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Research that has improved coach development systems and education provision internationally, and coaches’ practice in the UK.
Policy and programmes in sport coach education and development have been criticised for the absence of a coherent and consensual organising framework and a practice-based set of tools with which to support the development of sport coaches. This impacts on policymakers’ and practitioners’ ability to perform their work effectively as a result of inconsistent messages from coaching theorists, a lack of attention to important practical issues and problems with the relevance of the research agenda. The consequence has been a limited impact on the practice of education and development facilitators, and coaching practice itself.
RCfSC research has established the necessary underlying frameworks and researchers have gone on to apply these tools in a variety of settings, making a substantial impact on the policy and practice of coach education and development. The research underpinning this case study has been driven by a collaborative team of sport coaching academics, policy and programme developers, coach developers / educators and coaches.
The Approach
Our research has conceptually explored and empirically validated sport coaching as a goal-orientated, reasoning and decision-making activity, enacted through strategies, based on individual and other resources, embedded within and developed through complex social ecologies, using critical realist and cognitive meta-theoretical perspectives. This view of coaching has led to further conceptual research that views coach development and education as an exercise in enhancing individual and social resource to improve reasoning, decision-making and strategies – a view that has been empirically validated.
Our work has shown how coaching experiences (often the principle source of coach learning) can be augmented and critically challenged by research models and tools. This has led to the development of two main modes of coach development and education delivery:
Our research has shown the benefit of supporting coach development and education through a number of specific tools:
Our research has evaluated the impact of these frameworks and tools on coach development and education by utilising and applying innovative research philosophies and evaluation methodologies. In particular, we have uniquely drawn on a critical realist philosophy of science / social science and realist evaluation methodology, and tailored it to a sport coaching context [3, 4]. These adapted philosophies and methodologies have been piloted and tested in a number of sports and settings.
Our overall approach to research and evaluation emphasises how different layers of the sport coaching ecology (macro-social, institutional, group, individual and sub-individual) impact on coaching system, development and education activities – providing an embedded interdisciplinary systems view. Our philosophical / methodological ideas have also embraced the contingency and fallibility of the knowledge developed – which provides clear ideas about what knowledge is and how it can be used to inform development and education activities.
The Impact
Our research has transformed international thinking, policy and practice in the following areas:
LBU has a strong partnership with the International Council for Coaching Excellence (ICCE) and the European Coaching Council (ECC), which include representatives from the main international coaching stakeholders. After an open bidding process, the ICCE’s and ECC’s head offices were located at LBU. LBU staff (Abraham, Lara-Bercial, North and Petrovic amongst others) are centrally involved in the development of ICCE frameworks and resources. ICCE and ECC staff have drawn explicitly on LBU research to author / co-author the ICCE’s International Sport Coaching Framework, the International Quality in Coaching Model, the International Coach Developer Framework and the Standards for Higher Education Sport Coaching Bachelor Degrees.
LBU research has underpinned coach development and education programmes to sport coaching professionals in the UK. The English Football Association has made LBU’s ‘who, what, how’ development and education tool central to its coach education approach. The FA have commissioned LBU to develop and deliver a postgraduate diploma for 47 of their youth coach educators (plus others) over a three-year period. The youth coach educators’ work has impacted on the practices of coaches in professional club academies, and ultimately player experience across England.
Our research has provided good practice benchmarks, and evaluation and review methodologies that have made recommendations for, and had impact on, coach development and education activities across world- and European-level sporting organisations. For example, LBU conducted research for UEFA on its European-wide coach education framework, the Coaching Convention, which impacts 54 national country systems and on 1,000s of football coaches across Europe. This work has resulted in UEFA reviewing its provision for coach development activities, the further education of coaches and for coach educators.
Andrew is Head of Subject for Sport Coaching and Physical Education at Leeds Beckett University, where he leads a team of over 25 academic staff and oversees over 550 students. With more than 25 years in higher education, Andrew is a recognised leader in sport coaching, professional development, and academic governance. His research and practice focus on professional judgement and decision-making, coach development, and adult learning.
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