An Overview of Seven National High Performance Coach Education Programs

Abstract

High quality education programs across the globe could help coaching move forward as a profession. Although there have been suggestions to improve sports coaching education programs by integrating theory and practice through alternative learning approaches such as mentoring and critical refection (Armour, 2010; Cushion, Armour, & Jones, 2003), it is unclear whether such approaches have been implemented in coach education programs and how different countries are educating their coaches. The purpose of this paper is to describe how seven high performance coach education programs are educating coaches and to what extent they are employing alternative learning approaches. The goals, curricula, and pedagogical approaches are described and implications for the professionalization of coaching are discussed.

The Role of the Coach Developer in Supporting and Guiding Coach Learning

“…Coaches need to understand what they are expected to do, by when and whether this is assessed or not. Callary, Culver, Werthner and Bales (2014) reinforce the use of experiential learning and critical refection, which provides support for the inclusion of supported practice in the field and vindicates the need for a mentor within the program. This will help coaches to answer questions such as: Coaches are usually made aware of the assessment and evidence requirements during the induction phase and this is reinforced again on course at salient points.…”

Coach development programmes to improve interpersonal coach behaviours: a systematic review using the re-aim framework

“…Experiences with coaches are not inherently positive, however and poor coach behaviours may have profoundly negative influences on athletic development (eg, burnout1). With this understanding in mind, coach education mandated by governing bodies is going through a period of growth, and several national sport organisations have developed coaching curriculum encompassing numerous topics—often with intent to improve professional knowledge or ensure coaching ethics and safety 2. As evidenced by the international efforts for coach education, there is applied interest in how to develop effective coaches.…”

“…Whereas interpersonal behaviours are occasionally targeted in certification programmes as one of numerous coach competencies,2 they are also the focus of interventions by sport psychology researchers to promote mastery-supportive, transformational or autonomy supportive coach behaviours (eg, Mastery Approach to Coaching11 or Empowering Coaching12). Several terms are used to describe these efforts (eg, interpersonal intervention13), however the term interpersonal coach development programmes (CDPs) is an encompassing term to describe learning activities applied systematically through education, social interaction and/or personal reflection with the goal of changing interpersonal coach behaviours.…”

Olympic Games Rio 2016: The Legacy for Coaches

“…Nevertheless, the importance of the Brazilian legislation was reiterated in the interviews as a positive aspect. The Brazilian legal framework for coaches' education echoes the international academic literature, that has been indicated the importance of coaches for sports, and the education for professional performance (Rynne, Mallett, & Rabjohns, 2017;Callary, Culver, Werthner, & Bales, 2014). "The realisation of the strategic importance of high quality coaching to the achievement of national sport policy objectives is resulting in extensive movements to professionalise the coaching industry" (Piggott, 2015, p. 283).…”