Original research

International Journal of Sports Science

& Coaching
0(0) 1–12
Actual and ideal sources of coaching ! The Author(s) 2018
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DOI: 10.1177/1747954117753727
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Chao He1, Pierre Trudel2 and Diane M. Culver2

Abstract
Globalization and advances in technology have created a context where knowledge changes and circulates faster than
ever. In high-performance sport coaching, coaches increasingly move from country to country to join national teams –
becoming ‘migrant coaches’. From a coach development perspective, it becomes relevant to investigate how coaches
from different countries learn to coach and what would be their ideal sources of knowledge acquisition. Unfortunately,
there is a major gap in the English literature regarding Asian coaches. Thus, a study with Chinese gymnastics (Gym) and
rhythmic gymnastics (R-Gym) coaches has been conducted. Eighty coaches completed a questionnaire on their actual and
ideal sources of knowledge acquisition; 16 of these were interviewed. Data show that the coaches acquired their
knowledge (actual) mainly through ‘being an athlete’ and ‘having a mentor’. Ideally, they would like to have a better
balance between these two sources and formal learning situations (courses, seminars, etc.). Another key finding is the
barrier resulting from the lack of English knowledge, which is an important limit for Chinese coaches wishing to gather
information from abroad, especially through the Internet.

Keywords
Athletic experience, coaches’ development, internet/web, mentoring

total of 36 articles published between1999 and 2016, we

Introduction
In the last few decades, there has been a marked interest
in investigating coaches’ education as demonstrated by
articles outlining the structure and content of specific
coach education programs1,2 or comparing programs
from different countries.3 Although such programs
are often the official pathway to certification, and
could help move coaching toward a profession,4 they
are only one learning situation among many5,6 in what
is now called ‘the coach’s lifelong learning process’.7
In their attempts to know more about how coaches
learn to coach, researchers have focused on the different
sources of knowledge acquisition (SKA). Cushion
et al.8 identified 15 studies in a review of literature
from 1999 to 2008. We wanted to update this list and,
as researchers in the field of sport coaches’ develop-
ment, we were able to straight away identify many art-
icles. Then a literature search was done using a few
databases (ERIC, Scopus, SPORTDiscus) entering the
main key words (e.g. coach learning/development,
sources of knowledge) found in these articles. Finally,
the reference list of each article we had was checked for
any missing articles. Table 1 presents the 21 empirically
based articles published in English since 2009. With a
concur with Cushion et al.8: ‘‘. . . it could be argued that
the study of coach learning situations has become a
distinct and legitimate area of academic inquiry’’ (p.23).
From Table 1, we can say that (a) researchers
have shown a constant interest in SKA, (b) high perform-
ance coaches (Varsity, National, Olympic, Professionals)
were often the participants, (c) participants were mainly
from Canada (n ¼ 7), Australia (n ¼ 4), Portugal (n ¼ 2),
and UK (n ¼ 2), (d) the interview was the data collection
method generally used, and (e) there is no consensus on
the most important SKA. Considering this update of the
literature one could ask, ‘what is missing’? Possible
responses to this question might be: (a) A complement
to the work of a few researchers who have investigated
the actual and ideal/preferred SKA,25,26,28 (b) A more spe-
cific view of the SKA for specific components of a coach’s
1
Department of Sports, Jiangsu Second Normal University, Nanjing,
Jiangsu, China
2
School of Human Kinetics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada
Corresponding author:
Diane M. Culver, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ottawa, 125
University Private Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada.
Email: dculver@uottawa.ca
2 International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching 0(0)

Table 1. Overview of empirical studies on coaches’ sources of knowledge acquisition (SKA) since 2009.

