Coach Education in Field Hockey: A Critique

Abstract

The aims of the study were to provide an insight into coach education programmes in hockey. Previous research had highlighted strengths and weaknesses of formal and informal coach education practices, the literature outlined the requirements of successful coaching, emphasising the high level of understanding and competency required to be an efficient coach. The study consisted of five semi structured interviews with coaches who had been through NGB coach education qualification in hockey, and who were currently active hockey coaches at the time of the study. Participants exposed positive and negative experiences of coach education and their justification for these opinions. Key findings suggest that (i) coach education courses were lacking relevant information; they were seen as being generic and unspecific, there was a calling from the coaches for a more hockey specific coach education experience, (ii) that the coach educators play a crucially important role in the coach education delivery and as a direct result of this, the success of the course, (iii) coach education courses in hockey are seen as an integral and necessary part of a coaches development. Findings establish that significant changes should be made to the course content and course delivery, eradicating the existing issues to enable a more hockey specific, reality relevant coach education experience, ultimately resulting in improved coaching effectiveness throughout the game leading to consistently increased levels of performance.