Research Team: Associate Professor Steven Rynne, Professor Cliff Mallett, Prof Donna O'Connor
Funding Body: Australian Sports Commission
Years: 2022-2023
Olympic Games, Paralympic Games, World Championships and World Cups of various configurations are the pinnacle performance contexts for the vast majority of AIS-supported sports. The Representative Coaches who lead and support the teams and athletes competing at these events are known to be key to successful performance outcomes. Yet despite the critical importance of the representative coach, this form of coaching is poorly understood and severely lacking in support.
Co-constructing the project with industry partners in Athletics Australia (Drs Stewart and Huxley) and Basketball Australia (Ms Sterling AM), the research team will adopt a ‘workplace learning’ approach. This approach will result in the co-construction of applied understandings of the varied dimensions of work that Representative Coaches undertake in the pre-, during, and post-pinnacle sporting events. The results will provide immediate clarity for coaches, athletes, and the organisations that support them. In addition, it will provide a basis for prospective actions related to the preparation, recruitment, evaluation, and exit of Representative Coaches.