Most
Studies Participants Countries Methods important

1. Carter and Bloom9 – 6 HP coaches (3 sports) Canada – Interviews NM

2. Jiménezet al.10 – 8 HP coaches (basketball) Spain – Interviews Me, OC
3. Nash and Sproule11 – 9 HP coaches (3 sports) UK – Interviews Me, OC
4. Stephenson and Jowett12 – 13 Youth coaches (soccer) UK – Interviews NM
5. Werthner and Trudel13 – 15 HP coaches (11 sports) Canada – Interviews NM
6. Mesquita et al.14 – 336 coaches (different levels/sports) Portugal – Questionnaires Me, OJ, OC
7. Wilson et al.15 – 6 High school coaches (3 sports) Canada – Interviews OJ
8. Dvorak et al.16 – 166 coaches (soccer) Czech Republic – Questionnaires AE, FE,
9. Koh, et al.17 – 9 HP coaches (basketball) Singapore – Interviews NM
(structured)
10. McMaster, et al.18 – 5 Parasport coaches Canada – Observation NM
(different levels / sports) – Interviews
11. Rynne and Mallett19 – 6 HP coaches (6 sports) Australia – Interviews OJ
12. Winchester et al.20 – 31 High school teacher-coaches Canada – Interviews PD, OC
13. Christensen21 – 8 National youth coaches (soccer) Denmark – Interviews PD, OC, Me
14. Mesquita et al.22 – 6 HP coaches (5 sports) Portugal – Interviews NM
15. Rynne and Mallett23 – 44 HP coaches (20 sports) Australia – Interviews OJ, OC, AE
16. Taylor et al.24 – 1 HP parasport coach Canada – Interviews NM
17. Kilic and Ince25 – 321 coaches (different levels/sports) Turkey – Questionnaires PD, OC
18. MacDonald et al.26 – 45 Special Olympic coaches Canada – Interviews (structured) OJ, OC
(different levels/sports)
19. Mallett et al.27 – 19 HP coaches (9 sports) Australia – Questionnaires OJ, AE
(face-to-face)
20. Stoszkowski and Collins28 – 320 coaches (217 from UK) 26 countries – Online survey OC, FE
21. Sherwin et al.29 (different levels/sports) Ireland – Interviews OC, OJ
– 19 HP coaches (5 sports)
HP: high performance; NM: not mentioned; AE: athletic experience; Me: mentor; FE: formal education; PD: professional development (short courses,
seminars, . . .); OJ: on-the-job (trial & error, . . ..); OC: other coaches.

work, and (c) Information about coaches from countries
beyond Western ones. For example, despite its important
place at the world level, we have no information about
China. Among the 36 studies conducted on the SKA, the
only reference to Chinese coaches was by Stoszkowski and
Collins28 when they mentioned that, of the 320 coaches (26
countries) who answered an online survey, only one was
from China. Thus, for the SKA research field to progress,
we need to extend the borders because
Research conducted in Canada, Australia and the
United States cannot be generalised to the Asian con-
text without consideration of cultural influences includ-
ing the extent of government financial support, the
national sports system, and the provision or delivery
of coach education programmes (p.340).17
We argue here that a better understanding of how
coaches from different countries learn to coach is now
essential, if we want to positively impact the coach
development research field – including coaches’ SKA.
Globalization and advances in technology not only
facilitate the flow of coaching knowledge7 but also the
circulation of players30,31 and coaches.32–34 China is a
good example, as noted by Fan et al.:35 ‘‘In the 2000s,
the number of foreign coaches who serve in national and
provincial teams grew rapidly’’ (p.2396), and by Dong
and Mangan36: ‘‘by the end of 2000, about 60 foreign
[soccer] coaches coached the Chinese . . . This extensive
use of foreign coaches threatened the job security of
domestic coaches’’ (p.92). For Williams:37 ‘‘there are
still major gaps in our understanding of the specific
contribution of international migration to knowledge
transfer, of the processes involved, and of the conditions
that facilitate or constrain this’’ (p.588).
Chinese literature on coach development
The absence of Chinese articles in the English journals
does not mean there is no research on coach
He et al. 3

development in China. Through a search in several
databases (SportCNKI, Vip information net,
Wanfang data, Springer link, ScienceDirect, Wiley
online library, and Web of science) using the key
words ‘coach education/development’, 25 articles were
identified since 1999. Looking at Table 2, we can say
that (a) Chinese researchers have shown a constant
interest, (b) there is almost the same number of empir-
ical and non-empirical articles, (c) national and provin-
cial coaches were generally the participants, (d)
questionnaires were by far the most popular method
Table 2. Overview of publications on coaches’ development
between 1999 and 2016.
used to collect data, and (e) researchers have recently
started to provide more information by including a
qualitative component to their studies – adding a
number of interviewees. Among these 25 articles
on coach development, only one was published in an
English journal38 and none has looked at coaches’ per-
ceptions of their actual and ideal SKA.
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to contribute to the new
research field of coaches’ SKA by investigating the per-
spectives of a group of Chinese coaches about their
actual and ideal SKA for specific components of a
coach’s work.

