Steven Rynne

Formal vs. Informal Coach Education

The training of coaches is considered central to sustaining and improving the quality of sports coaching and the ongoing process of professionalisation. Sports coaches participate in a range of learning opportunities (informal to formal) that contribute to their development to varying degrees. In this article, we present our collective understanding on the varying types of learning opportunities and their contribution to coach accreditation and development. The authors presented these views (from a sports pedagogy perspective) as part of a workshop entitled “Formal vs. Informal Coach Education” at the 2007 International Council of Coach Education Master Class in Beijing. These reflections seek to stimulate the on-going, and often sterile, debate about formal versus informal coach education/learning in order to progress scholarship in coaching.

High Performance Sport Coaching: Institutes of Sport as Sites for Learning

There has been a marked increase in the number of government-funded, high performance institutes and academies of sport within Australia. Given that these organisations employ significant numbers of full-time performance sport coaches, they may be accurately characterised as workplaces. Performance sport coaches have underscored the importance of experience in developing their coaching skill. However, despite wide acceptance of the view that learning occurs everywhere but to different extents and with different efficiency, and the acknowledgement of current national coach education programs as insufficient, no sport coaching research has focused specifically on sport workplaces as sites for learning. This paper will review the current nature of coach development with a view to examining the interaction between what the workplace (institute/academy) affords the individual and the personal agency of the individual (high performance sports coaches).

Dynamic social networks in high performance football coaching

Background: Sports coaching is largely a social activity where engagement with athletes and support staff can enhance the experiences for all involved. This paper examines how high performance football coaches develop knowledge through their interactions with others within a social learning theory framework. Purpose: The key purpose of this study was to explore how coaches interact with others in developing their coaching knowledge within the Australian Football (soccer) context. Moreover, this project examined how to best conceptualise these interactions using social learning concepts such as communities of practice (Wenger 1998), informal knowledge networks (Allee 2000), networks of practice (Nichani and Hung 2002) and dynamic social networks (Mallett, Rossi, and Tinning 2007). Method: Six high performance football coaches were interviewed using a semi-structured schedule. The interview data, which was transcribed verbatim, was content analysed using the procedure outlined by Côté et al. (1993). Results: From the interviews three themes emerged: influence of others on learning; learning through work and play; and elite football identity. These themes were examined under the lens of social learning theory. Conclusions: The coaches in this study reported that they considered ‘coaches of influence’ as their most important source of information. In particular, it was the interactions with experienced football coaches who were most valued. In these interactions ideas and views about football coaching were exchanged and are best represented as a dynamic social network.

Understanding the Work and Learning of High Performance Coaches.

Background: The development of high performance sports coaches has been proposed as a major imperative in the professionalization of sports coaching. Accordingly, an increasing body of research is beginning to address the question of how coaches learn. While this is important work, an understanding of how coaches learn must be underpinned by an understanding of what coaches do. This is not to suggest a return to the behaviouristic accounts of coaching, rather a greater consideration of what tasks entail modern coaching work, especially within the dynamic and evolving vocation of high performance coaching. Purpose: In order to add greater texture to accounts characterising high performance coaching as a highly complex collection of practices, this paper will consider the tasks that full-time coaches at a State Institute of Sport (SIS) perform in their work, with a follow-up account of how they felt they learned (or did not learn) the requisite skills and abilities. Participants and setting: Six full-time, high performance sports coaches (average age = 42 years; range = 30–54 years) with an average of 23 years coaching experience (range = 10–34 years) participated in this study. Six sport administrators varying in level of responsibility and authority also participated. All participants were drawn from an Australian state (provincial) academy/institute of sport. Data collection: Participation was open to all coaches and administrators within the SIS with six coaches and six administrators volunteering prior to commencement. All participants were involved in semi-structured interviews aimed at examining the work of SIS coaches and the perceived sources of learning that coaches accessed throughout their careers. The interviews took an average of 82 minutes to complete (range = 60–110 minutes). Data analysis: The interviews were transcribed verbatim, checked for accuracy and returned to the participants for member checking. An interpretative analysis of the interview data was carried out following procedures outlined by Côté and colleagues. The construction of meaning units was enhanced through the use of a decision-making heuristic developed by Côté and Salmela. Findings: SIS coaches were required to perform a great number of tasks ranging from those relating to direct coaching to those associated with public relations behaviours. Coaches and administrators were also able to identify a range of sources of learning prior to, and during their employment with the SIS. Based on a comparison of work tasks and learning experiences, it was determined that SIS coaches were not well prepared to complete a variety of tasks required of them in the SIS environment. Conclusions: Through an analysis of their previous athletic and coaching experiences it is proposed that the coaches were well-prepared to undertake the tasks that were deemed to be central to their coaching work but were less equipped to undertake a range of other tasks required of them when they were first employed at the SIS.

