A preliminary investigation into the coaching behaviours of English independent school team sport coaches

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyse the coaching behaviours of experienced English independent school team sport coaches within the practice environment. The Arizona State University Observation Instrument (ASUOI) was revised using a process similar to that used by Brewer and Jones (2002), which was designed to improve the validity and reliability of the observation instrument utilised. This process resulted in an adapted set of behaviour categories being used in the observation of three independent school coaches. The modified observational instrument is deemed able to record the unique behaviours of three independent school coaches within a specific school environment.

Time sampled event recording was used to collect the data, with each coach being observed eight times during the season (term). Verbal instruction (pre-instruction, learning intention, feedback and feedforward) passed on by coach to athlete accounted for (42.50%) of all the recorded behavioural intervals. Questioning (11.17%), modelling (8.09%) and observation (11.79%) were also used regularly by the coaches. The overall trends and variation in coaching behaviours between the coaches are discussed in relation to existing sports coaching, sociological and educational research.