Workplace learning of high performance sports coaches

The Australian coaching workplace (to be referred to as the State Institute of Sport; SIS) under consideration in this study employs significant numbers of full-time performance sport coaches and can be accurately characterized as a genuine workplace. Through a consideration of the interaction between what the workplace (SIS) affords the individual and the agency of the individual SIS coaches, it is possible to gain an understanding how high performance sport coaches learn in the workplace. Analysis of data collected by means of semi-structured interviews with a group of coaches (n = 6) and administrators (n = 6), revealed that coaches learned through a variety of sources both within and outside of (but often influenced by) the SIS. In addition, there were a range of factors such as the working climate and the physical environment that were reported to have an impact on the learning of the coaches (structure). In keeping with Billett's (2006) theorizing, aspects of the individuals' agency (e.g. passion for the sport, drive to be the best) were also found to be critical to the learning in the workplace

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

Enhancing coach-parent relationships in youth sports: increasing harmony and minimizing hassle

Frank Smoll and his colleagues should be commended on continuing to advance the worthy aim of making youth-sport participation more enjoyable. Indeed, the body of work generated by Smith and Smoll [e.g., 1], along with the more recent contributions of Cumming [e.g., 2], have been highly influential in coaching research and practice over a number of years. In this commentary, we focus on three of the five areas covered by the authors: i) the difference between youth and professional models of sport; ii) the goals of youth sports; and iii) parental responsibilities and challenges

In pursuit of becoming a senior coach: The learning culture for Australian Football League coaches

Background and Purpose: Given the turbulent and highly contested environment in which professional coaches work, a prime concern to coach developers is how coaches learn their craft. Understanding the learning and development of senior coaches (SCs) and assistant coaches (ACs) in the Australian Football League (AFL - the peak organisation for Australian Rules Football) is important to better develop the next generation of performance coaches. Hence the focus of this research was to examine the learning of SC and AC in the AFL. Fundamental to this research was an understanding that the AFL and each club within the league be regarded as learning organisations and workplaces with their own learning cultures where learning takes place. The purpose of this paper was to examine the learning culture for AFL coaches.Method: Five SCs, 6 ACs, and 5 administrators (4 of whom were former coaches) at 11 of the 16 AFL clubs were recruited for the research project. First, demographic data were collected for each participant (e.g. age, playing and coaching experience, development and coach development activities). Second, all participants were involved in one semi-structured interview of between 45 and 90 minutes duration. An interpretative (hierarchical content) analysis of the interview data was conducted to identify key emergent themes.Results: Learning was central to AFL coaches becoming a SC. Nevertheless, coaches reported a sense of isolation and a lack of support in developing their craft within their particular learning culture. These coaches developed a unique dynamic social network (DSN) that involved episodic contact with a number of respected confidantes often from diverse fields (used here in the Bourdieuian sense) in developing their coaching craft. Although there were some opportunities in their workplace, much of their learning was unmediated by others, underscoring the importance of their agentic engagement in limited workplace affordances.Conclusion: The variety of people accessed for the purposes of learning (often beyond the immediate workplace) and the long time taken to establish networks of supporters meant that a new way of describing the social networks of AFL coaches was needed; DSN. However, despite the acknowledged utility of learning from others, all coaches reported some sense of isolation in their learning. The sense of isolation brought about by professional volatility in high-performance Australian Football offers an alternative view on Hodkinson, Biesta and James' attempt in overcoming dualisms in learning

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

High-performance sports provide athletes with a variety of learning experiences. Because athletes invest significant time and energy in training and competition over relatively long periods of time and because sport assumes high levels of significance to athletes, learning can involve intense and long-lasting changes that have consequences within and beyond sport (Barker et al. 2014; Barker-Ruchti et al. 2012). Despite the centrality of learning in high-performance sport, scholars have given this topic little attention. While there are exceptions (e.g. Gearity 2012; Light 2010; McMahon and Penney 2013; Rynne, Mallett, and Tinning 2010), many aspects of learning in high-performance sport remain unchartered. The limited body of literature on learning in high-performance sport may surprise since this topic has received considerable attention in physical education, in relation to both phys- ical education pupils (e.g. Quennerstedt et al. 2014; Quennerstedt, Öhman, and Öhman, 2011) and physical education teachers (e.g. Armour, Makopoulou, and Chambers 2012; Keay 2005, 2006; Makopoulou and Armour 2011; Sirna, Tinning, and Rossi 2008). Using socio-cultural perspectives of learning, this literature demonstrates that learning occurs continuously and regardless of, for instance, teaching method and age/career stage, but is influenced by reflexive interactions between socio-cultural, structural and situational factors and individual agency. In so doing, this existing literature points to the complex and relational nature of learning. Building on this literature, the broad aim of this special issue is to provide an entry point for investigations into learning in high-performance sport. We recognise that there are multiple potential ways to examine learning in high-performance sport; however, we are concerned with demonstrating the utility of using a cultural learning framework (Hodkinson, Biesta, and James 2008). The value of this framework in our view lies in its capacity to capture different dimensions of learning in a holistic manner. In this introduction, we present the framework as two inter-related and complementary parts: Theory of Learning Cultures and Cultural Theory of Learning. This particular cultural perspective of learning has to date not been formally presented to the physical education and sport pedagogy com- munity. As our experiences with this approach have been positive, we consider this an opportunity for further valuable scholarship.Full Tex

