2nd Edition
Research Methods in Sports Coaching
Research Methods in Sports Coaching is a key resource for students and scholars who are completing research into sports coaching. The book comprises five distinct parts that prompt readers to think about important considerations:
- preparing and initiating the coaching research process
- philosophical considerations for coaching research
- coaching research designs
- methods of collecting coaching data
- analysing coaching data
This fully revised edition places particular emphasis on introducing the diverse research paradigms, research designs, as well as methods of data collection and analysis available to coaching researchers.
Written by a team of leading international scholars and researchers from the UK, Sweden, the United States, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia, this book bridges the gap between the theory and practice of sports coaching research. The second edition of Research Methods in Sports Coaching is an essential text for any research methods course taken as part of a degree programme in sports coaching or coach education.
Introduction
Lee Nelson, Ryan Groom, and Paul Potrac
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 L. T. Corsby and Robert C. 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. Analysis of 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, organisational 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.