Participants
Methodology
Authors Types Numbers Levels Methods
Participants
1. Zuo and Xiao39 E 110 N, P, O Qt, In
A purposeful criterion sampling technique63 was used,
2. Wang and Yang40 NE as coaches had to meet the following criteria: At least
3. Dong41 NE one year of coaching Gym or R-Gym at the national,
4. Shao42 NE provincial, or university/city level. Fifteen key admin-
5. Yin et al.43 NE Rl istrators/head coaches across China were asked to con-
6. Yin, Yu and Cai44 E 39 N Qt tact potential coaches. A total of 126 coaches were
7. Wang et al.45 E 81 N, P, O Qt, In reached and asked to complete an online questionnaire.
8. Huang46 NE From the 96 questionnaires received, 16 were rejected
9. Zuo47 NE due to missing data. Among the 80 participants, 40
10. Cai48 NE mentioned their readiness to participate in a follow-
11. Lu49 E 58 N Qt, In
up interview and provided their email addresses.
In order to ensure some representativeness, the
12. Shi et al.50 NE
selection of the 16 coaches interviewed was made with
13. Bi et al.51 E 92 P Qt
consideration of certain demographic information as
14. Wang and Li52 E 65 N Qt they appear in Table 3. All the participants entered
15. Zhan and Chai53 E 49 N, P Qt, In the study at their own will and understood that they
16. Jin et al.54 NE were able to withdraw from the study at any point.
17. Xu and Qiao55 NE To ensure anonymity and confidentiality, pseudonyms
18. Li et al.56 E 682 P Qt were created for each participant in the interview part.
19. Wang57 E 60 N, P, O Ot We believe that the 80 participants is a good sample
20. Wang and NE of Gym and R-Gym coaches in China for the following
Calloway38 reasons. First, they come from seven of a possible eight
21. Xiong et al.58 NE Rl provinces/areas: Jiangsu, Shanghai, Guangdong,
22. Yin59 E 215 N, P, O Qt, In Zhejiang, Tianjin, Shanxi, and the Hong Kong SAR.
(n ¼ 12) Second, all R-Gym coaches (n ¼ 29) were female and
23. Wang and Liu60 E 47 N Qt, In this makes sense considering that R-Gym is a female
(n ¼ 20) sport and that most coaches come from being a high-
24. Yang et al.61 E 296 N, P Qt performance athlete. From the 56 coaches involved in
25. Jiang62 E 22 N, P, O Qt, In Gym, male coaches outnumbered female coaches two
(n ¼ 22) to one; however, 26 of the 36 male coaches were coach-
ing male athletes and 10 were coaching female athletes.
Notes: Types of manuscripts: E: empirical; NE: none empirical. In brief, there were no women coaching male teams but
Coaching levels: N: national; P: provincial (P); O: others (City, University,
High school). some male coaches coached female teams. It is worth
Data collection tools: Questionnaire (Qu), Interview (In); Review of mentioning that in China, female gymnastic teams must
literature (Rl). have one female coach and generally one male coach.
4 International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching 0(0)

Table 3. Demographic information on the 80 participants. psychology (1), and law (1). Only six coaches did not
have a bachelor’s or a master’s degree.
Gym R-Gym Total Interview
(51) (29) (80) (16)

