Impact of Coach Education for School Coaches on Long Term Athlete Development Principles - A Mixed Method Study

Abstract

Coach education programs (CEP) throughout the world have lately been constructed around long-term athlete development (LTAD), a six-stage paradigm centered on children and adolescents’ physical, mental, emotional, and cognitive development. The LTAD model is extremely important for coaches working with children. However, empirical research on LTAD coach education for school sports coaches has not yet been conducted. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of the CEP on school sports coaches’ knowledge of LTAD and assess whether they applied it to their coaching practice. An explanatory sequential mixed-method design was used. With institutional ethical approval, thirty (n = 30) school sports coaches were recruited through the purposive sampling method. A one-day CEP was conducted for coaches. After completing the CEP, they were handed the coach assessment survey questionnaire. Based on the quantitative results, twelve school sports coaches participated in a semistructured interview after six weeks to obtain qualitative data at the end of the survey questionnaire. Coach evaluation survey results show that all 13 categories (perceived benefits, perceived future benefits, enjoyment, and future goals) received very high ratings (4.86 to 5.00/5). Four primary themes emerged from the interview data: “learned knowledge”, “helpfulness”, “confidence”, and “sports performance”. The study results and findings indicated that the CEP for coaches is highly effective and coaches developed knowledge through rich learning situations relevant to their coaching context. The study can be concluded that the CEP for coaches is highly effective and it will be helped to improve their coaching practice. The study may contribute to the development of future CEP and make practical recommendations to assist other coaches in critically evaluating and exploring the use of contemporary best practices in their practices.