Becoming a Sports Coach

A 'coach' is more than just somebody who leads in the organisation and delivery of structured sport. A real coach goes beyond leadership, employing an understanding of pedagogy and theories of teaching and learning. To become a coach you must know how people learn.
This book aims to introduce the multi-layered and inter-locking types of knowledge that any aspiring coach will need to develop, and that any established coach needs to master in order to improve their professional practice. It explores key pedagogic themes in contemporary coaching studies, such as humanistic coaching, inclusive practice, coaching for understanding, and the athlete-coach relationship, and uses real case studies to illuminate the ways - transferrable across sports - in which coaches can employ content knowledge.

James Wallis is a Principal Lecturer in Sport Coaching and Physical Education at the University of Brighton, UK, where he is course leader of the BSc (Hons) Sport Coaching programme. He has extensive applied experience in coaching and coach education in both performance and sport for development contexts. He is currently contributing to coach education in professional cricket John Lambert is a Principal Lecturer in Sport Coaching and Physical Education at the School of Sport and Service Management, University of Brighton, UK. He is a UEFA A licence football coach and works in the match analysis and talent identification department of a Premier League football club. He has been engaged in coaching and coach education for many years, including tutoring FA courses. John is Visiting Lecturer at the German Sport University, Cologne, and has worked on a major international sport for development project for over ten years. He is co-editor of Values in Youth Sport and Physical Education (Routledge, 2014)

Introduction Section 1: 'Why' You Coach the Way You Do 1. Learning to Learn; The coach as a reflective practitioner 2. Philosophy of Practice and Practice Conflict: Coaching dilemmas and the performance spectrum 3. Moral Issues in Sport Coaching 4. The Political Context for Coaching Section 2: 'How' to Add Value to Your Coaching 5. Inclusive Practice in Sport Coaching 6. Humanistic Coaching 7. Coaching for Understanding 8. Toward Quality not Quantity in Sport Motivation 9. Coach Athlete Relationship: A case study of women's elite tennis Section 3: 'What' to Coach: Building on technical knowledge 10. Integrating and Applying Knowledge of Sport Science: 'Pulling it all together' through a case study of British Cycling 11. Embedding Knowledge of Sport Psychology: Case studies within professional cricket 12. A Values-based Approach to Coaching Within Sport for Development Programmes 13. Identifying and Developing Elite Performers: Some key considerations from a coach's perspective 14. Plenary, Concluding Thoughts and Future Directions