Gender:
Data collection and analysis
– Male 36 0 36 7 Two data collection strategies were used to gather
– Female 15 29 44 9 information on the actual and ideal SKA; a question-
Age: naire and a semi-structured interview. By combining
– 20 0 2 2 0 these two strategies, we were able to nuance our inter-
– 21–30 21 13 34 6
pretation of the questionnaire data using the interview
data. Both strategies were developed based on studies
– 31–40 18 9 27 6
looking at coaches’ SKA at the high school level,15
– Above 40 12 5 17 4
developmental level,65 university level,9 and in the
Education Level: Special Olympics.18 A common element in these studies
– High school /junior college 4 2 6 0 is the integration of the Coaching Model66 and its three
– Bachelor 31 22 53 10 dimensions (competitions, organization, and training).
– Master 16 5 21 6 For Côté,67 this model ‘‘is a useful way to conceptualize
Athletic experience: the variables that should be considered in designing
– National 18 10 28 9 optimal learning environment for coaches’’ (p.218).
– Provincial 30 14 44 4
– Other (University, City) 3 5 8 3 Questionnaire. A questionnaire, composed of two parts,
Coaching experience: was used. To ensure a correct translation from English
– National 8 2 10 6
to Mandarin, the following procedure was followed: (a)
a professional translator of Chinese nationality made a
– Provincial 26 15 41 5
first translation of the document (two pages), (b) two
– Other (University, City) 17 12 29 5
Chinese university teachers and colleagues corroborated
Level of current coaching: the accuracy of the document, and (c) the questionnaire
– National 5 2 7 5 was piloted with five Chinese gymnastics coaches having
– Provincial 26 15 41 6 experience at the National and Provincial levels. Minor
– Other (University, City) 20 12 32 5 modifications were made in the wording. The question-
Career expectation: naire took about 15 min to complete.
– Stay at current level 20 17 37 3 Part 1 of the questionnaire was used to collect demo-
– Moving up 31 12 43 13 graphic information. The participants had to answer
questions regarding seven topics (see Table 3 in the
result section). The analysis was done per type of par-
In this co-coaching, the female coach is responsible for ticipant (gymnastics and rhythmic gymnastics) and the
beam training, dance moves on the floor, and life man- questionnaire data were used in our effort to have a
agement; with the male coach responsible for uneven representative number of coaches for the interviews.
bars, vault, floor exercises, and physical training. Third, In Part 2, the participants were presented with a list
the coaches were relatively young: 75% were between of 11 potential SKA: (a) athlete experience, (b) trial
21 and 41 years. This tendency has been mentioned in and error, (c) internet, (d) formal education, (e) obser-
the Chinese literature.39 Finally, the high number of vation, (f) mentor, (g) video/books/documents, (h)
coaches with a graduate diploma confirms a trend. clinics/seminars/meetings, (i) interactions with coaches,
Going back to the early 80 s, only 30% of gymnastics (j) long/short-term programs, and (k) others accompa-
coaches had a higher education degree64 but almost 20 nied by a brief description of each source. This list of 11
years later, it was reported that successful coaches SKA was developed based on the most frequent SKA
(including gymnastics coaches) tend to have an educa- mentioned in earlier studies (see Table 1). The coaches
tion degree and career training.45 More recently, Bi were asked to place in decreasing order of importance,
et al.51 found that 82% of the coaches (n ¼ 92), from the 11 sources for five components of their coaching
different sports, who answered their questionnaire had knowledge (see Table 4). These five components were
a college or bachelor degree. It is worth mentioning selected because (a) they are representative of the three
that the degrees obtained by our 80 participants are dimensions of Côtés model,67 (b) many of them corres-
mostly from programs focusing on sport: Sport training pond to what coaches are looking for when seeking new
(45), physical education (21), artistic sport (2), sport ideas,9 and (c) each of them plays a key role in coaching
pedagogy and training (2), sport management (2), practice. For example, regarding the dimension
He et al. 5

‘Organization’, ‘Selection of players’ is mentioned as
being a complex and often an ungrateful job,68,69 and
‘Annual planning’ is very complex and has been the
object of recent developments.70 For the dimension
Training, the component of ‘Technical skills’ refers to
the ability to teach the sport (here Gym and R-Gym),
while ‘Psychological skills’ means the coaches’ ability to
help athletes use imagery, self-talk, goal setting, and so
on. For Thelwell et al.,71 coaches should use these skills
with their athletes and also for themselves. The third
dimension concerns what to do in ‘Preparation and
during’ Competition. Studies have shown that compe-
titions are stressful situations for both the athletes72
and coaches.73
The first step in the analysis consisted in producing
tables for each of the 11 SKA, and this for each of the
five components. Decisions had to be made to avoid
multitude of tables and the danger of getting lost in
too many details. Therefore, we limited our analysis
to the top two SKA. This approach allowed the devel-
opment of one general table (see Table 4 in the results
section). The reading of the Table goes like this. If we
take the first number in the Table, 68 means that 68%
of the coaches (n ¼ 80) selected ‘Athletic experience’ as
their first or second choice as a learning source regard-
ing the component ‘Selection of player’s’. The second
decision was about the differences between actual and
ideal SKA. Only differences of at least 5% were noted
in Table 4. The reason for this was strictly to lighten the
table, although the necessary information is there if
readers wish to complete the table. The score of 10,
for the cell ‘Athletic experience – Selection of players’,
means that there is a tendency for coaches to believe
that, as a learning source, their athletic experience
should play a less important role.
Interviews. Semi-structured interviews were used to
probe the coaches’ answers and focus on the reasons
for ranking, or not, some SKA in their top two in each
of the five components of their coaching practice and
also, on the advantages and limits of each source. The
interview guide was piloted with four coaches. Using
Skype, 16 coaches were interviewed. The interviews,
which lasted 40 minutes on average, were conducted
in Mandarin. The analysis of the content of the inter-
views consisted of regrouping the participants’

