Coaching Practices Research Articles

Dry-Land Resistance Training Practices of Elite Swimming Strength and Conditioning Coaches.

Crowley, E, Harrison, AJ, and Lyons, M. Dry-land resistance training practices of elite swimming strength and conditioning coaches. J Strength Cond Res 32(9): 2592-2600, 2018-No research to date has investigated dry-land resistance (RT) training practices of elite swimming strength and conditioning coaches. This is the first comprehensive study exploring dry-land RT training practices in swimming. The aims of this study were to examine (a) the dry-land RT training practices and exercises used by elite swimming strength and conditioning coaches and (b) the rationale provided by coaches about their practices and prescription of specific dry-land RT training exercises. Twenty-three (n = 21 males, n = 2 females) elite swimming strength and conditioning coaches, from Ireland (n = 7), Great Britain (n = 5), Australia (n = 6), and the United States of America (n = 5) were recruited through their specific national governing bodies. Coaches completed an online questionnaire consisting of 7 sections; subject information, informed consent, coach's biography, coach education, current training commitments, dry-land RT training practices and exercises, and additional information. The results showed that coaches had varying levels of experience, education and worked with different level swimmers. A total of 95 dry-land RT training exercises were used by the coaches across 4 different dry-land RT training practices (warm-up, circuit training, traditional RT training and plyometrics). Traditional RT training (87%) was the most commonly practiced. The pull-up and squat were the most popular dry-land RT training exercises used by elite swimming strength and conditioning coaches. Future research needs to focus on exploring the specificity and the transfer of RT training exercises to swimming performance.

A Gestalt Coaching Primer

A Gestalt Coaching Primer

Evidence for Applying Contemporary Gestalt Theories to a Business Consulting and Executive Coaching Practice

Abstract Contemporary Gestalt theory and practice has application in business consulting and coaching; it could be useful to explain its relevance to potential clients. Current leadership literature is reviewed for evidence of confluence with a Gestalt approach, with multiple instances observed. The use of a Gestalt perspective in business culture transformation is illustrated by the case example of Rockland Trust Bank.

How do Australian coaches train fast bowlers? A survey on physical conditioning and workload management practices for training fast bowlers

Fast bowlers have the highest injury rates in cricket; therefore, reducing these injuries is a priority for coaches and the support staff. Improving physical conditioning and monitoring bowling workload are primary preventative strategies to reduce overuse injuries. The objective of this study was to investigate practices of cricket coaches in Australia on (1) strength and conditioning and (2) bowling workload management of junior and non-elite fast bowlers. A web-based survey was sent to 548 male Level Two cricket coaches registered with Cricket New South Wales, Australia. One hundred and seventy (31%) coaches responded to the survey. A majority (70%) of the coaches were working with cricketers under the age of 19 years. Only 39 (23%) engaged fast bowlers in resistance training exercises. Coaches under the age of 40 years were more likely to prescribe resistance training (χ2 = 5.77, df = 1, p = 0.016) than coaches over the age of 40. Lower back, abdominal and gluteal muscles were the most commonly targeted muscle groups. Sit-ups, core work and squats were the most common exercises prescribed. Most (92%) coaches were aware of current national fast bowling workload recommendations. However, only 18 (13%) coaches prescribed the currently recommended workloads. The results indicate that coaches training junior and sub-elite cricketers need more awareness on of the importance of engaging fast bowlers in resistance training and monitoring bowling workloads. Understanding current training practices of coaches can assist in the development of injury prevention programmes for junior fast bowlers and educational programmes for coaches.

Distinctions in practice within coaching in Wales

This research sought to identify distinctions in the practice of coaches within Wales, compared to other European nations. A survey design was adopted, with a snowball sampling strategy generating 150 respondents. Seven surveyed aspects of coaching practice produced distinctive responses from coaches within Wales: they are less likely to have membership of any professional coaching bodies, they spend a very small proportion of their working time coaching, they are more likely to operate as internal coaches or for low fees, they are more likely to engage in self-reflection and participate in peer networks, they have a marked preference for behavioural/goalfocused methods, they are thorough in the range of topics they cover when contracting and they are likely to be selected as coaches based predominantly upon their experience levels. Recommendations are made for future analytical research to identify causal factors for these distinctions.

