New possibilities: extending research and practice in sports coaching

Abstract

An overarching aim of Sports Coaching Review is to develop a critical body of knowledge on issues related to sports coaching theory and practice. There is no doubt that since its first volume in August 2012, the journal’s contributions have generated considerable and important socio-cultural knowledge that has significantly influenced the establishment of the sports coaching field and profession. Yet, a scientific field requires continued development to remain state-of-the-art and all scientific fields require clear conceptual foundations. If not, a body of knowledge risks to lose its actuality, and with that its relevance and legitimacy. Hence, continued development is important, such as in the form of considerations of discussions from outside of a respective field, to enable researchers to “alter [their] metaphors and gestalts in ways that challenge the underlying rationales supporting accepted theories” (Whetten, 1989, p. 493); or in the form of bringing in experts from outside of a particular scientific community (or profession), scholars who are on the outside or fringe of a discipline and who see “things” differently (Savory, 2020). This special issue sets out to provide possibilities and prospects and stimulate debate and discussion to offer new insights relating to the field of sports coaching. It presents the thinking of a select group of authors, whose scholarship has gained momentum in other fields. We believe that their theorising and the arguments they put forward can create possibilities for new thinking in sports coaching research. Consequently, this special issue attempts to transcend some disciplinary boundaries and highlight (new) conceptual frameworks and methodological possibilities which, we hope, will be useful in igniting ideas amongst scholars to “think with [their] own head[s]” (Schopenhauer, 2015). We would like to briefly acknowledge the procedure that has led to the six contributions included in the special issue. Our initial strategy to inspire the sports coaching discourse was to identify arguments that we knew of that could be of interest to scholars in the field of sports coaching. This approach was largely influenced by who we knew and what research these scholars were conducting. Based on this network, and considering the spatial limitations of a SCR issue, we approached nine scholars (or scholarly teams) from various parts of the world, of which six articles have now come to fruition. SPORTS COACHING REVIEW 2022, VOL. 11, NO. 1, 1–4 https://doi.org/10.1080/21640629.2021.1990657