Table 4. Coaches’ selection of the most important (i.e. listed as top 2) actual and ideal sources of knowledge acquisition.

Total (Top 2; % of responses)

Organization Training Competition

Selection of Annual Technical Psychological Pre and

Sources of players planning skills skills during
knowledge
acquisition Act. Ide. Dif. Act. Ide. Dif. Act. Ide. Dif. Act. Ide. Dif. Act. Ide. Dif.

Athletic 68 58 10 69 54 15 75 56 19 55 26 29 83 68 15

experience
Mentor 44 39 5 36 40 39 36 28 20 8 38 39
Education
Formal 13 20 7 18 19 8 15 7 31 55 24 3 15 12
education
Long/short-term 11 26 15 15 24 9 15 33 18 11 24 13 5 15 10
programs
Clinics/seminars/ 1 9 8 4 15 11 4 13 9 9 9 9 8
meetings
On-the-job
Trial and error 16 10 6 18 11 7 24 4 20 18 6 12 16 13
Observe 16 21 5 15 13 10 9 11 13 24 14 10
Interaction with 19 10 9 13 14 13 15 6 11 5 10 20 10
coaches
Technology
Videos/. . . 6 5 9 9 11 13 21 33 12 8 5
Internet/web 1 3 3 1 3 6 8 4 4 5
Note: The bold face entry indicates the differences of at least 5% between actual and ideal sources of knowledge acquisition.
6 International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching 0(0)
information regarding each SKA, producing 11 docu-
ments. The content of these documents was used to
enrich the meaning of the percentages issued from the
analysis of the questionnaires.
Results
Table 4 presents the main results of our compilation of
the coaches’ answers to the questionnaire.
The actual SKA
Athletic experience. Numbers in the cells under Actual
(Act.) indicate that athletic experience (ranging from
55%–83%) is by far the most frequently cited SKA,
followed by mentor (28%–44%). The coaches said,
first, that their athlete experience is a huge part of
who they are: ‘‘It’s my personal athletic experience of
more than 20 years’’ (C4); ‘‘I received specialized gym-
nastics training since I was in grade four (C6). Second,
through those years of training, they had the opportun-
ity to see different coaching styles: ‘‘His coaching meth-
ods and theories were very impressive and these are the
sources of my coaching approach’’ (C2); ‘‘I have been
coached by different coaches and what I learned is the
foundation of my coaching (C9). Third, having athletic
experience allows coaches to add a feeling or kinaes-
thetic component to their coaching: ‘‘Personal experi-
ence allows me to understand how the athletes feel
when I am training them’’ (C3); ‘‘If a coach has no
gymnastics experience, he/she would not have the per-
sonal feeling of the movements when teaching’’ (13).
Interestingly, a few participants mentioned that average
athletes are more likely to become good coaches: ‘‘As
far as the national gymnastic teams are concerned, top
coaches were not outstanding athletes. Gifted athletes
may find it easy to learn new movements so they might
ignore important details when teaching it’’ (C5); ‘‘Very
often those ordinary athletes can be turned into great
coaches’’ (C10).
Mentor. The National Team head coach at times plays
the role of mentor, but many coaches do not have a
prescribed mentor and they look for help from their
previous coaches: ‘‘Without the guide of a fixed
mentor, I will consult experienced coaches . . . because
each has his/her own strengths’’ (C4). In general, the
mentors’ role is to share their experience: ‘‘Without
their help we might not know the effective ways to
put the knowledge gained from books and training
courses into our coaching practice’’ (C13); ‘‘During
their career development, coaches need a guide who
can provide support and point out the direction in
many aspects of their work’’ (C14). It was also men-
tioned that a mentor is an asset to the extent that they
are up to date in their knowledge: ‘‘Gymnastic develops
very fast and what I learn from my mentors might fail
to keep up with the recent requirements’’ (C3).
Education and on-the-job. If we look globally at the
scores for the three sources under ‘Education’ (formal
education, long/short-term programs, clinics/seminars/
meetings) and compare them with the scores for the
three sources under ‘On-the-job’ (trial and error,
observe, interaction with coaches), the latter sources
tend to play a more important role. There is however
an exception, formal education seems to help coaches
to learn about psychological skills (31%). How can we
explain this situation?
For some coaches, the content of the educational
