How meaningful episodic experiences influence the process of becoming an experienced coach

Abstract

The research on coach learning and development deals with the classification of the sources from which coaches learn, and more recently, with the identification of learning being an idiosyncratic process in which there are variations in coaches’ learning paths. From a constructivist view, learning may be seen as a process of becoming: a person engages in social situations throughout life that are transformed cognitively, emotively and/or practically, and integrated into the person’s biography so that the person becomes more experienced. ‘Episodic experiences’, when they are meaningful to individuals, may result in considerable change to the way that individuals perceive what they know, and have the potential to influence their perception on future learning. The purpose of this article is to illustrate how such meaningful episodic experiences can have an important influence on an individual coach’s process of becoming an experienced coach. Through the use of non-fictional vignettes, we explore how five Canadian women coaches from various sports learned throughout their long careers in coaching as a result of specific episodic experiences in their lives that they considered meaningful. The five vignettes respectively demonstrate learning from episodic experiences with an athlete, with other coaches, in formal and non-formal education courses, with family, and in taking time out to reflect. Due to their own unique biographies, coaches may perceive certain planned and unplanned experiences as meaningful and the learning that occurs as a result may ultimately influence their career paths. This article adds to the emerging body of literature regarding coach learning and highlights the importance of the various experiences of these female coaches in understanding their development.

Keywords:

• coach
• learning
• becoming
• non-fictional vignette

Acknowledgements

The researchers gratefully acknowledge financial assistance for this project from the following agencies: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Ontario Graduate Scholarship, and Sport Canada.