Sport development programmes for Indigenous Australians: innovation, inclusion and development, or a product of ‘white guilt’?

Under the legacy of neoliberalism, it is important to consider how the indigenous people, in this case of Australia, are to advance, develop and achieve some approximation of parity with broader societies in terms of health, educational outcomes and economic participation. In this paper, we explore the relationships between welfare dependency, individualism, responsibility, rights, liberty and the role of the state in the provision of Government-funded programmes of sport to Indigenous communities. We consider whether such programmes are a product of ‘white guilt’ and therefore encourage dependency and weaken the capacity for independence within communities and individuals, or whether programmes to increase rates of participation in sport are better viewed as good investments to bring about changes in physical activity as (albeit a small) part of a broader social policy aimed at reducing the gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians in health, education and employment.

Doing Whitefella 1 Research in Blackfella Communities in Australia: Decolonizing Method in Sports Related Research

There is much for non-Indigenous researchers to consider when researching in Indigenous contexts. This paper is a story of discovery for two researchers working on a project with the Indigenous Sports Program section of the Australian Sports Commission. It documents the slow, meticulous and sometimes clumsy steps taken to gain access to communities and conduct research guided by a social justice ethic. The research was successful in that eventually it was possible to develop the trust of individuals and some of the Indigenous communities more broadly, so that information could be gathered and given within the context of shared understandings and mutual interest. However, it is the turbulent journey, filled as it is, with latent tendencies, privileged assumptions and eventually reflexive readings of the data, which remains the focus of this paper. Tentative recommendations are offered to those wishing to advance this politically and epistemologically challenging approach to culturally based research.

Coaches’ learning and sustainability in high performance sport

In undertaking their complicated and multi-faceted work, high performance coaches have previously been shown to be influential in the performance of athletes. It has also been noted that high performance coaches are learners by necessity. However, what remains unclear is how coaches’ learning influences their engagement in sustainable practice. This study draws on three cohorts of full-time high performance coaches employed in Olympic and professional sports throughout Australia. Semi-structured interviews were conducted face-to-face and were inductively analysed. The results revealed that the coaches were presented with a variety of opportunities to learn, with the most valued sources being ‘learning on the job’, ‘discussions with others’ and ‘experience as athletes’. These unmediated learning opportunities are critiqued along with other mediated opportunities in relation to notions of sustainability. The dominance of unmediated sources of learning meant that sustainable practice was present but was not assured. Sustainable practice is also discussed in relation to the dominant models of high performance athlete development and the demands of coaching work.

Learning cultures and cultural learning in high-performance sport: opportunities for sport pedagogues

Learning cultures and cultural learning in high-performance sport : opportunities for sport pedagogues

‘Fast track’ and ‘traditional path’ coaches: affordances, agency and social capital

A recent development in large-scale coach accreditation (certification) structures has been the ‘fast tracking’ of former elite athletes. Former elite athletes are often exempted from entry-level qualifications and are generally granted access to fast track courses that are shortened versions of the accreditation courses undertaken by ‘traditional path’ coaches. While formal coach accreditation is not the focus of this research note, it does provide the context for the two coaching case studies. The aim of this article is to consider and contrast the experiences of a former elite athlete and a traditional pathway coach with respect to their development and their trajectory towards employment in high performance coaching settings. The notion of relational interdependence (Billett, 2006) is used to consider the characteristics that particular coaches may bring to their work. In examining the social nature of coaching work and coaching appointments further, it is possible to connect with the notion of social capital (Field, 2006). Informed by accreditation course information (coaching history, aspirations and educational achievements) and three days of in-course observations by the author, the interpretivist case study design incorporated a semi-structured interview with one former elite athlete and one traditional pathway coach during the top level coach accreditation course of one of Australias most popular team sports. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and coded via a hierarchical content analysis. From this study it was possible to identify a range of affordances that are available to former elite athletes that are not readily accessible for traditional pathway coaches and vice versa. Regarding social capital, former athletes appear to possess greater amounts and are better able to leverage that capital for development and employment. Recommendations are offered and implications discussed for coaches and those individuals and organisations charged with employing high performance coaches.

Holism in sports coaching: Beyond humanistic psychology: A commentary

Increasingly the professional development literature in sports coaching encourages coaches to coach holistically. Yet the phrase ‘holistic coaching’ is mired in ambiguity and has the potential to become meaningless. The aims of this article are to explore the relationship between holism, humanistic psychology, humanism and sports coaching, and to pose some challenges, which could support the field to move beyond the influence of humanistic psychology.