A study on in-match rugby coaches' communications with players: a holistic approach

Abstract

Background: While there is significant interest in coach behaviour during training sessions and recognition of what it could add to existing knowledge on coaching, in-game coach behaviour has received little attention.Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify coaches' in-competition communications with rugby players, through a series of case studies that provided an in-depth understanding of their activity.Participants and setting: This study focussed on two coaches from each of three French national rugby teams (under 21, Women, Amateurs), giving a total of six coaches, during one official match each.Data collection: We used a multi-method approach employing: (1) pre-match semi-structured interviews for exploring coaches' conceptions, (2) recording of in-game coaches' communications, (3) game analysis using video and ‘scenario of the match’ clips and episodes, and (4) explicitation interviews conducted after the match exploring coaches' subjective experience.Data analysis: A specific tool (Communications des Entraîneurs de Rugby En Match) for analysing coaches' communications was created. Data triangulation enhanced the reporting of the ‘public’ and ‘private’ facets of the coaches' instructional processes.Findings: Common tendencies revealed coaching routines (i.e. number and moment of interventions, modes of communications, evaluative feedback, instructions, content and intentions) and some differences that are context and/or personal profile dependant. Moreover, the triangulation process provided us access to the coaches' personal logic and their ability to adapt to particular in-match events.Conclusions: A conceptual framework aiming to study the coaches’ activity in their naturalistic context (i.e. general context and local context) is proposed, as well as a methodology for a holistic approach of in-match coaching. This has important implications in the development of coaching effectiveness within analysis of practice and formal coach education programmes.