Team Coaches Research Articles

Solution Focused Team Coaching: Second Edition by Kirsten Dierolf, Cristina Mühl, Carlo Perfetto and Rafal Szaniawski

In our post-covid world there is an ever-increasing need to ensure that our group events, particularly if taking place online, are engaging and participative if we are to gain the attention and enthusiasm of our group. The tools and techniques in this book will help us to achieve this, with plenty of ideas and variety that will keep group coaching or group thinking sessions fresh and dynamic.

A CASE STUDY OF THE PHYSIOLOGICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL RESPONSES TO COACHING PROFESSIONAL AUSTRALIAN FOOTBALL

INTRODUCTION & AIMS Coaching professional sport is stressful, yet there is little information detailing the physiological and psychological responses of coaches during match-play. The burden of measurement instruments during competition may preclude their use with coaches during this high-pressure part of the coaching cycle. This exploratory case study examined physiological and psychological alterations when coaching professional Australian football to determine the potential health implications and enhance health literacy in coaches. METHODS One head coach of a professional football team was monitored for heart rate (HR), stress-related hormones (C-Reactive Protein, Cortisol, Troponin, Brain Natriuretic Peptide) and psychological stress prior to, during and following seven matches and descriptive data was examined. RESULTS The HR response indicated sustained elevation during match-play, with the intermittent nature of the game causing an undulating profile. Periods of locomotion during breaks in play led to elevations in HR, with maximum HR recorded as 8% above age-predicted maximum. Further, differences in HR were evident in the final five minutes between small (145 ± 7.0 bpm) and large (113 ± 5.1 bpm) score margins. There were no irregularities for stress hormones, while the psychological questionnaire revealed differences in perceptions of accomplishment, success, recovery and stress related to match outcome. CONCLUSIONS This exploratory case study indicated that substantial elevations in HR are evident while coaching professional football, yielding implications for health management. Coaches require appropriate levels of cardiovascular health to cope with the demands of coaching and targeted health intervention programs may be warranted. Further, differences in psychological outcomes from winning or losing may reflect the need to develop recovery and coping strategies that are contextualised to match results. Since match-play observation elicits alterations to physical and psychological markers, confirmatory research with larger cohorts is warranted to examine and enhance well-being and health management strategies in these elite performers.

A Qualitative Study on E-Sports Players’ Leadership Perceptions Regarding Their Team Coaches

Having emerged following the professionalization of digital gaming, e-sports has created its ecosystem and become a large-scale industry itself. Teams involved in this industry experience a social environment just like in other organizational structures. As e-sports is a relatively newer branch when compared to other sports branches, leadership in e-sports is not a commonly studied topic in the literature. Therefore, the aim of this study is to explore leadership perceptions of e-sports players in a comprehensive way. A team coach is often considered the leader in e-sports. The study was designed according to the principles of phenomenology, which is a qualitative research method. The semi-structured interview form developed by the researchers was used as the data collection instrument. The interviews were conducted with a group of e-sports players who met the predetermined criteria for participation in the study. The data was analyzed by using the content analysis method. First, the codes were determined, and later, the categories, and finally, the themes were identified out of these categories. Accordingly, it was found that leadership in e-sports is perceived under five themes: physical characteristics, personality traits, professional qualifications, technical skills, and management skills. Finally, it can be concluded that leadership in e-sports is quite similar to leadership in other traditional sports in many ways. However, the study showed that it has unique characteristics that need studying within the framework of the digital age and technological advancements.

Teamwork Coaching in the Research Development Process

Proposal teams play a critical, yet understudied, role in team science. This study advances our understanding of teamwork coaching in the research development (RD) process by analyzing proposal support in a U.S. Medical School (2009–2019). We find that teamwork coaching mediates the positive association between team size and awarded outcomes. We also find that teams with proposer team familiarity need less teamwork coaching and that teamwork coaching is particularly valuable for teams with proposers who have both clinical and research responsibilities. We discuss contributions to team science and team coaching literatures as well as implications for training and educating RD coaches.

