Research Methods in Sports Coaching

Part I: Preparing and Initiating the Coaching Research Process

 

1.     Navigating the Research Process

Wade Gilbert, Martin Camiré, and Diane Culver

 

2.     Reviewing the Literature and Formulating Topics  

John Lyle

 

3.     Ethical Considerations

Graham McFee

 

4.     Judging the Quality of Coaching Research

John Toner

 

PART II: Philosophical Considerations for Coaching Research

 

5.     Philosophy of Knowledge

Clifford Mallett, Steven Rynne, and Richard Tinning

 

6.     Logical positivism: Quantitative measurement in the study of Coaching Behaviours, Their Effects on Athletes, and Their Modification

Ronald Smith and Frank Smoll

 

7.     Interpretivism: Exploring Meaning-making, Intentional Action, and Group Life in Coaching Research.

Paul Potrac, Robyn Jones, Edward Hall, Ben Ives, Callum Morgan, and Lee Nelson

 

8.     Critical theory: Social Justice Approaches to Coaching Research and Practice

Jennifer Waldron and Vikki Krane

 

9.     Critical realism: Explaining Causal Mechanisms that Underpin Events, Entities and (inter)actions in Coaching

Adam Nichol

 

10.  Poststructuralism: Poststructuralist Approaches to Sports Coaching Research

Zoë Avner, Luke Jones, and Jim Denison

 

Part III: Coaching research designs

 

11.  Experimental designs

Stephen Harvey

 

12.  Case Studies

Luke Gibson and Ryan Groom

 

13.  Ethnography

Chris Cushion

 

14.  Autoethnography

Brian Gearity

 

15.  Phenomenology

Colum Cronin

 

16.  Mixed Methods Research

David Stephens and Anna Stodter

 

17.  Action Research

Kevin Morgan, Kerry Harris, and José Castro

 

PART IV: Methods of collecting coaching data

 

18.  Systematic Observation

Mark Partington and Ed Cope

 

19.  Participant Observation

Charles Corsby and Robert Townsend

 

20.  Surveys and Questionnaires

Louise Davis, Daniel Rhind, and Sophia Jowett

 

21.  Individual and Focus Group Interviews

Gordon Bloom, Danielle Alexander-Urquhart, and William Falcão

 

22.  Using Documents

Dave Day

 

PART V: Analysing Coaching Data

 

23.  Analysing Quantitative Data

Adrian Midgley and Bryna Chrismas

 

24.  Doing Qualitative Data Analysis

Ben Ives, Ben Clayton, Laura Gale, Thalia Holdom, and Adam Nichol

 

Biography

Lee Nelson is a Reader in Sports Coaching in the Department of Sport and Physical Activity at Edge Hill University, UK. He leads the Department’s Practice in Coaching and Teaching Research Group. His research focuses on developing a critical social analysis of sports work in community and performance coaching as well as professional education contexts. He principally utilises qualitative research methods as well as dramaturgical and interactionist theoretical frameworks to understand how sports workers experience and navigate organisational life.

 

Ryan Groom is a Senior Lecturer in the College of Exercise Sciences at the University of Derby, UK. His work is based at the intersection of interactional sociology and psychology, predominately, working within interpretive applied naturalistic and ethnographic frameworks within elite sport. He has published widely in journals examining video-based feedback, organizational change, mentoring and learning. He has also co-edited Research Methods in Sports Coaching (2014, Routledge) and Learning in Sports Coaching (2016, Routledge).

 

Paul Potrac is a Professor of Sports Coaching in the Department of Sport, Exercise Rehabilitation at the University of Northumbria at Newcastle, UK. He combines qualitative research methods and dramaturgical and symbolic interactionist theorising to critically examine the interactive, relational, and emotional dimensions of group life in high performance and community sport contexts. He holds visiting professor positions at University College Dublin and Cardiff Metropolitan University.