The aim of this paper is twofold. The first purpose is to report on participant coaches’ perceptions of a theory-based coach education program (known as the CoDe program). The second purpose is to discuss how we, as coach educators, reflected on the initiation of the CoDe program. In evaluating the coach education program, semistructured interviews were conducted with eight rugby union coaches. Three themes emerged from the interviews: (a) thinking about athletes as learners, (b) focusing on the process of coaching, and (c) the value of talking with other coaches. Fullan’s (1991a) notion of curriculum change frames our discussion of the participant coaches’ evaluations and our reflections on the initiation of the CoDe program.

The last two decades has seen a proliferation in the provision of and importance attached to coach education in many Western countries [1] Pivotal to many coach education programmes is the notion of apprenticeship [2,3,4]. Increasingly, mentoring is being positioned as a possible tool for enhancing coach education and professional expertise [5]. However, there is a paucity of empirical data on interventions in and evaluations of coach education programmes. In their recent evaluation of a coach education programme, Cassidy, Potrac & McKenzie [6] conclude that the situated learning literature could provide coach educators with a generative platform for the (re)examination of apprenticeships and mentoring in a coach education context. This paper discusses the merits of using Situated Learning theory [7] and the associated concept of Communities of Practice (CoP) [8] to stimulate discussion on developing new understandings of the practices of apprenticeship and mentoring in coach education.

The aim of this paper is to examine how power is given, acquired and used by athletes in the elite sporting context. It focuses on a top-level athlete's reactions to the behaviors of his coaches and how such actions contribute to the creation of a coaching climate, which both influences and ‘houses’ coaching. The paper centers on Sean (a pseudonym), a top-level rower and his preparation for crew selection to the upcoming international regatta season. Specifically, it illustrates Sean's interaction with those responsible for a national rowing program following his decision not to participate in an aspect of that program. Sean's story, from both his own and the perspectives of his coaches, is presented using a variation of realist tales which draw upon excerpts from fieldnotes and interview transcripts. Bourdieu's notion of capital is primarily utilized to analyze the data. Findings demonstrate how the various aspects of capital are defined, used and negotiated by social actors within the context of elite sport. The significance of the work lies in generating a greater understanding of power dynamics within the coaching context.

Increasingly the professional development literature in sports coaching encourages coaches to coach holistically. Yet the phrase ‘holistic coaching’ is mired in ambiguity and has the potential to become meaningless. The aims of this article are to explore the relationship between holism, humanistic psychology, humanism and sports coaching, and to pose some challenges, which could support the field to move beyond the influence of humanistic psychology.

Despite burgeoning literature on the agency of sports coaches and the nature of coaching fields, scant attention has been paid to the process through which coaches’ identities are socially constructed. Informed by Goffman's concept, total institution, and Scott's reinventive institution, this article explores how coaches’ athletic experiences within totalising sports environments influence the formation of their identity as coaches. Drawing on South Korea's elite sports context where almost all high-performance coaches are former athletes who share experiences of being trained under an authoritative sport regime, a qualitative analysis was conducted on data from documents and in-depth interviews with 26 participants. Findings reveal that: (1) individual selves in the coercive sports setting were eroded and rewritten by the totalising nature of the social architecture; (2) nevertheless, the individuals displayed a certain degree of agency in their desire to reinvent themselves in the sports setting; and (3) the nexus of institutional power of the sport setting and voluntary participation of the individual athletes engendered a one-dimensional identity that was optimised only for the elite sports setting. These findings suggest that the identities shaped within South Korea's elite sports environment steered athletes to become coaches upon retirement from sports, reluctantly returning to, or remaining in, their comfort zone – the totalising environment of elite sports.

Background: A number of countries have heavily invested in the provision of large scale coach education programmes, often framed by elaborate qualification frameworks. Despite this investment, scant research has been conducted on coach education programmes. Given the limited amount of literature on coach education, and the relatively recent emergence of literature that foregrounds the educational aspect of the coaching process, it is probably not surprising that the concept of curriculum has received scant attention despite the increasing interest in pedagogy amongst members of the sport coaching community. Setting: In the middle of 2000, a Ministerial Taskforce on Sport, Fitness and Leisure was established to examine the structure of New Zealand sport. In 2001, one of the ‘actions’ stemming from the Ministerial Taskforce was the restructuring of the sport, leisure and fitness sectors, resulting in the establishment of Sport and Recreation New Zealand (SPARC). One mandate given to SPARC was to review and upgrade coaching practice and resourcing. Subsequently, SPARC published two policy documents: The New Zealand Coaching Strategy and the Coach Development Framework (CDF). Purpose: The purpose of the article is two-fold; first to report on an analysis of the language used in The New Zealand Coaching Strategy and the Coach Development Framework and second, to explain why particular language was used. Methods and analysis: The first method was a text analysis, which was used to analyse The New Zealand Coaching Strategy and the Coach Development Framework. The second method was interviewing, which was conducted with the members of the working party involved in designing the CDF to gain insight into why particular language was used. Findings: We provide examples that demonstrate how The New Zealand Coaching Strategy and the Coach Development Framework reflect, or not, a paradigmatic shift in the conceptualisation of educating coaches in the New Zealand context. The examples specifically focus on a shift from coach education to coach development, from generic courses for all coaches to coaching communities, and from formalised accreditation to the provision of learning opportunities and experiences. Conclusion: Drawing on empirical examples from the above documents, and the interview texts from the members of the working party, we contend there has been a paradigm shift in the coach education sector in New Zealand because there has been a move (at least at policy level) from an accredited and certified, standardised programme, to an ongoing professional development process informed by an applied athlete-centred philosophy.