Team coaching using LSP and team facilitation: a randomized control trial study measuring team cohesion and psychological safety

PurposeTo date, little research has been undertaken to test the effectiveness of team coaching, with past work focusing on models, frameworks and competencies. This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of team coaching within real world organizational teams and its impact on individual perceptions of team cohesion and psychological safety.Design/methodology/approachA randomized control trial (RCT) using the comparable interventions: (1) team coaching (intervention) and (2) team facilitation (control) was employed with multiple teams and multiple facilitators, measuring the impact on team cohesion and psychological safety.FindingsThe data indicate participants engaging in the team coaching intervention made greater gains in terms of their individual perceptions of psychological safety and team cohesion than individuals who received the team facilitation intervention (T1–T2).Practical implicationsFacilitators should apply a team coaching approach when seeking to address issues of cohesion and psychological safety within workplace teams.Originality/valueThis study provides the first evidence, using an RCT method, of the effectiveness of team coaching as a workplace intervention for enhancing individual perceptions of psychological safety and team cohesion.

Did court dismiss coach's retaliation claim?

The head coach of the East Carolina University women's volleyball team reported departmentwide Title IX violations. She also alleged that male coaches were treated more favorably than female coaches.

Recklessness or Simple Negligence

A girls’ field hockey team coach instructed players to warm up in an area adjacent to the school’s turf field, where the boys’ soccer team was practicing. Plaintiff Morgan Dennehy, a member of the field hockey team, was struck at the base of her skull by an errant soccer ball. The plaintiff filed this suit against the coach, the school and others due to the defendants’ alleged failure to supervise and prevent potential and foreseeable dangerous conditions.

Weekly Programming of Hamstring-Related Training Contents in European Professional Soccer.

Hamstring injuries in soccer continue to be a challenge for professionals who work with soccer players daily. Although its origin is multifactorial, the proper management of neuromuscular fatigue during the training microcycle is a very important factor to consider. There are no clear guidelines regarding the weekly distribution of certain exercises that demand the hamstrings. The main objective of this study was to describe the usual training practices of professional European soccer teams. An international observational survey design was applied to some of the strength and conditioning coaches of professional soccer teams. The survey included different neuromuscular demanding exercises for the hamstrings. For each exercise, the strength and conditioning coaches had to respond in relation to their frequency of use and timepoint depending on the day of the weekly microcycle. Although there is no strong consensus in this regard, there does seem to be a trend when applying certain exercises, especially on the days matchday-4 and matchday-3.

Coaching Leadership on Team Culture of Basketball Coaches

This study focuses on the importance of educational leadership in the field of education in the 21st century, especially the key role of coaches in the field of college basketball. As basketball's status in our country increases, the leadership skills of coaches are crucial to the overall development of colleges and universities. The article emphasizes that in addition to professional skills, coaches also need to have strong leadership skills to meet students' psychological needs and promote students' growth. Secondly, the article explores the impact of coaches’ leadership behaviors on students’ potential development and team effectiveness. Excellent coaches not only teach techniques, but also formulate training plans and game strategies based on the characteristics of the team to enhance the competitiveness of the entire team. The coach's leadership behavior can also promote cooperation among team members and form a sense of team identity. Finally, the article emphasizes the close relationship between organizational team culture and coach leadership behavior, and explores the important impact of coach leadership behavior on team organizational culture. Research shows that a coach’s leadership behavior has a key impact on the overall effectiveness of the team, so exploring the relationship between the coach’s leadership behavior and the team’s organizational culture is of great significance for optimizing coaching practices. In summary, this article deeply explores the relationship between coaching leadership behavior and team organizational culture, providing an important reference for further optimizing coaching practice.

