‘Why am I putting myself through this?’ Women football coaches’ experiences of the Football Association's coach education process

Scaffolding Women Coaches’ Development: A Program to Build Coaches’ Competence and Confidence

“…Furthermore, women golf coaches valued the structure and feedback provided by their coach education programme and the credible educators (McCullick, Belcher, & Schempp, 2005). In contrast, Lewis et al (2018) found that, during their coach education, women football coaches in the UK experienced gender discrimination, inappropriate practices, feeling unwelcome, and a lack of self-worth which caused some to question their commitment to coaching and coach education. However, participants also suggested that female role models, either as coaches or coach developers, and women only courses, would provide a better experience for them.…”

“…Research documenting the numbers of women and men coaching has demonstrated that this under representation is not restricted to one country and includes the UK (Bruce, 2014;Norman, 2008), USA (Acosta & Carpenter, 2012;LaVoi & Dutove, 2012) Canada (Reade, Rogers, & Norman, 2009) and NZ (Allen & Shaw, 2009). Examinations to better understand this issue have explored topics such as the masculine culture of sport (Norman, 2013), organisational factors including recruitment (Reade et al, 2009;Norman, 2010), pathways (Barker-Ruchti, Lindgren, Hofmann, Sinning, & Shelton, 2014), education (Lewis, Roberts, & Andrews, 2018) and support (Allen & Shaw, 2013). Unfortunately, this research paints a rather bleak picture of the plight of women coaches.…”

“More Practice-based Courses and Not Just a Load of Papers to Read”: Youth Soccer Coaches Reflections on Coach Education Programs in Sweden

“…Côté (2006) and Stoszkowski & Collins (2014) argues on one hand that formal coach education risks focusing on knowledge transfer, missing dimensions of critical thinking, but on the other hand that formal coach education settings could be the only context where there is potential for coaches to develop critical thinking. In a study on female coaches' experiences of English coach education programs, Lewis, Roberts and Andrews (2015) found that there is often a gap between what is being provided in the programs and what the coaches find to be relevant knowledge. In some studies coaches express that formal education is of limited importance and courses often lack of relevant and practically useful knowledge (Nelson, Cushion & Potrac, 2013;Camiré, Trudel & Forneris, 2014).…”

Exploring How Well UK Coach Education Meets the Needs of Women Sports Coaches

“…503 (Xena, rowing NGB officer) 504 sports coach UK (2013) reported that some women coaches requested the provision of female-only 505 formal coach education courses although it rejected this proposal in favour of suggesting that more 506 inclusive approaches which tackled gender-related issues in a less segmented way should be 507 explored. Lewis et al (2015) reported strong support for women-only coaching courses. Our data 508 provide modest support for women-only courses among coaches and coach educators which 509 appears to be primarily due to the perceived impact on confidence and competence of sharing the 510 educational space with male colleagues, although some NGB officers were not convinced that 511 gender segregation was the best approach.…”