Williams and Kendall 2007 Presentation

1. Williams, S. J., & Kendall, L. (2007).
Perceptions of elite coaches and sports
scientists of the research needs for elite
coaching practice. Journal of Sports
Sciences, 25(14), 1577-1586.
Tyler Goad and Karl Zang

2. Type of, purpose of study/paper,
theoretical framework/background
• Quantitative study: Perceptions of elite coaches
and sports scientists research needs
– Australian setting
• Scientists research within own discipline
– Often times in areas coaches do not need more help
• Coaches only view knowledge practical if it helps
within their coaching context (sport)
– Value experience and mentorship over research

3. Background and significance of
study…what did it report to add?
• Try to further identify the ‘gap’ between research
and practice for elite coaches
– How research is funded
– How research is published
• Examine perceptions of sport science researchers
and elite coaches
– Views on research…the who, what, where, and why.
• In order to better meet the needs of coaches in
future sports science research

4. Methods/Analysis
• 222 Level 3 (nationally qualified) coaches
– 19 different sports
– 90% 10+ years experience
– 84.6% male, 15.4% female
• 125 Sport scientists
– 67 institutes of sport researchers
– 48 university researchers
– 76% male, 24% female
• 88 item survey
– Rating scales, rank order lists, and Likert scales (anchored 1-5)
– Follow up semi-structure interviews

5. Analysis Methods
• Survey questions: post-hoc analysis
– Mann-Whitney u-test
– T-test independent samples
• Interview data
– Transcribed, coded and categorized
– Validated by independent sports psychologist

6. Findings
• Coaches felt they had a handle on the strength and
conditioning aspects of their athletes, but admittedly
lacked knowledge in the mental preparation of athletes
(sports psychology).
• Coaches and researchers agreed that the way research
questions ARE and SHOULD be determined is together.
• Coaches placed a significantly higher value on sports
sciences researchers having prior coaching experience.
– They felt the researchers would be able to relate better.

7. Findings
• Coachers placed more emphasis on
– Success of the athletes
– Many years of coaching experiences
– Coaching conferences, lay reports, sport specific
and general sport magazines
• Researchers placed more emphasis on
– Keeping up to date with the latest developments
– Having a good rapport with support personnel
– Scientific journals and conferences

8. Conclusions/implications for practice
and/or future research
• Congruent views between coaches and
researchers on most subjects
• Highlights need for sports psychology to be more
fundamental in sports science research profile
• Researchers need to be more active in advising
coaches about new developments and provide
easy-to-digest research
– The who and the where

9. Take Away
• Biases seemed to arise in the fact that this
article was written by a sports sciences
researcher and some of the coaches
perceptions where critical of the
researchers…damage control.
• Sports science researchers need to find a choir
to preach to (coaching conferences).

10. Questions?
• From your perspective do you value the
information that comes from Strategies more
than Research quarterly?
• Do you believe that if “low level coaches”
where surveyed instead it would change the
results? How?