Exploring the impact of a coach development programme through the perspectives of Saudi Arabian sport coaches

ABSTRACT Background: National Governing Bodies (NGBs) and National Sporting Organisations (NSOs) invest significant resources into the design and delivery of learning and development opportunities for sport coaches. This has attracted the attention of sport coaching scholars, who are now focussing their efforts on better understanding the principles of effective coach learning and development. This work has led to principles associated with democratic forms of education being drawn upon to inform how coach learning could be thought about. However, this work to date has almost exclusively focussed on learning from educational programmes where the coaches are known to the coach development/research team, the programmes have been delivered face-to-face, and/or cultural considerations and expectations have not been a factor. With an international interest in sport coaching, coach education is now receiving attention beyond the western world, where coaches are not always known to coach developers prior to the start of an educational programme. These issues requiring research attention. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the utility of an online educational programme based on democratic principles to a group of Saudi Arabian coaches working in participation and/or developmental coaching contexts. Methods: An online programme based on democratic education principles (i.e. a focus on dialogue and collaboration) took place over a nine-week period with 13 Saudi Arabian football coaches based in Saudi Arabia. Coaches were recruited through communications about the study being sent to clubs based in Riyadh, with those interested asked to contact the second author. Reflective conversations were used at two-time points; once before the educational programme to learn about the coaches and their coaching, then again afterwards to capture the perceived impact and value of the programme. Observations of seven of the 13 coaches took place prior to the educational programme with these data used alongside the first reflective conversation data to inform the programme design. Data were treated to thematic analysis. Results and discussion: Three themes were generated from the analysis. These were (1) making connections between prior and new pedagogical knowledge, (2) collaborative learning as a means of enhancing coach understanding, and (3) credibility of programme deliverers. Learning about the coaches through the reflective conversations, coach observations, and the initial face-to-face workshops supported the development of content relevant to what coaches wanted and needed to know more about. The ways in which this content was delivered through providing opportunities for coaches to discuss ideas with the education team and other coaches to understand connections between theory and practice seemed an important part of why coaches perceived the content to impact their practice. However, it was the coaches’ perceptions regarding the credibility of the educators that perhaps explained why content was so wilfully accepted as being ‘right’, and thus perceived to have been implemented into practice.

Non-directive team coaching in engineering education to strengthen teamwork competencies

PurposeTeamwork is necessary for engineering to address today’s complex challenges. Therefore, team members must improve their teamwork competencies for more significant team development and effectiveness. This study aimed to analyze how a non-directive coaching intervention model for an entire team influences the individual team members’ teamwork competencies.Design/methodology/approachAction research was used in this study with a quasi-experimental design featuring control and experimental groups comprising final-year engineering students from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. The sample included 168 students, with 132 in the control group and 36 in the experimental group. The experimental group underwent a non-directive team coaching intervention involving three sessions. Competencies were evaluated using the teamwork competency test (TWCT), administered at the course’s beginning and end to measure progress.FindingsThe results show that the individuals who participated in the team coaching significantly increased their competencies, particularly “conflict resolution” and “feedback.”Originality/valueThis study’s value contributes to identifying the positive impacts of non-directive team coaching interventions on individual teamwork competencies, fostering collaborative skills and supporting collective goals.

The influence of coaching behaviors, experience, and training on children's physical activity levels during youth sport practices

The purpose of this study was to examine how coaching behaviors, coaching experience, and coach training relate to physical activity (PA) levels of children during their participation in a youth sport program. Youth soccer teams (N = 27) serving children ages 6–11 years were directly observed during one practice using momentary time-sampling procedures consisting of 30-s intervals (10-s observation, 20-s recording). Team coaches reported prior coaching experience, training, and demographic characteristics. Multilevel logistic regression was conducted to describe associations between coaching behaviors and intensity of children's PA. Interaction terms were added to the models to determine if the associations differed across girls-only, boys-only, and coed teams. ANOVAs were used to describe associations between coaching experience, coach training, and team PA level. Children were more likely to engage in moderate or vigorous PA when coaches were watching without verbal feedback (Odds Ratio [OR], 3.2, 95% CI = 1.70–5.83) or watching with verbal feedback (OR, 2.1, 95% CI = 1.27–3.59), compared to when the coach was disengaged, regardless of team sex composition. The number of prior seasons coached was positively related to team PA levels. These findings can be used to inform coaching strategies for promoting increased PA during youth sport practices.

