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Developing impactful and applied coaching qualifications with the Premier League - Research and Knowledge Exchange Awards 2024
As part of our Research and Knowledge Exchange Awards 2024, we are proud to share a series of blog posts celebrating our award nominees. In this post, Dr Liam McCarthy, Senior Lecturer in Sport Coaching in the Carnegie School of Sport, shares his impactful work collaborating with the Premier League which has led to his nomination in two categories – Building Partnerships and Networks, and Teaching Impact - and winning the runner-up prize in the Building Partnerships and Networks Award.
Liam’s research interests centre around coach development practice, programmes, and policy. He works globally with a range of sport organisations to think about, co-create, and deliver learning opportunities for coaches and those who support coaches. His research reflects this – and he has recently published the new Routledge book: Sport Coach Education, Development, and Assessment: International Perspectives. He is an alumnus of the International Council for Coaching Excellence (ICCE) Coach Developer Academy (Tokyo, Japan).
Liam has recently instigated – and is leading - partnerships with the United States Soccer Federation (US Soccer) and the United States Tennis Association (USTA) in two multi-year agreements with the goal of developing best-in-class support for community and performance coaches and coach developers.
We spoke to Liam to share and celebrate his established work with the Premier League – which he began in 2021.
Dr Liam McCarthy
Hi Liam, can you describe the work that is central to this partnership?
I have really appreciated the opportunity to collaborate with the Premier League to co-create, deliver, and iteratively develop the DipHE in Professional Football Coaching, a two-year work-based learning opportunity for English academy football coaches driven by a bespoke and responsive project-led approach to professional development. You can read more about it in International Sport Coaching Journal.
What inspires your work, and what has been the most rewarding aspect of it?
The project-led approach to professional development is a product of my research; it is rewarding to see how this is working in practice and the way in which it is empowering so many coaches to pursue the issues that they find most interesting and important in their unique context.
How do you feel your work has contributed to raising industry standards?
As the programme continues to invite coaches to engage in more meaningful and authentic development activities, there is impact not just on the individual coach, but also the youth football players that they work with, the clubs in which they work, and the broader professional football community. This represents a positive story of an alternate reality for how we support coaches and is an exemplar for other sports, in other countries.
What future projects or initiatives are you excited about that build on this work?
Through this programme, each coach has the opportunity to attend to four practical problems through applied projects. Colleagues and I are currently investigating the trends and patterns in the problems that coaches are choosing to explore, with a view to better understanding their cares and concerns. This valuable insight will help others to support coaches in a way that more faithfully reflects the realities of their role.
You can find out more about Liam's work on his website.
Sport Coach Education, Development, and Assessment: International Perspectives, Edited by Dr Liam McCarthy
Dr Liam McCarthy
Dr Liam McCarthy is a Reader in Sport Coaching at the Carnegie School of Sport. Collaborating with national and international sport organisations, Liam's work is primarily concerned with promoting quality coaching and coach support, in order to enhance athlete experiences and outcomes.
