Workshop program - June 16th - Auditorium Utsikt
09.30-11:00 - Coach development and coach mentoring
Shaun Williams, Mark O'Sullivan
This workshop proposal seeks to address the complexities of coach development through an action research project involving diverse stakeholders such as policymakers, coaching organizations, coach developers, coaches, and athletes. The goal is to foster collaboration and shared learning by engaging these stakeholders in iterative cycles of action, reflection, and adaptation, with the aim of co-creating practical solutions to the many challenges in coaching and coach education.
By applying a collaborative, ground-up approach, this project seeks to consider the personal and professional growth of coach developers, considering their broader roles beyond technical expertise and fostering their development as holistic professionals.
This collaborative project will produce insights and tools that can be disseminated to policy makers and coaching organizations. Ultimately, the workshop offers a valuable opportunity for transforming coach development practices, emphasizing a reflective, context-sensitive, and inclusive approach that benefits both individuals and the wider coaching community.
Author biographies
Dr. Shaun Williams is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Science at the University of Bath. Shaun’s completed his doctorate at the University of Bath and his research spans across different learning, education and coaching contexts using myriad nuanced and creative methodologies. As an interdisciplinary scholar, his teaching and research interests are indicative of ‘real world’ practitioner pedagogical experiences. Shaun is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Authority (SFHEA), an accredited coach mentor, and a member of the Centre for Qualitative Research.
Mark O’Sullivan is an Associate Professor of Football at the Department of Sport and Social Sciences at the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences. He holds a UEFA A coaching license and previously worked as Head of Player Development for the 8–12 age group at AIK Football in Stockholm. O’Sullivan developed and published the Learning in Development Research Framework (LDRF), which is used to investigate and improve talent development environments in sport. His research is grounded in ecological psychology and focuses on how social and cultural factors influence learning, skill development, and coach education. Mark has published numerous scientific articles and book chapters on player development, coach education and mentoring, and sustainable talent development in sport. He is also known for his blog Footblogball, where he shares insights on practice design, the coaching role, and children’s rights in sport.
11:30-13:00 - Principals for skill adaptation and motor learning (Auditorium Utsikt and Physical education hall)
Alan Dunton and Alex Lascu
This workshop combines an interactive content creation session with a linked practical component. The interactive session is designed to encourage attendee collaboration, allowing them to exchange valuable resources, share insights, and identify key questions across five core topics related to fostering creativity in training: (a) Identifying skilled performance; (b) the role of functional movement variability; (c) designing effective learning environments; (d) creating the appropriate challenge point, and (e) assessing action capabilities for skill development .
In the hands-on practical session, we build upon the ideas and content generated during the interactive discussion. The focus will be on guiding athletes to discover functional and effective solutions to skill development challenges. This will involve applying principles of skill acquisition and helping practitioners navigate the complexities of designing effective practice environments using the Constraints-Led Approach (CLA) (Renshaw et al., 2019).
Additionally, we will delve into the concept of metastability and metastable attunement. These concepts explore how athletes can balance between utilizing familiar action strategies and exploring new possibilities in response to varying situational demands.
Author biography
Alan Dunton is a Lecturer in the Coaching Science & Skill Acquisition at Munster Technological University, Cork. Having completed a PhD in the area of Skill Acquisition, Alan continues to engage in the domain from a research perspective with the HEx-Spo research group. Outside of his role in academia, he has worked with athletes, coaches, and sports organisations for over a decade in both professional and developmental environments. He currently engages with coaches and organisations in a skill acquisition consultancy capacity, advising on the implementation of skill acquisition principles and practices that enhance the transfer of training to the competition environment.
Alex Lascu is a skill acquisition specialist working with WA Cricket as the Learning and Capability Specialist for community cricket. After their recent PhD on talent development and ecological dynamics in women’s cricket, she is responsible for the learning and development of all community cricket coaches, umpires and volunteers in Australian cricket, as well as researching and supervising students in sports coaching, skill acquisition, and the value of community sport. They specialise in learning environment design and mentoring, to help maximise the learning and development of all people and inspire a lifelong love of sport and physical activity
14:00-16:00 - Being effective practitioners through making the most of our data
Andrew Kirkland, Emma Neupert
Just because you can monitor it does it mean you should? This workshop is for coaches, performance directors and sport science staff who use performance data in their practice. There are industry wide concerns regarding the amount of data being collected from athletes; the intimacy of the data; its limited and often tenuous benefits; and a lack of ethical oversight of handling and use of the data. You may or may not share similar concerns. We want to know what you think and why. This workshop will encourage you to think about how effective your data collection practices are and what influences they have on athlete wellbeing thus promoting ‘good’ decision making in your sport.
The workshop is about holding constructive dialogue and having conversations that matter surrounding data usage in sport. The session is 3-hours long and will include activities presentations, group discussions and interactive debates. Learning outcomes include:
- To encourage you to think about the efficiency and effectiveness of data monitoring processes you use in your practice
- To better understand how data influences your decision-making
- Highlight ethical considerations when collecting data
- Check-and-challenge on current data-collection practices.
Author biographies
Dr Andy Kirkland, PhD, is a Lecture in Sport Coaching at the University of Stirling. His work is multidisciplinary and focuses on supporting healthy performance environments. He is an experienced triathlon coach, a Chartered Scientist and British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences accredited. Andy has worked at the Scottish Institute of Sport and British Cycling, supporting athletes and coaches from Olympic to grass-roots level. He also sits on the University’s General Ethics Panel.