The impressions of industrial psychologists of their proficiency as coaches

Orientation: Coaching’s expansion is driven by its impact on job performance and wellbeing through positive reinforcement and goal achievement. Working as coaches for individuals, teams, and organisations, industrial psychologists often report feeling inadequately prepared for their coaching roles.Research purpose: The objective of this study was to explore industrial psychologists functioning as coaches, and, their training and development needs related to coaching in the workplace.Motivation for the study: Coaching is driven by its benefits for job performance and wellbeing, highlighting a challenge where many industrial psychologists, frequently acting as coaches, feel unprepared.Research approach, design and method: A qualitative research approach with an interpretivism paradigm was employed in this study. The participants, industrial psychologists and interns (N = 17) were approached using snowball sampling. The data was captured with qualitative surveys and analysed using thematic analysis.Main findings: The results showed that some participants felt confident since they experienced certainty of coaching psychology theories and the role of self-awareness in shaping their coaching methods. Some participants experienced less confidence in their coaching abilities and highlighted the need for supervision from a mentor in sound coaching practices. The participants reported a need for further development in skills such as emotional competence, and theoretical and technological knowledge and practice management.Practical/managerial implications: Coaching interventions by industrial psychologists can enhance employee strengths, boosting organisational returns and promoting a triple-bottom-line.Contribution/value-add: An industrial psychologist committed to coaching development can significantly boost both personal and organisational growth.

Co-creating holistic injury prevention training for youth handball: Development of an intervention targeting end-users at the individual, team, and organizational levels

BackgroundInterventions that are co-created with end-users, and that are informed by behavior change or implementation theories, support implementation in real world settings. However, injury prevention programs for youth athletes have typically been developed by experts with no, or insufficiently described, end-user involvement and without guidance by theories. The aim of the current study was to describe the development of a holistic injury prevention intervention for youth handball targeting end-users at different levels, through using knowledge from end-users and researchers/experts and applying relevant behavior change and implementation theories.MethodsKnowledge from researchers/experts (sports medicine, sport psychology, handball, physical therapy, strength and conditioning (n = 14)) and end-users (coaches, players, club administrators, n = 16), and applying relevant implementation (Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research, CFIR), behavior change (Health Action Process Approach, HAPA) and motivational (Self-Determination Theory, SDT) theories, were used to co-design the intervention. Early end-users (coaches (n = 6), players (n = 3) and a club administrator (n = 1)) were interviewed for initial feedback.ResultsThe intervention consisted of end-user-targeted information and training that was made available in a specifically developed interactive mobile application with modules for players, coaches, club administrators, and caregivers. Information for all end-users included benefits and principles of physical and psychological injury prevention training, load-management, motivation, and communication. Information about implementation was developed for club administrators specifically. For coaches, training to do with their teams included handball-specific injury prevention exercises (legs, shoulders, core) combined with psychological aspects (motivation, task focus, body awareness) to integrate within warm-up and handball skills training. Training for players included handball-specific multi-joint strength, power, and explosive exercises (legs, shoulders, core) and sport psychology exercises (self-awareness, relaxation, being in the present moment, prevent and handle stress). To support self-management, adoption, and motivation, programs were provided, and players and coaches could change, add, progress the difficulty of exercises, and build their own programs. Initial feedback from early end-users was generally positive.ConclusionsUtilizing an approach where researchers/experts and end-users co-created injury prevention training specifically for youth handball, an intervention was generated that included information and holistic training targeting end-users at the individual (players, caregivers), team (coaches), and organizational (club administrators) levels.

