Nonlinear pedagogy underpins intrinsic motivation in sports coaching

A key challenge for sports coaches is to provide performers with learning environments that result in sustainable motivation. In this paper, we will demonstrate that programmes based around the principles of Nonlinear Pedagogy can support the three basic psychological needs that underpin self-determined motivation. Coaches can therefore ensure that practice sessions provide for intrinsic motivation with its associated motivational and emotional benefits.

Autonomy-supportive pedagogical approach to sports coaching: Research, challenges and opportunities

There has been an increasing body of research on autonomy- or need-support specific to a coaching context that warrants some review of what we know and don't know, and what might be generative for future research. The previous studies reviewed within this article have shown consistent support for Self-determination theory with autonomy-supportive environments linked with adaptive outcomes, such as superior performance, enhanced self-worth, increased effort, and self-determined motivation; while controlling environments have been linked with increased attrition and extrinsic motivation or amotivation. In this way, much of the research in autonomy-supportive coaching has focused on the impact of coaching behaviours on athlete outcomes. While this is an important focus of inquiry, there has been a dearth of research examining those causal factors that impact coaches' pedagogical behaviours in the first case. This review underscores the need for future research to examine the antecedents to coaching behaviours, which is central to understanding the complexity and challenges in promoting an autonomy-supportive approach to sport coaching.

Insights from ecological psychology and dynamical systems theory can underpin a philosophy of coaching

The aim of this paper is to show how principles of ecological psychology and dynamical systems theory can underpin a philosophy of coaching practice in a nonlinear pedagogy. Nonlinear pedagogy is based on a view of the human movement system as a nonlinear dynamical system. We demonstrate how this perspective of the human movement system can aid understanding of skill acquisition processes and underpin practice for sports coaches. We provide a description of nonlinear pedagogy followed by a consideration of some of the fundamental principles of ecological psychology and dynamical systems theory that underpin it as a coaching philosophy. We illustrate how each principle impacts on nonlinear pedagogical coaching practice, demonstrating how each principle can substantiate a framework for the coaching process.

David Clutterbuck, mentoring and coaching - A commentary

Simon Jenkins, in his stimulus piece on David Clutterbuck amply demonstrates just how prolific Clutterbuck has been over a working lifetime. Generally accepted as the person who introduced supported mentoring into Europe, Clutterbuck has written widely on matters that relate to relationships, processes, evidence (and its capacity or otherwise to influence practice), procedures, complexity, management, supervision, guidance (of one kind or another); the list goes on. It is an impressive vita indeed and yet, Clutterbuck’s influence on the world of sports and more specifically, sports coaching; remains relatively modest. Of course this is the purpose of Jenkins’ piece, to stimulate our thought processes such that our attention can be drawn to the possible impact Clutterbuck might have in sport, sports coaching, and athlete and coach mentoring. If nothing else, this is an admirable challenge that Jenkins has set himself.

Combat sports analytics: Boxing punch classification using overhead depth imagery

In competitive combat sporting environments like boxing, the statistics on a boxer's performance, including the amount and type of punches thrown, provide a valuable source of data and feedback which is routinely used for coaching and performance improvement purposes. This paper presents a robust framework for the automatic classification of a boxer's punches. Overhead depth imagery is employed to alleviate challenges associated with occlusions, and robust body-part tracking is developed for the noisy time-of-flight sensors. Punch recognition is addressed through both a multi-class SVM and Random Forest classifiers. A coarse-to-fine hierarchical SVM classifier is presented based on prior knowledge of boxing punches. This framework has been applied to shadow boxing image sequences taken at the Australian Institute of Sport with 8 elite boxers. Results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, with the hierarchical SVM classifier yielding a 96% accuracy, signifying its suitability for analysing athletes punches in boxing bouts.

Towards an evolving critical consciousness in coaching research: The physical pedagogic bricolage - A commentary

On a first reading of this article, one is struck by the complexity of language the authors use. Those of us who write in the social sciences and cultural studies are torn between the tenets of parsimony as present in the discourses of the natural sciences and the dangers of undertheorising our work. One assumes that there is a point that would be a happy medium. Finding that point often seems to be elusive. That said, I find the idea of linguistic sophistication to be appealing and in this sense the authors here have attempted to introduce new language into the world of sports coaching research through a process of reconceptualisation.

Extreme sports as a facilitator of ecocentricity and positive life changes

Extreme sports and extreme sports participants have been most commonly explored from a negative perspective, for example the 'need to take unnecessary risks'. This study reports on findings that indicate a more positive experience. A phenomenological method was used via unstructured interviews with 15 extreme sports participants and other first hand accounts. The extreme sports included B.A.S.E. jumping, big wave surfing, extreme skiing, waterfall kayaking, extreme mountaineering and solo rope-free climbing. Results indicate that participating in activities that involve a real chance of death, fear and the realisation that nature in its extreme is far greater and more powerful than humanity triggers positive life changes, and an eco-centric standpoint.

Extreme Sports: A positive transformation in courage and humility

Extreme sports and extreme sports participants have been most commonly explored from a negative perspective, for example the “need to take unnecessary risks.” This study explored what can be learned from extreme sports about courage and humility - two positive psychology constructs. A phenomenological method was used via unstructured interviews with 15 extreme sports participants and other first hand accounts. The extreme sports included B.A.S.E. jumping, big wave surfing, extreme skiing, waterfall kayaking, extreme mountaineering and solo rope-free climbing. Results indicate that humility and courage can be deliberately sought out by participating in activities that involve a real chance of death, fear and the realisation that nature in its extreme is far greater and more powerful than humanity.

Extreme sports as a precursor to environmental sustainability

Extreme sports have unfortunately gained a reputation for being risk focused and adrenaline fuelled. This perspective has obscured the place of the natural world, making extreme athletes appear to seek to conquer, compete against or defeat natural forces. In contrast, this paper explores findings from a larger hermeneutic phenomenological study that suggests extreme sports can initiate a positive change in participants’ relationships with the natural world. Data sources include first-hand accounts of extreme sports participants such as biographies, videos, papers and journals as well as interviews with ten male and five female extreme sports participants. Reports indicate that extreme sport participants develop feelings of connection to the natural world and describe themselves as being at one with the natural world or connected through a life enhancing energy. The paper draws on theoretical perspectives in ecopsychology which suggest that feeling connected to nature leads to a desire to care for the natural world and contributes to more environmentally sustainable practices.

Analyzing the prevalence of sports-related terms among the web sites of global corporations

This research investigates the prevalence of sports-related terms among the Web sites of the world’s leading companies, the Fortune Global 500. An automated process copied about four gigabytes of textual data, around 70 million words, from their sites. The subsequent analysis revealed regional and industry differences in the distribution of sports-related terms, the popularity of tennis stars and few references to sports stars, especially in Asia.

Discovering, applying and integrating: The process of learning in coaching

Professional coaching is a rapidly expanding field with interdisciplinary roots and broad application. However, despite abundant prescriptive literature, research into the process of coaching is minimal. Similarly, although learning is inherently recognised in the process of coaching, the process of learning in coaching is little understood and learning theory makes up only a small part of the evidence-based coaching literature. In this grounded theory study of coaches and their clients, the process of learning in coaching across a range of coaching models is examined and discussed. The findings demonstrate how learning in coaching emerged as a process of discovering, applying and integrating new knowledge, which culminated in a process of developing. This process occurred through eight key coaching processes shared between coaches and clients and combined a multitude of learning theories.