Dr. Emma Neupert, PhD, is a Senior Lecturer in Physiology at the University of Portsmouth, with a research focus on enhancing the experiences of stakeholders in athlete monitoring. She has an applied background in elite sport having previously worked as a physiologist with national teams both in the UK and Canada. Her research work seeks to improve how data related to the athlete and training is collected, shared, and used by considering ethical implications and the needs of both athletes and practitioners. Dr. Neupert has authored several key publications, including studies on athlete monitoring engagement and practices. Her future research aims to provide a framework for ethical decision-making in athlete monitoring, fostering supportive and responsible practices in the sports industry.
Workshop program - June 17th - Two parallel workshops
09:00-12:00 - Developing psychosocial competences for strength and conditioning coaches - Room F U1.1
Chris Szedlak, Bettina Callary, Brian Gearity,
This workshop will focus on the findings of our longstanding collaboration with the UKSCA, an international leading S&C accreditation provider, to develop S&C psychosocial coaching competencies. Psychosocial coaching competencies include psychological, pedagogical, philosophical, and sociocultural competencies (see Figure 1).
We will explore each of these competencies through applied scenarios, reflective practice and peer learning. We will focus on how normalised S&C coaching behaviours can enforce a performance-scientific oriented coaching practice, and why that might inhibit effective communication, individual philosophies and athlete-centred coaching approaches. We will also discuss how a male dominated environment can lead to uncontested and normalised language that may support a continued shortage of female S&C coaches. As such, this workshop is designed for S&C coaches looking to address equity, diversity, and inclusivity in their coaching to develop competencies that encourage ethical, athlete-centred coaching approaches.
Author biographies
Dr. Chris Szedlak, PhD, is a senior lecturer and researcher in S&C at Hartpury University, where he leads the MSc in S&C programme. His research involves examining psychosocial and sociocultural effective coaching behaviors, using innovative qualitative methods to disseminate findings to the applied practitioner. He is a UKSCA-accredited S&C coach, tutor, and accessor. He has over 14 years’ experience as an elite S&C coach, working with multiple Olympic and world champions, within a variety of different sports (e.g. sailing, cricket, wheelchair basketball).
Dr. Bettina Callary, PhD, is the Canada Research Chair in Sport Coaching and Adult Learning and a Professor at Cape Breton University, Nova Scotia. Her research focuses on coach education, development, and inclusive coaching, with an emphasis on equity for marginalised groups in sport. She is the Editor of the International Sport Coaching Journal and co-editor of several books on coach education and Masters athletes. Dr. Callary is also a trained Coach Developer, coach of athletes from youth to Olympic level, and a Masters athlete herself.
Dr. Brian Gearity, PhD, is a Professor of Kinesiology and Sport Studies and Associate Dean at the University of Denver. He has helped develop online sport degrees and launched an undergraduate programme at DU. Formerly the 46th President of the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport, Brian is a Fellow of the National Strength & Conditioning Association and Editor of NSCA Coach. He has co-edited and authored several books on coach education and strength and conditioning, contributing significantly to the field of sport coaching.
09:00-12:00 - Post-structural and post-humanist sports coaching and athlete development - Room G U1.1
Martin Camiré, Joe Mills
This workshop is for early career researchers and our special interest group. It is open to everyone, intended to explore ideas that will be especially relevant for early career researchers and coach developers.
To prompt deeper thinking, we delve into sports coaching through the theories of poststructuralism and posthumanism, challenging traditional notions of the coach and the artificial separations between athletes, coaches, and environments. Underpinned by a host of unseen problems and unintended consequences in the modern humanist coach, we emphasize the performativity of identities and the interconnectedness of the (non)human and (non)living. Thus, the workshop invites participants to throw into radical doubt conventional humanist notions of what sports coaching is, instead attuning to what it does.
By interrogating how knowledges, bodies, and environments entangle to produce sporting and coaching acts, the workshop invites participants to move their thinking to see sports coaching as always already performative and relational. Through discussions aimed not at findings solutions but rather asking “different” questions, the workshop will take participants on a theoretical journey exploring ways to ontologically move their thinking from the coach (as the main protagonist of coaching science) to coaching (as a performance entangling a wide variety of bodies). By situating performativity and relationality as crucial theoretical starting points, new exciting horizons for what sports coaching can become can take shape.
Author biographies
Martin Camiré is a professor in the School of Human Kinetics at the University of Ottawa in Canada. Through his research, Prof. Camiré examines how various aspects of development can be fostered in the context of sport, especially with youth populations. As well, he uses postfoundational approaches to inquiry processes. His teaching interests include ethics, health promotion, and (post)qualitative inquiry.
Dr. Joe Mills, PhD, is an academic expert in learning, development, and performance, focusing on the hidden challenges that affect individuals and organisations. His work reveals subtle, informal processes that shape human interactions and knowledge, leading to unintended outcomes. Dr. Mills has presented his research at 13 leading universities, published 22 peer-reviewed papers, and delivered over 30 talks at major conferences. His insights are highly regarded by elite coaches and professionals, earning him recognition from top practitioners in the field.