Ed Cope

The impact of video feedback on professional youth football coaches’ reflection and practice behaviour: a longitudinal investigation of behaviour change

The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of video feedback on five English youth football coaches’ reflection and practice behaviours over a three-season period. First, quantitative data were collected using the Coach Analysis and Intervention System (CAIS) during season one and season three. Data from CAIS results showed that over the three seasons the coaches decreased their total instruction and total feedback and increased silence ‘on-task’. Four out of the five coaches also increased the use of total questioning behaviour. Second, interviews revealed how video feedback gave structure to reflective conversations that improved self-awareness and provided a trigger for behaviour change. The coaches highlighted how video-based reflection challenged their current understanding and enabled a range of learning sources to support and inform changed coach behaviour.

Children's First Experience of Taking Anabolic-Androgenic Steroids can Occur before Their 10th Birthday: A Systematic Review Identifying 9 Factors That Predicted Doping among Young People

Taking performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) can cause serious and irreversible health consequences, which can ultimately lead to premature death. Some young people may take PEDs without fully understanding the ramifications of their actions or based on the advice from others. The purpose of this systematic review was to identify the main factors that predicted doping among young people. The literature was systematically reviewed using search engines, manually searching specialist journals, and pearl growing. Fifty-two studies, which included 187,288 young people aged between 10 and 21 years of age, 883 parents of adolescent athletes, and 11 adult coaches, who were interviewed regarding young athletes, were included in this review. Nine factors predicted doping among young people: gender; age; sports participation; sport type; psychological variables; entourage; ethnicity; nutritional supplements; and health harming behaviors. In regards to psychological variables, 22 different constructs were associated with doping among young people. Some psychological constructs were negatively associated with doping (e.g., self-esteem, resisting social pressure, and perfectionist strivings), whereas other were positively associated with doping (e.g., suicide risk, anticipated regret, and aggression). Policy makers and National Anti-Doping Organizations could use these findings to help identify athletes who are more at risk of doping and then expose these individuals to anti-doping education. Based on the current findings, it also appears that education programs should commence at the onset of adolescence or even late childhood, due to the young age in which some individuals start doping.

Sport policy and English primary physical education: the role of professional football clubs in outsourcing

Abstract Sports policy in England has led to considerable recent investment in Primary Physical Education (PE) via the ‘PE and Sport Premium’. An outcome of this has been growth in the outsourcing – handing over control of services to external agencies – of PE, including sport coaches from professional football clubs’ community programmes. Despite the growing research on healthy stadia, we know very little about the work performed by community arms of professional clubs in relation to delivering Primary PE. This article discusses the challenges of outsourcing PE to coaches who work for professional football clubs, while offering some evidence related to the employment and development of sports coaches. Given that the evidence of sport coaches’ involvement in Primary PE is limited and that funding and outsourcing it likely to continue England until (at least) 2020, it is important and timely to discuss critically the role of professional football clubs within the current sport policy.

The pursuit of lifelong participation: the role of professional football clubs in the delivery of physical education and school sport in England

Physical Education and School Sport (PESS) offers a key vehicle to support the development of lifelong participation in children and young people. At a time of government cuts and the emergence of external providers, including professional football clubs, it is pertinent to explore current practice. This research set out to explore the delivery, and partnerships involved within the School Sports Premium, particularly the relationship between the community arms and registered charities of professional football clubs and schools to deliver PESS. Semi-structured interviews with community managers from football community programmes and head teachers revealed two key themes; partnership working and the role of the community coach. Findings suggest the need to develop the scope of the partnership and to build methods of evaluation to understand the impact of the coaches’ practice in schools. Further evaluation of the partnerships between professional football clubs and schools would bring an increased understanding of the effectiveness and impact of the partnerships, in order to improve practice and the subsequent effectiveness of PESS, in terms of its contribution towards lifelong participation for children and young people.

An investigation of professional top-level youth football coaches’ questioning practice

Abstract To position learners as more central components in the coaching process, scholars suggested that coaches should employ a questioning approach, which may lead to the development of desirable learner outcomes (i.e. increased problem solving and decision-making skills). Studies, however, indicate that coaches rarely employ questions within their practice. When questions are asked, these questions rarely move beyond lower-order or ‘fact seeking’ enquiries. While this research provides information concerning the frequency and in some cases, the type of questions coaches asks, it fails to report the more discursive nature of coaches’ questioning approaches. In order to address such limitations, the purpose of this study was to investigate coach questioning practices (CQPs). We recorded the practices of five academy youth level football coaches’ and subjected the data to conversational analysis (CA), This enabled the analysis of interaction between coach and player(s). Findings revealed that CQPs, regardless of coach or context followed similar discursive patterns. In particular, three themes presented themselves in each CQP: (1) coaches’ requirements for an immediate player response, (2) leading questions for a desired response, (3) monologist nature of coach/player interaction. This showed that the coach positioned themselves as the gatekeeper of knowledge and learners as passive recipients. This reinforces the messages from previous work that has suggested coaches’ ideologies inform their practice, and are stable structures that are difficult to change. We concur with other researchers that there is a need for further investigation in this area to better understand how dominant discourse can be challenged.

Football and physical health: what do we know?

AbstractOur current understanding is that football is a popular intervention option and can offer valuable health improvement programme success. This includes interventions delivered by professional football clubs and their respective in the community programmes, as well as other sports clubs organizing recreational football and Football Fitness, which is small-sided football training rather than competitive 11v11 matches. This article seeks to communicate an understanding of the role of football in physical health improvement using research, grey literature and policy documentation undertaken predominantly across the UK and Europe. The core themes that emerge from the review include the following health conditions and behaviours: overweight and obese, cardiovascular disease and lifestyle-related diseases; and the following target groups: children and young people, men, women and older adults, including Black, minority and ethnic groups. The evidence supports the health effects of football for these condi...

