Sports Coaching Research

Despite the rapid advance of the academic study of coaching science, there is a dearth of evidence on contemporary progressions within the coaching profession itself, particularly around the wide-ranging challenges that coaches face. Professional Advances in Sports Coaching constitutes an essential collection of the most innovative, up-to-date reviews and research on professional issues in sports coaching and coaching psychology. Seeking to assess and challenge contemporary conceptual and theoretical research around the evolving nature of the coach’s role, issues associated with athlete and coach welfare, and societal demands of the coach, the book covers topics as diverse as: gender and spirituality within sports coaching; working in culturally diverse environments and disability sport; understanding hazing, mental health issues, and disordered eating in athletes; moral behaviour and safeguarding; high performance coaching and talent development; communicating with athletes in the age of social media, and managing cliques. Written by leading experts from around the world, every chapter clarifies and defines key concepts, gives an up-to-date and comprehensive review of literature within the area, and examines the implications for future research and applied practice. This is a critical resource for any upper-level student enrolled in sports coaching science or practice classes, sports coaching academics with an interest in professional practice, and practicing sports coaches.

This is the first book to offer a comprehensive review of current research in the psychology of sports coaching. It provides detailed, critical appraisals of the key psychological concepts behind the practice of sports coaching and engages with contemporary debates in this field. Organised around three main themes, it discusses factors affecting the coaching environment; methods for enhancing coach performance; and how to put theory into practice through coaching work. Written by an international team of researchers and practitioners at the cutting edge of psychology and coaching, each chapter introduces a key concept, defines key terms, provides a comprehensive literature review, and considers implications for future research and applied practice. Encompassing the latest developments in the field, it addresses topics such as: the theory behind effective coaching creating performance environments promoting psychological well-being developing resilience through coaching transformational leadership and the role of the coach. The Psychology of Sports Coaching: Research and Practice is an indispensable resource for sport psychologists and sports coaches, and is essential reading for all students and academics researching sport psychology.

Research Methods in Sports Coaching is a key resource for any student, researcher or practitioner wishing to undertake research into sports coaching. It takes the reader through each phase of the research process, from identifying valuable research questions, to data collection and analyses, to the presentation and dissemination of research findings. It is the only book to focus on the particular challenges and techniques of sports coaching research, with each chapter including examples, cases and scenarios from the real world of sports coaching. The book introduces and explores important philosophical, theoretical and practical considerations in conducting coaching research, including contextual discussions about why it’s important to do sports coaching research, how to judge the quality of coaching research, and how sports coaching research might meet the needs of coaching practitioners. Written by a team of leading international scholars and researchers from the UK, US, Canada and Australia, and bridging the gap between theory and practice, this book is an essential course text for any research methods course taken as part of a degree programme in sports coaching or coach education.

Research shapes our understanding of practice in powerful and important ways, in sports coaching as in any other discipline. This innovative study explores the philosophical foundations of sport coaching research, examining the often implicit links between research process and practice, descriptions and prescriptions. Arguing that the assumptions of traditional single-disciplinary accounts, such as those based in psychology or sociology, risk over-simplifying our understanding of coaching, this book presents an alternative framework for sports coaching research based on critical realism. The result is an embedded, relational and emergent conception of coaching practice that opens new ways of thinking about coaching knowledge. Drawing on new empirical case study research, it demonstrates vividly how a critical realist-informed approach can provide a more realistic and accountable knowledge to coaching stakeholders. This knowledge promises to have important implications for coaching, and coach education and development practices. Sport Coaching Research and Practice: Ontology, Interdisciplinarity and Critical Realism is fascinating reading for any student or researcher working in sports coaching, sport pedagogy, physical education, the philosophy or sociology of sport, or research methodology in sport and exercise.

Research Methods in Sports Coaching is a key resource for any student, researcher or practitioner wishing to undertake research into sports coaching. It takes the reader through each phase of the research process, from identifying valuable research questions, to data collection and analyses, to the presentation and dissemination of research findings. It is the only book to focus on the particular challenges and techniques of sports coaching research, with each chapter including examples, cases and scenarios from the real world of sports coaching. The book introduces and explores important philosophical, theoretical and practical considerations in conducting coaching research, including contextual discussions about why it’s important to do sports coaching research, how to judge the quality of coaching research, and how sports coaching research might meet the needs of coaching practitioners. Written by a team of leading international scholars and researchers from the UK, US, Canada and Australia, and bridging the gap between theory and practice, this book is an essential course text for any research methods course taken as part of a degree programme in sports coaching or coach education.

Women in many Westernized countries encounter a wider variety of career opportunities than afforded in previous decades, and the percentage of women leaders in nearly every sector is on the rise. Sport coaching, however, remains a domain where gender equity has declined or stalled, despite increasing female sport participation. The percentage of women who coach women are in the minority in most sports, and there is a near absence of women coaching men. This important new book examines why. Drawing on original multi-disciplinary research from across the globe, including first-hand accounts from practicing coaches, the book illuminates and examines the status of women in coaching, explores the complex issues they face in pursuing their careers, and suggests solutions for eliminating the barriers that impede women in coaching. Developing an innovative model of intersectionality and power constructs through which to guide research, the book covers issues including sexual identity, race, motherhood, cross-gender coaching and media coverage to give voice to women coaches from around the world. As such, Women in Sports Coaching is essential reading for serious students and scholars of sports coaching, sport sociology or anyone with an interest in gender and sport.

This volume of abstracts provides an insight into the contested nature of sports coaching. Detailed, yet concise, this compilation of work recognises the importance of context and the socio-historical learning environments that coaches operate within. The text draws upon the work of a range of scholars varying from doctoral students, to leading international scholars, to provide a critical 'snapshot' of the current literature in sport coaching pedagogy. In doing so, this book outlines the challenges and potential developments of sports coaching as a discipline. The gathering of such work provides an insight to a variety of research projects, proposals and findings, varying from professional football and rugby union academies to community coaching and martial arts. This is the first book to present such an array of research projects in this format and, as such, is essential reading for any serious students of sports coaching, sport pedagogy, and for practitioners looking to engage in the study of sports coaching.

This is the first book to offer a comprehensive review of current research in the psychology of sports coaching. It provides detailed, critical appraisals of the key psychological concepts behind the practice of sports coaching and engages with contemporary debates in this field. Organised around three main themes, it discusses factors affecting the coaching environment; methods for enhancing coach performance; and how to put theory into practice through coaching work. Written by an international team of researchers and practitioners at the cutting edge of psychology and coaching, each chapter introduces a key concept, defines key terms, provides a comprehensive literature review, and considers implications for future research and applied practice. Encompassing the latest developments in the field, it addresses topics such as: the theory behind effective coaching creating performance environments promoting psychological well-being developing resilience through coaching transformational leadership and the role of the coach. The Psychology of Sports Coaching: Research and Practice is an indispensable resource for sport psychologists and sports coaches, and is essential reading for all students and academics researching sport psychology.