‘I didn’t have to tackle humungus people’: An ecological investigation into a dispensation policy in New Zealand Junior Rugby

The purpose of the study was to gain insight into the perceptions, experiences and practices of stakeholders, i.e. players, coaches and parents, involved in players being dispensated to play down a grade due to their small stature at one New Zealand metropolitan rugby union club. The discussion is organized around the perceptions, experiences, and practices of the various stakeholders and provides insight into how the various stakeholders perceive and experience the dispensation process. Bronfenbrenner’s work was used to inform the design of the current study and the subsequent analysis because his ecological systems model of development is a generative and evolving conceptual framework for analysing human development throughout the life course as well as providing opportunities for development to be studied from the perspective of the person and their environment. The findings of this study provide insight for those involved in sports where playing numbers drop off round the teenage years. In addition, the findings contribute to further understanding the role emotions play in sport coaching, the ‘birthdate effect’, and ‘relative age effect’, the importance of developing connection, competence and confidence when focusing on youth development, the weight young people place on playing with friends as motivation to continue to playing sport.

Facilitative coaching: a guide for youth sport leaders

ABSTRACTWhen utilizing youth sport as a social intervention to promote positive youth development (PYD) outcomes, the programming and practices of the youth sport leader (YSL) are critical. However, many YSLs lack the education and knowledge to effectively facilitate sport towards desired PYD outcomes such as intrapersonal and interpersonal life skill development and the transfer of learning. One model designed to help guide the intentional programming and facilitative coaching practices of YSLs is the Coaching on the Wave (CotW) model. However, the current version of the CotW model lacks a clear pedagogical approach with explicit practices, strategies and techniques that would allow practitioners to fully access its benefits. To further enhance the CotW model, the current paper proposes the integration of key adventure pedagogy tenets into a revised and adapted model. Through the use of the updated CotW model, YSLs will be better equipped to develop facilitative coaching practices to intentionally facilitate sport towards PYD.

Analysis of South African semi-elite rugby head coaches’ engagement with performance analysis

ABSTRACTThe introduction of performance analysis (PA) in rugby union presented coaches with a range of tools to support and enhance their coaching practices. This study aimed to investigate how PA was used by semi-professional South African rugby union coaches. Specific objectives were: to determine how PA contributed to coaching practices; to assess the extent to which PA was integrated into practice; how PA was valued by coaches and the role of the analyst in the process. A descriptive research design was followed and a questionnaire was used to gather data. Forty-six rugby coaches from provincial (n = 15), university (n = 15) and school (n = 16) levels participated, which constituted a response rate of 57%. The results indicated that, at all levels, most coaches (67%) completed technical PA themselves, although 48% had access to a PA to provide match analysis. Sixty-seven per cent had readily access to video footage, while 22% had infrequent access. Provincial coaches (93%) had more access to video footage compared to other levels (p = 0.004). Sixty-four per cent of the coaches indicated that their selection of key performance indicators is informed by their coaching philosophy. A key finding was that the majority of coaches valued PA and used it frequently in their coaching.

The use, integration and perceived value of performance analysis to professional and amateur Irish coaches

Research into the perceptions, practices and engagement of coaches with performance analysis is fundamental to informing the continued development of the discipline and its practitioners. The aim of this study was to survey a large sample of coaches of varying profiles, regarding their use and integration of performance analysis, to explore its perceived value and barriers to its use. Survey data were analysed from 538 Irish coaches qualified at Level 1 and above (82% male), from 37 sports. A spectrum of coaches’ engagement with performance analysis, ranging from no formal performance analysis (49%), to coaches doing their own analysis (coach-as-analyst, 38%) and coaches with analyst-support (13%) was observed. The Level 2 coaching qualification was a key distinguisher between coaches using and not using performance analysis. Significant differences exist between the practices of coaches with and without analyst-support. Coaches with analyst-support are more likely to have regular access to video, spend more time analysing, regularly use performance analysis to inform training and use computerised analysis software. Barriers to the use of performance analysis varied along the spectrum of performance analysis engagement. This research can underpin future developments in coach and analyst education that will optimise the systematic use of PA across all levels of sports performance.

Коучинг как инструмент развития команды

The article reveals the term team coaching, specifies the purposes of its application, which include support and activation of the process of creating a new team, improving the efficiency of the existing team, achieving a significant positive effect from the introduction of new approaches and tools in the management of the organization. The author showed the difference between this tool, group coaching and facilitation. In the first case, the specificity is due to differences between the team and the group. In the second case, we are talking about differences in the algorithm of conducting a coach session, the use of specific tools, the role of specialists in working with the team, the duration of interaction with it, the required level of trust and the ratio of the planned and achieved results. It should be noted that the role and purpose of coaching varies depending on the stage of team formation: from clarifying expectations of all participants and common goals to developing an atmosphere of cooperation and trust, forming norms and rules of interaction, new directions of development, evaluation of the results of collaboration. The practice of team coaching in Russian companies has shown that this tool is particularly effective in retaining talented employees and strengthening the involvement of staff in the corporate activities.

