{"title":"Exploring the Experiences of Community Sport Coaches: Stressors, Coping Strategies, and Mental Health","authors":"Kelsey Hogan, Matthew Vierimaa, Lori Dithurbide","doi":"10.1123/iscj.2022-0100","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1123/iscj.2022-0100","url":null,"abstract":"In recent years, athlete mental health has received increased attention from researchers; however, coaches also experience stressors that can impact their mental health. This study addressed a gap in the sport coaching literature by using a phenomenological approach to explore the experiences of community sport coaches in Canada—an understudied population that makes up a large portion of the coaching workforce. Nineteen coaches from Atlantic Canada discussed stressors, coping strategies, and mental health in one-on-one semistructured interviews. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. Results are presented in three higher order themes: mental health culture in sport, influences on coach mental health, and coping strategies and supports. Our findings suggest that community coaches experience a variety of stressors (e.g., interpersonal, personal, organizational) similar to elite coaches, but that the origin of stressors may be different in the community sport context. The impact of stressors can be mitigated by coaches’ coping strategies, access to training and resources, and aspects of the role that support their mental health (e.g., rewarding work). Finally, these results suggest that training should address gaps in mental health literacy for coaches to support their own mental health needs as well as their athletes’ needs.","PeriodicalId":45934,"journal":{"name":"International Sport Coaching Journal","volume":"2 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135356367","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Samuel Wood, David Richardson, Simon J. Roberts, David Fletcher
{"title":"Exploring the Daily Hassles of Neophyte Cycling Coaches","authors":"Samuel Wood, David Richardson, Simon J. Roberts, David Fletcher","doi":"10.1123/iscj.2023-0013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1123/iscj.2023-0013","url":null,"abstract":"Sport coaching is increasingly acknowledged as a stressful activity, especially for those coaching in community contexts. This highlights the significant need to identify the diverse sources of key stressors. The aim of this research was to explore the recurrent stressors experienced by novice coaches to better inform their coping strategies and reduce the dropout rate caused by stress. The novelty of this research lies in its longitudinal exploration of the daily hassles experienced by community sport coaches within their coaching role. Ontologically and epistemologically positioned within the interpretivist paradigm, we interviewed eight recently qualified cycling coaches over an 18-month period. Reflective thematic analysis developed three themes highlighting sources of stress over time: at the start of their participation, coaches discussed the hassles of accessing facilities and struggling to fit in ; toward the end of their participation, coaches discussed feeling isolated . Results from this study can better inform the education and support delivered by national governing bodies of sport across the community and club landscape and increase sport psychology practitioners’ awareness of the daily hassles experienced by coaches.","PeriodicalId":45934,"journal":{"name":"International Sport Coaching Journal","volume":"32 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135502101","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Zoë Avner, Jim Denison, Tim Konoval, Edward T. Hall, Kristina Skebo, Royden Radowits, Declan Downie
{"title":"“Walking the Tightrope”: Reflections on Mobilizing Foucauldian Theory Within an Endurance Running Coach Development Intravention","authors":"Zoë Avner, Jim Denison, Tim Konoval, Edward T. Hall, Kristina Skebo, Royden Radowits, Declan Downie","doi":"10.1123/iscj.2023-0033","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1123/iscj.2023-0033","url":null,"abstract":"This paper presents our efforts and subsequent reflections in attempting to make Foucauldian theory accessible and relevant to a group of high-performance endurance-running coaches within the context of a coach development intravention and Foucauldian inspired workshop series. Specifically, we reflect upon our efforts to introduce coaches to Foucauldian ideas and concepts such as the knowledge–power–practice triad and upon the tensions we experienced in doing so. These tensions were related to the power of the theory–practice divide to set expectations around what it means to be an effective coach developer and a high-performance coach but also in the main related to our intentions regarding a broader shift in the coaches’ thinking concerning the influence of a number of social forces in the formation of their practices. We contend that coaching scholars invested in mobilizing ways of knowing underpinned by a different logic (e.g., relationally informed ways of knowing) within coaching and coach development settings would benefit from a deeper understanding of the politics of sports coaching knowledge and practice and how relations of power–knowledge impact learning within pedagogical contexts. Such an awareness, we believe, would in turn support more targeted pedagogical frameworks, practices, and strategies specifically aimed at disrupting established relations of power–knowledge and related problematic binary understandings such as the theory–practice divide which stand in the way of more diverse and ethical knowledge production processes in sports coaching and coach development work.","PeriodicalId":45934,"journal":{"name":"International Sport Coaching Journal","volume":"102 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135750107","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Anna Goorevich, Courtney Boucher, Jekaterina Schneider, Hannah Silva-Breen, Emily L. Matheson, Aline Tinoco, Nicole M. LaVoi