A review of the use of a systematic observation method in coaching research between 1997 and 2016

ABSTRACT A systematic observation method has been one of the most popularly employed methods in coaching research. Kahan’s review of this method conducted between 1975 and 1997 highlighted the key trends in this research, and offered methodological guidance for researchers wishing to use this method in their research. The purpose of this review was to provide an update of the use of a systematic observation method in coaching research and assess the extent to which the calls made by Kahan have been addressed. While in some respect this field of study has progressed (i.e., the introduction of qualitative methods), researchers adopting this method have failed to attend to many of the issues Kahan raised. For this method to continue to make a positive contribution towards the coaching research literature, researchers need to more critically reflect on how and why they are employing this method. At present, some of the decisions made by researchers who have conducted work in this area are not justified with a rationale. It is our intention that this review will serve as guidance for researchers and practitioners, and editors and reviewers of journals when attempting to assess the quality of this type of work.

Research methods in sports coaching

When considering the book in its entirety, I am struck by the richness of the authors’ discussions of what are in reality diverse, albeit interrelated, coaching topics. Throughout this edition of Understanding Sports Coaching, they skilfully applied a wide range of sociological and pedagogical theories to frame their analyses and made reference to the findings of contemporary coaching literature to illustrate and support their academic arguments. The book is certainly testament to their substantial underpinning knowledge, nuanced understanding of coaching and willingness to apply what C Wright Mills termed sociological imagination. In this book, the authors not only cover a lot of conceptual and theoretical ground but in a way that serves to challenge and advance existing understanding. For this, they should be commended. From a personal perspective, I particularly enjoyed reading some of the new additions. I have already started to integrate a number of these chapters into the teaching of my own undergraduate modules. These are proving to be extremely valuable teaching and learning resources, thus demonstrating the practical utility of this text. The content and theoretical concepts introduced in these chapters have encouraged my students to think more critically and socially about their coaching contexts and practices. They offer an excellent springboard from which students are able to pursue additional reading and study around a given topic of interest. While this book will certainly appeal to scholars, students and coaches of a social leaning, no doubt those who continue to favour a reductionist understanding of sports coaching will endeavour to seek fault. This version of Understanding Sports Coaching, like its predecessors, certainly is not a ‘how to’ recipe book for coaching. The authors acknowledge that those hoping for a list of ‘effective’ coaching behaviours will likely be disappointed. Like the authors, I agree that this is a dissatisfaction for which they should not, and rightfully do not, offer an apology. I suspect that some readers might also contend that those depth of the arguments and issues covered in this book are somewhat challenging for an undergraduate audience. While I would agree that some of the presented material is indeed challenging, again I see no need for apology. In fact, I contend that the field of sports coaching is in need of more texts akin to Understanding Standing Sports Coaching, especially if it is to develop the critical, imaginative, caring and thoughtful practitioners that this ‘profession’ so desperately requires. For me, this book should be a core reading on any undergraduate programme that is seeking to develop graduates with these qualities.

The prevalence of pseudoscientific ideas and neuromyths among sports coaches

There has been an exponential growth in research examining the neurological basis of human cognition and learning. Little is known, however, about the extent to which sports coaches are aware of these advances. Consequently, the aim of the present study was to examine the prevalence of pseudoscientific ideas among British and Irish sports coaches. In total, 545 coaches from the United Kingdom and Ireland completed a measure that included questions about how evidence-based theories of the brain might enhance coaching and learning, how they were exposed to these different theories, and their awareness of neuromyths. Results revealed that the coaches believed that an enhanced understanding of the brain helped with their planning and delivery of sports sessions. Goal-setting was the most frequently used strategy. Interestingly, 41.6% of the coaches agreed with statements that promoted neuromyths. The most prevalent neuromyth was “individuals learn better when they receive information in their preferred learning style (e.g., auditory, visual, or kinesthetic),” which 62% of coaches believed. It is apparent that a relatively large percentage of coaches base aspects of their coaching practice on neuromyths and other pseudoscientific ideas. Strategies for addressing this situation are briefly discussed and include changing the content of coach education programs.

Management Strategies Of Non-Profit Community Sport Facilities In An Era Of Austerity

ABSTRACT Research Question: This qualitative research explores the impact of austerity on community sport facilities across England (United Kingdom), drawing upon resource dependence theory (RDT) embedded within network theory. Research Methods: In-depth semi-structured interview data were collected from 24 stakeholders related to community sport facilities (n = 12 facility managers, n = 6 regional grant managers, n = 6 national funders both third sector and corporate). The qualitative data were thematically analysed to understand the impact of austerity on how community sport facilities managed their organisations and operations. Results and Findings: The findings from this research offer insight into the challenges that community sport facilities are encountering which have resulted from austerity, and a shrinking of the funding from the central Government to local public services. Furthermore, different community sport facilities have navigated these challenges to maintain sustainability, essentially through adapting network structure and through income dynamism. In addition, using a network theory approach alongside RDT within a sporting context has allowed us to address issues on how network flow and structure impact sustainability and operations within and between organisations. Implications: The article offers managerial recommendations for community sport facility managers, practitioners and policy makers who operate in times of fiscal constraint. It recommends that future sport research utilises and applies both RDT and network theory to examine these changes and the subsequent management strategies adopted to overcome the associated challenges of fiscal constraint.