Dialogue and language as factors contributing to transformative learning in academic tutoring

Abstract Among a number of teaching practices, personalized education is gaining in popularity owing to its enticing appeal of a novel, humanistic attitude with unparalleled pedagogical results unlike those observed in traditional standardized mass education models. As part of the fourth moment in the history of education (according to the timeline in Davis, Sumara and Kapler, 2015), personalized education under the guise of tutoring or educational coaching is boldly re-entering schools and the academic world. Observing the daily practices of tutors and educational coaches on various levels of schooling, we can note a number of features which contribute to the emergence of a model where learning becomes an autonomous, lived experience. In this model communication is understood as a collaborative dialogical practice, which leads us to see learning as a result of interactivity in the learner-tutor dyad afforded by geo-spatial conditions, physio-psychological elements and language. All these contribute to the occurrence of transformative results as evidenced in student post-tutoring narratives. In this paper we present learning in the dialogical tutor-tutee paradigm as a distributed, embodied, and enacted meaning-making process rather than mere ‘sending’ and ‘receiving’ of substantive information (e.g., De Jaegher and DiPaolo, 2007; Neuman and Cowley, 2013). Described as such, the method fits in the paradigm of self-regulated learning. We therefore postulate the claim that personalised education as exemplified by tutoring is co-agential and prompts learning on multiple timescales. Consequently, cognition and learning in tutoring is enactment of knowledge, while coordinating speech rather than knowledge transmission

Control, consent and complicity in the coaching of elite women’s cycling in Australia: a media analysis

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this study was to extend understanding of how athletes and coaches in a women’s cycling talent development and selection programme negotiate and normalise athlete abuse in the media. A thematic analysis of six online cycling magazine articles and their representations of the Australian women’s elite cycling development camp was analysed to explore athletic abuse and the (re)production of coaching practices using Bourdieusian theory. The findings revealed a link between the expression of coaching practice and the maltreatment of athletes. Analysis of these articles also revealed that athletes were complicit in the normalisation of coaching practices through the misrecognition of social power embedded in the coaching intervention. The representations by athletes within the articles contributed narratives related to the reproduction and proliferation of abusive coaching practices. This study extends understanding of how taken for granted and power laden aspects of coaching practices can be presented in the media and highlights the implications for coaches, athletes and the general public that consume online cycling media content.

Athlete and coach agreement: Identifying successful performance

Traditional coaching views the coach as an informed resource and the athlete as a reflection of expert knowledge. Recent approaches have criticised a strictly coach driven model of expertise, and in doing so have acknowledged the unique and developing knowledge of athletes, which emerges from extended practice. The growth of the athlete’s contribution in the coach–athlete dyad invites interesting questions about the usefulness of athlete knowledge and the changing role of the coach. Athlete–coach agreement was assessed via a triangulation of quantitative boat speed data from a single sculler and matched to phases of successful rowing that rowers and coaches both agreed on. Coach and rower were able to identify when the boat was travelling its fastest or slowest. However, when the performance was marginally faster or slower, they disagreed, and generally the rowers were more accurate about the performance than their coach. Implications for contemporary coaching practices are considered.

Coming of age: coaches transforming the pixie-style model of coaching in women’s artistic gymnastics

Coaches and coach educators have recognised the difficulty of creating changes to traditional coaching practice. In this article, we draw on interviews with five successful coaches who, we argue, engaged in actively changing their gymnastics coaching practice through promoting alternative “games of truth” which challenged the authoritarian women’s gymnastics coaching model. This alternative truth game included a focus on energy levels (over thinness) and a belief that older gymnasts can learn new skills and be successful, which led to adaptations of their coaching. We demonstrate how coaches’ experiences of coaching older gymnasts and their observations of successful gymnasts’ older ages and powerful physiques produced critical reflections of their former views, which led to the recognition of alternative truths. This article illustrates the possibility of coaches changing their coaching practices, although we found that coaches were motivated by success rather than athlete empowerment.

