Developing the Reflective Skills in Sports Coaching: The Design and Implementation of a New Pro-Forma from the Field

Abstract

Athletics coaching is a continually increasing endeavour within today‟s society. In recent years national governing bodies (NGB‟s) of sport have adapted their certification and workshops to help improve the quality of athletics coaching across the UK. Advancements in sporting research literature, however, have highlighted that the current coach education framework does very little to aid coaches‟ professional practice (Bowes and Jones, 2006). The research has shifted its emphasis from the refinement of grounded theories into the development of individual coach‟s practice. One universally recognised method of developing individual practice is reflective practice (Schön, 1983). This research paper aims to bridge the gap between knowledge and practice through the design of a new reflective pro-forma specifically from the field. A preliminary inductive generalisation (P.I.G.) method was used in order to question and understand the intricate nature of coaching and the coach‟s current perceptions and relationships with reflective practice to aid the design of a new pro-forma. Based on the coaches‟ beliefs, philosophies to coaching and barriers to reflection the new pro-forma was applied into practice on a six week intervention programme to test its effectiveness, adaptability and potential to aid learning. Upon following interviews the coaches noted an increase in motivation to reflect using the pro-forma as a result of time effectiveness, highly visual nature and increased awareness of influencing factors that affected individual practice. This pro-forma holds the potential to be applied within NGB structures as a part of continuing the professional development (CPD) of practice as well as the highlighting new methods of research with the PIG that can be applied to other reflective practitioners in various fields.