Knowledge sharing among coaches: expert power and social cognitive theory perspectives

ABSTRACT Research question Knowledge sharing among coaches plays a crucial role in learning. Although knowledge sharing is a significant management issue for national sport organisations (NSOs) and sport clubs, there is a lack of understanding of how coaches of one organisation share knowledge with coaches of another. To assist such understanding, our study examined knowledge sharing between NSO coaches (i.e. national team coaches) and local coaches (i.e. local club team coaches certified by a national organisation) in Japan by drawing on expert power and social cognitive theory. This study explored the following questions: How does the expert power of NSO coaches affect knowledge sharing among local coaches? How do local coaches’ trust and self-efficacy affect knowledge-sharing? Research methods We administered a survey to local sports coaches in Japan. Data were collected from 295 local coaches and analysed using structural equation modelling. Results and findings Results supported a direct association between expert power and local coaches’ intention to share knowledge. In addition, this relationship was mediated by coaches’ cognition-based trust and knowledge-sharing self-efficacy. Implications Our findings illuminate the knowledge diffusion perspective, which indicates that interactions between NSO and local coaches propagate knowledge among local coaches.

Mindsets of experienced action learning coaches and their impact on the practice of coaching action learning groups

ABSTRACT Team coaching has become more utilized in organizations as they realize the importance of developing highly effective teams. There has been some research done on the skills needed by those who coach teams. However, very little has been done on the mindset needed for effectively coaching teams, and no research on the mindset for coaching action learning teams. This qualitative research is the study of 19 highly experienced master action learning coaches who have been certified by the World Institute for Action Learning (WIAL) and have over 500 h of action learning coaching experiences over a 10-year-plus time period. The Master Action Learning Coaches (MALCs) were asked to (a) confirm if the 5 key mindsets identified by the researcher for coaching action learning teams were valid and (b) provide examples and questions that accrued from incorporating these mindsets in their coaching of action learning teams. The MALCs concurred on the 5 mindsets, and also provided a rich array of examples of how these mindsets affected their coaching. Two additional mindsets were offered as well. Implications for research and as well as the practice of action learning coaching are presented.

Maximal oxygen uptake and cardiovascular adaptation to handball game specific endurance circuit training in handball players

Now a day, the sports team coaches, trainers and other support staffs have a hectic job to deal with the preparation of their team players with consistent, precise and greater effort to meet the demands of the competition in shortest duration. Various training modalities were adopted depending upon the necessity that improves sports performance. Handball team coaches apparently felt that fitness and skill go hand in hand, where sports specific training caters to achieve this goal. Thus, the present study focussed on assessing the adaptations of maximal oxygen uptake and cardiovascular variables to handball game specific endurance circuit training. To accomplish the purpose twenty-four (24) trained university male handball players with a playing experience of more than eight years gave consent to participate. The selected twenty-four players were classified into two groups as Handball Game Specific Endurance Circuit Training Group (HGSECTG = 12) and Control Group (CG = 12). To test the effectiveness of handball game specific endurance circuit training (HGSECT) players performed specifically constructed handball circuit 3 days in a week for 12 weeks at 90-95 % of maximal heart rate for two minutes duration and active recovery by walking. HGSECTG showed significant improvement on maximal oxygen uptake (t = 8,516, p < 0,05) and distance covered in Yo-Yo test also increased (t = 8,4, p < 0,05). Similarly, cardiovascular modifications are noted in maximum heart rate (HRPEAK, t = 2,372, p < 0,05) and resting heart rate (HRREST, t = 3,975, p < 0,05) and percentage of heart rate reserve (%HRRESERVE, t = 3,004, p < 0,05). We conclude that handball game specific endurance training programs could be sufficiently suitable to develop maximal oxygen uptake and positive adaptation of cardiovascular variables in twelve weeks of training among handball players. The intensity, duration, frequency and recovery of the intervention displayed improvement in VO2PEAK with reduced condition on cardiovascular stress