{"title":"Acceptability and Preliminary Efficacy Testing of a Web-Based Coach Development Program Addressing Gender Essentialism Among Coaches of Adolescent Girls","authors":"Anna Goorevich, Courtney Boucher, Jekaterina Schneider, Hannah Silva-Breen, Emily L. Matheson, Aline Tinoco, Nicole M. LaVoi","doi":"10.1123/iscj.2023-0035","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1123/iscj.2023-0035","url":null,"abstract":"Gender essentialism in coaching discourses often goes unnoticed by coaches yet promotes gender stereotypes. Currently, no coach development program addresses gender essentialism. This study tested the acceptability and preliminary efficacy of a novel web-based coaching intervention comprising seven self-led modules, aimed at reducing gender essentialism among coaches. A pilot randomized controlled trial was conducted with 102 coaches of adolescent girls across multiple sports. Coaches were randomized into the intervention condition ( n = 54) or a waitlist control condition ( n = 48). Both intervention and control group participants completed a baseline self-assessment prior. Intervention group participants undertook Coaching HER Foundation modules over 2 weeks and completed a postintervention self-assessment. Control group coaches completed the postintervention assessment without completing the Coaching HER Foundation modules. Based on the data, coaches found the intervention easy to follow, relevant, applicable, and enjoyable. Efficacy analyses illustrated the intervention group reported lower levels of gender essentialism at postintervention compared with the control group. Study results must be considered in relation to the small sample size and high attrition rate (72%). Study findings will inform intervention optimizations based on participant feedback, after which Coaching HER Foundation will be made freely available within a wider coach education and training framework.","PeriodicalId":45934,"journal":{"name":"International Sport Coaching Journal","volume":"281 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135753481","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Timothy Jones, Justine B. Allen, Stephen Macdonald
{"title":"The “Face” of Coach Development: A Systematic Review of the Role of the Coach Developer","authors":"Timothy Jones, Justine B. Allen, Stephen Macdonald","doi":"10.1123/iscj.2022-0017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1123/iscj.2022-0017","url":null,"abstract":"The purpose of this paper was to systematically review the peer-reviewed literature on the role of the coach developer (CD). Three questions guided this review: (a) who is the CD, (b) what do they do, and (c) how do they do it? Using five electronic databases—SPORTDiscus, ERIC, PsycInfo, Web of Science, and Scopus—a total of 595 articles were initially found with 42 identified as appropriate for inclusion following PRISMA guidelines. A further 11 were added, via the screening of reference lists and during the process of writing, to total 53 articles. Data analysis comprised of content analysis to describe and identify gaps in the research, and reflexive thematic analysis to facilitate the analysis of the findings from the included studies. Content analysis findings show an increase in researching this role and a breadth of methodology and theoretical frameworks being employed. Utilising reflexive thematic analysis, seven themes were generated to understand the who, what, and how of the CD. Findings suggest a diverse and contextualised appreciation of the various roles the CD undertakes as encompassed by the International Council for Coaching Excellence (ICCE) umbrella term definition. The discussion reveals the complexity of the role as CDs navigate who they are, what they do, and how they do it. Recommendations are made for future research to mediate knowledge gaps and move towards alignment and understanding of this key figure.","PeriodicalId":45934,"journal":{"name":"International Sport Coaching Journal","volume":"50 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"63853845","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Glenn Fyall, J. Cowan, Blake C. Bennett, J. Hapeta, S. Walters
{"title":"“Lightbulb Moments”: The (Re)Conceptualization of Coach Development in Aotearoa, New Zealand","authors":"Glenn Fyall, J. Cowan, Blake C. Bennett, J. Hapeta, S. Walters","doi":"10.1123/iscj.2022-0067","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1123/iscj.2022-0067","url":null,"abstract":"Systems thinking is used extensively in organizational research as a framework to understand individual and organizational learning, adaptation, and change. However, systems thinking has had limited application in sport coaching research. In this study, we draw on a systems thinking framework to investigate Sport New Zealand’s recently conceptualized and implemented coach development program known as Coach Developer Aotearoa. To do so, we employ an interpretive phenomenological analysis to analyze the semistructured interview data gathered from the original six-member, Coach Developer Aotearoa design team. Our initial deductive analysis revealed that the participants acquired a more sophisticated understanding of coach development as they interrogated their own personal, collective, and societal assumptions. Specifically, concepts of learner-centeredness, active learning, and reflection, and a greater emphasis on cultural sensitivities replaced traditional behaviorist perspectives of coaching development. In our discussion, informed by our further abductive analysis, we describe the challenges faced by Sport New Zealand when looking to promote their new vision across the New Zealand sport landscape. In doing so, we offer emergent understanding and raise awareness about the possibilities that an alternative definition of critical reflection could offer when seeking systemic change on such a large scale.","PeriodicalId":45934,"journal":{"name":"International Sport Coaching Journal","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"63854952","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Sports Coaching in an Online Space: What Can We Learn From Endurance Sport Coaches?","authors":"J. Blanchfield, J. McArdle, Tandy Haughey","doi":"10.1123/iscj.2022-0068","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1123/iscj.2022-0068","url":null,"abstract":"Within endurance sports (ES), a practice exists in which online remote coaching (RC) is a necessary construct. This study aimed to examine the processes of ES coaches to gain insight into the experiences of coaches engaging in RC before COVID-19 forced others to do the same. To achieve this aim, semistructured interviews were conducted with ES coaches (N = 7; M = 6, F = 1). Transcripts were subject to thematic analysis, with three dimensions (a) remote coach and ES, (b) process of remote coaching, and (c) delivery of training online being identified. An additional 17 higher and 79 lower order themes were found. Results found that to be effective online, ES coaches utilised technology such as instant messaging and online software to increase presence and decrease the perceived distance from athletes. They aimed to create autonomous athletes both by choice and by necessity. The ease of access through technology had a negative and positive impact on work–life balance. A process was developed whereby only technology that served a purpose to further athlete outcomes was used and balanced with subjective feedback. Further research is needed to garner athlete expectations and experiences of RC.","PeriodicalId":45934,"journal":{"name":"International Sport Coaching Journal","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"63854962","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Element of Surprise: How Predictive Processing Can Help Coach Practitioners Understand and Develop Skilled Movement in Sport Settings","authors":"Kath O'Brien, A. Kennedy, Michael J. O’Keeffe","doi":"10.1123/iscj.2023-0012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1123/iscj.2023-0012","url":null,"abstract":"Predictive processing provides a framework for explaining how the brain solves problems of perception, decision making, and movement control by forming predictions, or plausible explanations, for what is happening in an approximately optimal manner. The strength or confidence of the prediction subjectively shapes whether something “surprising” has happened and whether a person’s perceptions and actions require adjustment. We put forward how predictive processing accounts of skill development emphasise predictive processes of action and perception that allows coaches who identify as “sporting ecology designers,” to better understand how to select the right action opportunities (i.e., affordances) to include in their training designs. We describe how motor learning can be incorporated into training designs through the element of “surprise” or the unexpected variations from the already established internal patterns that athletes have learned over time in a range of performance and practice settings. We conclude by presenting an applied example of coaching the backdoor cut manoeuver in basketball using predictive processing techniques, outlining how aspects of athlete knowledge, intentionality, memories, decision making, and prior experience cognitively coalesce during a coach-led training design to produce stable, yet flexible, movement couplings in a sport-based setting.","PeriodicalId":45934,"journal":{"name":"International Sport Coaching Journal","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"63855883","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Project-Led Framework for Coach Development in English Men’s Professional Football: A Premier League Case Study","authors":"Liam McCarthy, Claire-Marie Roberts","doi":"10.1123/iscj.2023-0015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1123/iscj.2023-0015","url":null,"abstract":"Coach education and development programmes are central to the professional development experiences of sport coaches. Typically, these programmes are structured and sequenced in a linear pathway, and present an opportunity for certification which can be a prerequisite to practice and/or employment. Increasingly, as learning becomes viewed as part of a coach’s lifeworld, versus simply as a means to an end, education and development provision is beginning to reflect this. This article introduces and explores the Coach Development Institute Programme, part of the Premier League’s Elite Coaching Plan, which seeks to improve the quality of football coaching in English boys’/men’s football by engaging coaches in a 2-year work-based learning opportunity. Built around a core of project-based learning and assessment, coaches are supported as they examine a series of meaningful performance problems in their unique practice environments. Through this work, we demonstrate how theories, concepts, and principles from the adult education and assessment as learning literature might work as they are applied in a coach education and development context. With such sparsity of case-based examples like this within the peer-reviewed literature, we intend that our contribution could inform, promote dialogue, and raise questions about authentically supporting coaches beyond a minimum standard of practice.","PeriodicalId":45934,"journal":{"name":"International Sport Coaching Journal","volume":"32 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135156536","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jessica Siegele, Elizabeth Taylor, Kelsie Saxe, Allison Smith
{"title":"Mothers as Others in Collegiate Athletic Departments: The Impact of a Gendered Organization on Women Coaches","authors":"Jessica Siegele, Elizabeth Taylor, Kelsie Saxe, Allison Smith","doi":"10.1123/iscj.2022-0117","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1123/iscj.2022-0117","url":null,"abstract":"Work–life conflict and the underrepresentation of women in college coaching have been widely examined topics in sport research. However, more limited attention has been devoted to exploring the influence of parental status on the careers of coaches. The purpose of the study was to understand the experiences of women who voluntarily left the coaching profession because of its perceived incompatibility with motherhood. Utilizing Acker’s Theory of Gendered Organizations framework, the current study interviewed six former National Collegiate Athletic Association women coaches whose collegiate coaching careers ended prematurely due to the difficulty in balancing parental and professional responsibilities. Using interpretative phenomenological analysis, three high-order themes were constructed: (a) no space for women; (b) getting out, wanting to be in; and (c) impact of gendered society. Findings indicate that women coaches with children experience unique barriers and challenges, which can ultimately lead to women exiting the college coaching profession. Findings dispel the myth that women “don’t want to coach” and implicate the compounding stress of gender roles in the family and broader society.","PeriodicalId":45934,"journal":{"name":"International Sport Coaching Journal","volume":"10 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135356373","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}