Olympism as education: Analysing the learning experiences of elite athletes

Olympic athletes are potentially the most visible exponents of Olympic values. How athletes learn values, however, has not captured the attention of those responsible for Olympic documentation or pedagogues. This paper examines how aspects of Olympism became relevant for three former Olympians during their athletic careers. Interview material suggested that: (1) inconsistencies within official expressions of Olympism mirror tensions in athletic experiences; (2) some claims concerning sport made in the Olympic Charter are simplistic and translate poorly to Olympic experiences that are multidimensional and complex; and (3) universal ethical principles have limited influence on how athletes conduct themselves. The results imply that pedagogues working with elite athletes should make discursive discontinuities in sport explicit, reflect on traditional views of sport education while acknowledging implicit learning, and approach questions of ethics from a specific and practice-oriented standpoint rather than a universal and principle-based one

Fortnightly tides and subtidal motions in a choked inlet

This paper is not subject to U.S. copyright. The definitive version was published in Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science 150, Pt.B (2014): 325-331, doi:10.1016/j.ecss.2014.03.025.Amplitudes of semi-diurnal tidal fluctuations measured at an ocean inlet system decay nearly linearly by 87% between the ocean edge of the offshore ebb-tidal delta and the backbay. A monochromatic, dynamical model for a tidally choked inlet separately reproduces the evolution of the amplitudes and phases of the semi-diurnal and diurnal tidal constituents observed between the ocean and inland locations. However, the monochromatic model over-predicts the amplitude and under-predicts the lag of the lower-frequency subtidal and fortnightly motions observed in the backbay. A dimensional model that considers all tidal constituents simultaneously, balances the along-channel pressure gradient with quadratic bottom friction, and that includes a time-varying channel water depth, is used to show that that these model-data differences are associated with nonlinear interactions between the tidal constituents that are not included in non-dimensional, monochromatic models. In particular, numerical simulations suggest that the nonlinear interactions induced by quadratic bottom friction modify the amplitude and phase of the subtidal and fortnightly backbay response. This nonlinear effect on the low-frequency (subtidal and fortnightly) motions increases with increasing high-frequency (semi-diurnal) amplitude. The subtidal and fortnightly motions influence water exchange processes, and thus backbay temperature and salinity.We thank the Office of Naval Research (N0001411WX20962; N0001412WX20498) for funding

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

Researching up and across in physical education and sport pedagogy: methodological lessons learned from an intergenerational narrative inquiry

Of issue in this paper are the ways in which different forms of narrative may be of value in undertaking research in potentially thorny situations. The project that inspired this paper saw 30 Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy (PESP) Early Career Academics (ECAs) from more than 20 universities across Australasia, North America and Europe, provide narrative accounts of their ongoing academic experiences. From these stories, three letters seeking advice and guidance from leaders in the field were constructed. Following further feedback from the ECAs, the 3 letters were sent to 11 professors in the PESP field with a request to respond, also in letter form. The composite letters and the professorial responses were then the subject of a symposium at an international PESP conference. While the larger project engages with questions of being and becoming an academic in the neoliberal university, this paper is primarily concerned with methodological issues, including our steps and missteps with narrative, inquiry and the field. More specifically, the focus is on narrative as both the method and phenomena of study. As such, we consider issues associated with using dialogue as data, the provocation of participants, as well as both the presentation and representation of data and the relative power of the participants. In doing so, we critically engage with issues of anonymity (or lack thereof), the practice of ‘researching up’ and finally reach the conclusion that the careful approach to data generation, treatment and presentation necessitated by this project, should be a more regular feature of all qualitative inquiry