Research Methods in Sports Coaching is a key resource for any student, researcher or practitioner wishing to undertake research into sports coaching. It takes the reader through each phase of the research process, from identifying valuable research questions, to data collection and analyses, to the presentation and dissemination of research findings. It is the only book to focus on the particular challenges and techniques of sports coaching research, with each chapter including examples, cases and scenarios from the real world of sports coaching.

The book introduces and explores important philosophical, theoretical and practical considerations in conducting coaching research, including contextual discussions about why it's important to do sports coaching research, how to judge the quality of coaching research, and how sports coaching research might meet the needs of coaching practitioners. Written by a team of leading international scholars and researchers from the UK, US, Canada and Australia, and bridging the gap between theory and practice, this book is an essential course text for any research methods course taken as part of a degree programme in sports coaching or coach education.

About the Author
Dr Lee Nelson is a Lecturer in the Department of Sport, Health, and Exercise Science at the University of Hull, UK. His research and teaching interests include micro-politics, emotions, and pedagogy in coaching and coach education contexts. Dr Ryan Groom is a Senior Lecturer in Sports Coaching at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. His main teaching and research interests focus on qualitative research methodologies and social theory to explore power, identity and interaction. Paul Potrac is a Professor of Sports Coaching at Edge Hill University, UK. His research and teaching interests focus on exploring the social complexity of sports coaching and coach education, with a particular emphasis on the political and emotional nature of practice.

Reviews

'An excellent and worthwhile addition to the existing texts within sports coaching as it fills a much-needed gap. Undergraduate and postgraduate students in particular should find the text of considerable relevance and use throughout their studies. This is because it takes challenging research concepts and relates them to work done in coaching. For coaching researchers, I see this book as a teaching aide for supervising students' dissertations and contributing to classes with a research element." - Ed Cope, Sports Coaching Review.

"I highly recommend those who hold the supervisor position of students conducting sports-related research to read these pages. There is a lot to be learned from Gilbert's reflections from the field here."- Anne Tjonndal, Faculty of Social Science, Nord University, idrottsforum.org.

Book Information
ISBN 9780415626828
Author Lee Nelson
Format Paperback
Page Count 272
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 433g