Bracketed morality and ethical ideologies of sport fans

Historically, scholarship on ethics in sport has focused almost exclusively on practices of athletes, coaches and leagues. In this study, we highlight a serious void in the existing empirical literature on morality – ethical ideology and intention – of sport fans. Applying ‘bracketed morality,’ sport fans sometimes enact or accept behaviours otherwise regarded as problematic in everyday situations – insulting athletes, cursing at officials, celebrating riotously and/or intimidating fans of rival teams. Only some fans actually sanction (oppose) these kinds of behaviours, suggesting that they are questionable but not necessarily problematic, and, thus, worthy of closer investigation. Here, with the aid of four scenarios, we find that sport fans’ ethical ideology influences ethical intention. We also find that this influence is mediated twofold by ethical perception of moral problems and trivialization of observed situations, with trivialization exhibiting greater influence. Hence, while ethical ideologies and perceptions are important, they may be bracketed in evaluations of sport-fan behaviours.

Integrating Flower Essences Therapy and Intuition into a Holistic Life Coaching Practice

Integrating Flower Essences Therapy and Intuition into a Holistic Life Coaching Practice

Conceptualising actor coaching: talk moves as tools

This paper offers a new analytical perspective by using concepts and methods from discourse analysis to examine the practice of actor coaching. As part of an ethnographic study, the paper focuses on the coaching practice of an experienced acting instructor during a university-level acting class in the United States. Whereas the acting instructor described his coaching practice as unrehearsed and extemporaneous, discourse analysis revealed repeated talk moves embedded in his coaching ‒ conceptualised here as technical directives, reflections, rule recounts, and eventcasts. The instructor’s talk moves were epistemic tools that organised his coaching by extending participatory pathways to mediate performance learning. The paper concludes by suggesting that discourse analysis offers a useful way for acting coaches to reflect on, and potentially refine, the repertoires of talk moves that propel actor coaching.

A Case Study Exploring Coaching Practice and Coaching Perspectives at One Soccer (Football) Club

This study investigated the extent to which three local club football (Soccer) coaches were aligning their practice with the Football Federation Australia (FFA) curriculum and if they are aware of and incorporating the Game Sense coaching methods advocated by the Australian Sports Commission through the Playing for Life Philosophy. There is currently a lack of research in the sport of Soccer and how the Game Sense coaching approach has been received and understood in Australian Soccer coaching. Further, the degree of alignment club coaches have with the FFA curriculum has only been investigated once, and that was in Sydney. Therefore, little is known about the implementation of the FFA curriculum in community coaching settings. This study found the three coaches to have good understanding of the mechanics of the FFA curriculum, and support for the use of small-sided games as a preferred practice form. The coaches had no understanding of the process of shaping and focussing player game development using the player-centred inquiry focus of the Game Sense approach.

Quality versus Quantity Debate in Swimming: Perceptions and Training Practices of Expert Swimming Coaches.

The debate over low-volume, high-intensity training versus high-volume, low-intensity training, commonly known as Quality versus Quantity, respectively, is a frequent topic of discussion among swimming coaches and academics. The aim of this study was to explore expert coaches’ perceptions of quality and quantity coaching philosophies in competitive swimming and to investigate their current training practices. A purposeful sample of 11 expert swimming coaches was recruited for this study. The study was a mixed methods design and involved each coach participating in 1 semi-structured interview and completing 1 closed-ended questionnaire. The main findings of this study were that coaches felt quality training programmes would lead to short term results for youth swimmers, but were in many cases more appropriate for senior swimmers. The coaches suggested that quantity training programmes built an aerobic base for youth swimmers, promoted technical development through a focus on slower swimming and helped to enhance recovery from training or competition. However, the coaches continuously suggested that quantity training programmes must be performed with good technique and they felt this was a misunderstood element. This study was a critical step towards gaining a richer and broader understanding on the debate over Quality versus Quantity training from an expert swimming coaches’ perspective which was not currently available in the research literature.

The identity, epistemology and developmental experiences of high-level adventure sports coaches

ABSTRACTThe aim of this research was to further the literature on the identity and practices of adventure sports coaches (ASCs). Current research indicates that these coaches hold well-defined epistemic beliefs that underpin their approaches to coaching. We sought to explore whether these findings applied to a more diverse sample and to examine their working practices and developmental experiences. Semi-structured interviews were conducted on high-level ASCs. Inductive thematic analysis showed that (1) the coaches share similar working practices which are unpredictable and varied, (2) that the coaches possess and can articulate sophisticated epistemological beliefs and (3) the coaches consider themselves to be on a constant learning journey.