The JourneyIsthe Destination: Reconsidering the Expert Sports Coach

Why ‘the best way of learning to coach the game is playing the game’: conceptualising ‘fast-tracked’ high-performance coaching pathways

“…Replacing the view of knowledge being uniformly disseminated in a singular, linear and regulated manner to coaches in a "top-down approach" (Côté, 2006, p. 220), knowledge acquisition has become conceptualised as more nuanced and dynamic (Cushion et al, 2003;Turner, Nelson & Potrac, 2012). Notably, neo-Foucauldian and Bourdieusian studies have shed light on the contested effects culture has on coaches and their coaching practice (Christensen, 2009;Cushion & Jones, 2006, 2014Light & Evans, 2013;Piggott, 2012;Taylor & Garrett, 2010).…”

Coaching self-defense under COVID-19: challenges and solutions in the police and civilian domain

“…In this article, we argue that we should not leave it at the defensive reflex, but rather see the crisis as a potential for the adaptation of professional coaching practice and thus make it the starting point for our own development opportunities. As such, the COVID-19 pandemic provides an opportunity to redevelop coaching expertise (Turner et al 2012;Staller and Körner 2020b) and by this developing, the ability enabling them to decisively respond to new expertise demands that arise as a result of changes in their expertise territories: "flexpertise" (Frie et al 2018). This is preceded by the willingness to do exactly what police and civilian self-defense coaches expect of their learners to do on a regular basis: overcoming the shock of an unexpected situation and becoming adaptive, creative problem-solvers.…”

The Issue of Unconscious Bias in Referee Decisions in the National Rugby League

“…It will be a challenge for sporting bodies to reconcile educational processes with how referees subconsciously overweight some aspects of information to the neglect of others. We would further argue that a re-conceptualization of the expert sport referee (i.e., consistent performer who displays minimal mistakes in judgment) requires a potential paradigmatic shift from the expert referee as product, to the evolution of referee expertise as always becoming, continually learning, a never-ending journey of ongoing professional discovery (Turner et al, 2012 ; O'Brien and Rynne, 2020 ). Organizations that continue to be preoccupied with problems and deficit run the risk of missing data related to how learned stereotypes that are automatic, unintentional, and deeply ingrained influence the way in which sport referees react and behave in the presence of crowds and crowd noise.…”