Sports coaches’ mentorship: Experience and a suggested future framework

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Author
Bailey, Jake
Jones, Robyn
Allison, Wayne
Date
2019-12-31Acceptance date
2019-12-10
Type
Article
Publisher
Spanish Association of Sport Science
ISSN
2386-4095
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Introduction: Mentoring is widely advocated as an important component of coach learning, both informally and as a constituent feature of coach development programmes. However, despite its ubiquity, there remains a paucity of empirical evidence to support mentoring’s use in practice. Consequently, the purpose of this paper is to present an empirical case study of a formalised mentoring programme as experienced by the mentors, and to contribute towards a critical conceptualisation of mentoring in sports coaching.
Materials and methods: Eight mentors participated in the study, all being employed on a formalised mentoring programme. Data collection occurred over the 18-month duration of the programme to respect the longitudinal nature of the mentoring process. The data were analysed thematically.
Results: The results emphasised the need for a clearer conceptualisation of mentoring to successfully operationalise practice. Although the relational aspect of the role was deemed crucial, developing reciprocity was challenging. This was because of the limited shared or critical understanding of the role among the participants.
Discussion: Building on the portrayal of mentoring depicted in the results, we subsequently position mentoring as a relational and contextualized activity. In doing so, we claim a more realistic, coherent and effective pedagogy of mentoring.
Journal/conference proceeding
European Journal of Human Movement;
Citation
Bailey, J., Jones, R.L. and Allison, W. (2019) 'Sports coaches’ mentorship: experience and a suggested future framework', European Journal of Human Movement, 43, pp.67-85.
Description
Article published in European Journal of Human Movement on 31 December 2019, available open access at: http://www.eurjhm.com/index.php/eurjhm/article/view/501.
Sponsorship
Cardiff Metropolitan University (Grant ID: Cardiff Metropolian (Internal))
Collections
- Sport Research Groups [1096]
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