Analysis of a community club coach developer project

ABSTRACT

Background

Coaching is grounded in three knowledge components: professional, interpersonal and intrapersonal knowledge. Coach development research has shown that coaches value contextual, in situ, learning with mentors more highly than formal, mediated programs that are offered by sporting bodies, which often provide generic content.

Purpose

The aim of this paper is to present the findings of an evaluation of a Coach Developer Program that was implemented across 6 community sports clubs in the southern suburbs of South Australia. The program provided guidance to the clubs in the development of a designated Coach Developer role to support coaches and their practice.

Method

This study utilised pre and post program surveys that contained qualitative and quantitative questions. 2 club administrators, 3 coach developers and 29 coaches from the 6 clubs participated in an online pre-program survey, and 22 coaches and 2 coach developers participated in an online post-program survey.

Results

Some coaches believed their coaching was positively impacted on the introduction of a Coach Developer role within their club, and the coaching mentoring promoted as part of the Coach Developer Program, however, many were unsure if their coaching practice had been impacted. Therefore, the perceived usefulness of the role of a Coach Developer was considered equivocal in terms of the overall impact. However, when considering individual impact, the role was beneficial for focussing coach development and support.

Recommendation

Given the preference of coaches for in situ mentoring expressed in this project and the extant literature, we recommend that governing bodies and community clubs invest in purposeful in situ learning, such as the Coach Developer Program trialled in this study.

KEYWORDS:

• Coach development
• mentoring
• impact evaluation
• outcome evaluation
• sport coaching

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This study was part of a coach developer project funded by the Office for Recreation, Sport and Racing, Government of South Australia 2018–2019 Special Initiative Grant.