

“…Although some coaches coach players whose purpose is to participate in sports (participation coach) and other coaches coach players whose intention is to compete or perform in sports at a high level (performance coach),12 player learning, development and success, and player retention are identified as important targets for assessing the quality of the sport coaching program at all levels 13–15. Furthermore, the holistic development of the player, including levels of enjoyment, wellbeing, confidence and motivation are also key outcomes shown to be influenced by sport coaching practices 7.…”

“…Coaching practices shown to have a positive influence on player outcomes are broad, however, Hedland et al. (2018) promote that professional, interpersonal and intrapersonal knowledge provides the foundation for effective planning, implementation and evaluation of sports programs 12. Sports coaching practices that maximise player participation16 and enjoyment,17 engage players in game-based learning activities,18,19 use a strengths-based approach,20,21 and involve players in meaningful and complex problem solving, discussion, feedback and reflection22 have shown to be effective 23…”