Abstract
This ethnographic case study examines the long-term impact of youth sport coaching within tennis, using observations, field notes, and interviews as data sources. We highlight the complexities that youth sport coaches face in their role in developing young players within, in this example, tennis, but suggest that these issues are transferable across the youth sport context. There are some key messages for youth sport coaches and sporting organisations arising from this study, particularly around the role of a youth sport coach. We advocate an expertise approach to developing youth sport coaches due to the many roles, within their sport and from a biopsychosocial perspective, that they have to navigate. Additionally, we suggest that simplistic narratives in youth sport coaching are misplaced.
Highlights
Over the previous 15 years, numerous conceptual models of youth sport coaching have been suggested by researchers (Eime et al, 2013; Holt et al, 2017; Jones et al, 2017)
The results derived from this longitudinal ethnographic fieldwork demonstrated the importance of the role of the coach within the talent development (TD) process in youth tennis participation
Each theme is exemplified by two vignettes that were developed from field notes, observations and interactions, as suggested by Jarzabkowski and Kaplan (2014) and Michaud (2014) as a method of illuminating a particular event in ethnographic research
Summary
Over the previous 15 years, numerous conceptual models of youth sport coaching have been suggested by researchers (Eime et al, 2013; Holt et al, 2017; Jones et al, 2017) These models have proposed a range of different aims for youth sport, such as the development of “competent, confident, connected, compassionate, character-rich members of society” For the coach aiming to maximise the experience of their participants, many of these recommendations, such as the overall classification of environments as being positive or negative (e.g., Petitpas et al, 2005), seem to stand in contrast with literature in the broader domain which has placed significant emphasis on the “shades of grey” involved in the coaching process (Jones et al, 2013; Collins et al, 2015). Much of the coaching literature has long been criticised for being out of touch with the reality of practice, lacking recognition of the nuanced contextual challenges inherent in the coaching process (Cushion et al, 2006)
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