Coaching player decision making in rugby union: exploring coaches espoused theories and theories in use as an indicator of effective coaching practice

Abstract

ABSTRACT Introduction: Researchers exploring how coaches can best support the development of their players decision making within team invasion sports have often been conducted from a cognitive or ecological approach, which differ in their views regarding the presence and absence of memory representations. This difference has, in turn, resulted in practical implications that are theoretically different, but not pedagogically different. Research has categorised such approaches to coaching decision making into intentional decision making training or incidental decision making training that offer different suggestions for how coaching methods may be used within their practice. Sometimes, these categories of training have been offered as the way coaches should operate over the careful selection of coaching methods given their intentions for impact. Instead, within this study we aim to explore the pragmatic nature of coaching practice, rather than adherence only to theoretical principles or beliefs. Materials and Methods: In this study five English Regional Academy Rugby Union Coaches participated in a semi-structured interview, three categorised systematic observations of their coaching practice and a self-confrontation interview to explore; (i) the espoused theories coaches believe they use in practice; (ii) the theories in use within their coaching practice and; (iii) the alignment and misalignment between their espoused theories and theories in use during their coaching practice. Results & Discussion: Our findings demonstrate that coaches employed a balance and blend of intentional and incidental coaching methods concurrently. Coaches proposed the use of non-linear pedagogy and the manipulation of constraints to promote learning activities which captured the representative nature of the competitive decision making environment. Yet also promoted the role and importance of shared mental models, tactical frameworks, off field video analysis and deliberate if–then rules of thumb when supporting the development of their players decision making. Thematic analysis extracted from interview data regarding coaches espoused theories, alongside the coaches theories in use, captured through categorised frequencies of coach behaviours and learning activities through systematic observations, present clear misalignments between proposed coaching methods and those used in practice. Misalignments were apparent for learning activities, where coaches espoused the need for representative practice but used more single-phase and huddle based scenarios, and coach behaviours, where coaches espoused the importance of setting problems for their participants through divergent questioning, yet used more instructional behaviours and convergent questions leading players toward a shared mental model of collective decision making behaviour. From our findings, we offer practical implications to coaches which suggest that when supporting player decision making, coaches should consider using their judgment to select the appropriate evidence-informed coaching method given their wider intentions for impact in the session and the context in which they operate. Furthermore, we offer a suggestion to coaches and researchers where we encourage the exploration of the chain and gap between what coaches they think they do, and what they actually do in practice as a means for critical reflection.