A Foucauldian Autoethnographic Account of a Male Former Soccer Player’s Move to Coaching Female Players: A Call to Problematize the Importation of Gendered Assumptions During a Common Coaching Transition

It has frequently been observed that the disproportionate number of male coaches within women’s soccer is problematic, not least, because it limits the opportunities for the progression of female coaches. Despite this, the transition from “male former player to male coach of female players” is one that remains common, is likely to continue, yet is not widely discussed in the sport/coach transition literature. This is an oversight given the numerous problematic outcomes that are routinely connected to the presence of male coaches in women’s sport. In this confessional, analytical autoethnography, we build upon our existing work regarding coaching women’s soccer that has been informed by Michel Foucault’s conceptual framework. Precisely, we use a collection of creative narrative reflections to discuss the first author’s transition from that of a British semiprofessional soccer player context, to an Assistant Coach of a female soccer team in a North American varsity program. In so doing, we trace and map some of the (problematic) learned gendered assumptions which initially shaped and guided the first author’s coaching assumptions, relationships, approaches, and practices within this context, before unpacking some of the challenges he navigated along the way (with varying degrees of success). We end by summarizing our paper and a call to male coaches working with female athletes to reflect on how “thinking with Foucault” might help them to coach in more ethical and gender-responsive ways by both problematizing imported gendered assumptions and developing active allyship practices.

Embedded, Embodied, Enculturated, and Enabling Processes: The Identification and Evaluation of Sporting Talent by Ice Hockey Coaches in Norwegian Youth National Teams

Elite sports systems are characterized by structured attempts to identify, select, and develop talented athletes and to increase the likelihood that athletes will achieve future international success. Studies of such systems have focused mostly on the procedures and measures that are intended to improve talent identification, but less attention has been given to the crucial role of coaches. The aim of this case study is therefore to explore how coaches of Norwegian youth ice hockey national teams identify and evaluate sporting talent within these structured settings. The data were generated using nine semistructured interviews. These interviews included questions about how coaches identify talent and discussions about four hypothetical examples of ice hockey players, each with specific histories and skill sets. Building on recent developments in motor learning research, we contend that coaches identify and select talent using embodied (rather than entirely rational or cognitive) processes. These approaches are embedded in the ebb and flow of situated sports performances, and shaped by the broader and unique cultural settings in which they are situated. The results of this study show that talent identification and evaluation of sporting talent cannot, and should not, be separated from the subjectivities of the coaches themselves or from their individual preferences. The implications of this study for future research, policy, and practice are discussed.

Insights from expert coaches on technical performance evaluation in rowing: a pilot study.

Since rowing became an Olympic sport in 1900, rowers have made significant performance gains, partly attributed to increased research, training, and competition knowledge. Rowing technique and biomechanics play an essential role in rowing performance. While some aspects can be quantified with modern tools, coaches' expertise remains essential for technical performance evaluation. Coaches often play a pivotal role in identifying and correcting technical faws; however, novice and intermediate coaches may struggle. This study examines how expert-level rowing coaches assess the technical performance of athletes during on-water rowing. Four current and former national team coaches were interviewed using semi-structured interviews. The repertory grid technique was employed to explore their initial foci when assessing the rowing technique. The acquired data were content-analysed and listed in a summarising table. We have detailed both the positive and negative aspects of rowing technique identified by these coaches. Three overarching themes were identified: perceived force application, perceived movement precision, and perceived rhythm and timing. Examining the categories revealed that the coaches with a shared federation background exhibited a relatively high level of similarity in their initial foci. However, looking into their subjective aspects revealed considerable differences. This leads to the hypothesis that a broad spectrum of unique coaches' criteria can lead to the same or similar technique executions from their athletes.