activities is too general to fill their needs: ‘‘As for gym-
nastics, the athletes have specific characteristics so our
training methods have to respect these specificities and
this is not the case’’ (C3); ‘‘Formal education on the
whole is not that useful for gymnastics coaches’’ (C11).
For others, the information provided is important but
to be useful coaches should be able to apply/adapt it to
their coaching context: ‘‘What we learn from books is
the basic knowledge for all sports and we need to adapt
this knowledge to our own coaching practice’’ (C7);
‘‘Theoretical knowledge is not enough for a coach.
Only through practice can I obtain some personal
experience’’ (C16). Another point mentioned is that
opportunities for continuous development (short/long-
term programs, and clinics and so on) are often
reserved for national coaches and/or happen only few
times a year: ‘‘They rarely organize training sessions
and when they do, these are just for high-level coaches’’
(C5); ‘‘We have provincial seminars and conferences
but those occasions are rare’’ (C8); ‘‘So far, there are
almost no clinics, seminars or conferences’’ (C12).
Internet. Compared with the other sources of learning
acquisition, technology is very low especially the use of
the internet. How can we explain this situation? Some
coaches mentioned that they do not have access to a
well-developed platform to communicate: ‘‘It is avail-
able for courses but the domestic network is under-
developed’’ (C13); ‘‘I think the Internet is a good
source to gain knowledge but at the moment, the net-
work resources are in disorder and we are short of pro-
fessionals who can establish relevant websites’’ (C15).
However, it seems that because of their lack of famil-
iarity with the English language, they are limited to
watching videos found on the Internet: ‘‘We do acquire
knowledge from the Internet, but it is limited. Our
English proficiency is not high enough for English web-
sites and materials’’ (C1); ‘‘The Internet allows us
online access to videos of top athletes from other coun-
tries and we can draw lessons from those videos’’ (C3);
He et al.
‘‘But the problem is that, even if I could find the web-
sites, I couldn’t understand the language. So, at pre-
sent, the fastest and most direct way is to learn from
videos’’ (C7); ‘‘Generally speaking, I use the Internet to
watch videos and keep an eye on the world ranking’’
(C11).
Differences between the five components of coaching
practice. Another interesting finding is that the import-
ance of the SKA can vary considerably between the five
components of the coaching practice. For example, dif-
ferences of 28% (psychological skills vs. Pre and during
competition) were found for athletic experience (83–55)
and formal education (31–3) and differences of 16%,
15%, and 14%, respectively, for mentoring, video,
observation, and interactions with coaches were found
between different dimensions.
Differences between actual and ideal SKA
Looking at what coaches would like to have as SKA,
athletic experience and mentoring are still favoured but
it seems that coaches would prefer to depend less on
these two, especially athletic experience (10 to 29).
Also, they would like to spend less time learning by trial
and error. We believe that these findings can be inter-
preted as follows. First, the coaches would like their
formal education to play a stronger role as long as
there are better links between theories and practice:
‘‘The key component of success is the combination of
theories and practice’’ (C6); ‘‘Theories and practice
should go hand in hand’’ (C8).
Second, their formal education should provide more
information about sport psychology because coaches
feel not well prepared: ‘‘Formal education is not
enough and I want to learn more about psychology’’
(C3); ‘‘Thus the knowledge of sport psychology is
vital for us and if I have a chance I want to strengthen
my knowledge in sport physiology and sport psych-
ology’’ (C12).
Third, the coaches are aware that their sport evolves
rapidly and need to have access to new knowledge if
they want to innovate: ‘‘Also we should update our-
selves with the latest knowledge just like a software
needs updating. Updating is very important for us’’
(C2); ‘‘As time passes, my methods should keep pace
with the times. They should not be as stiff and dull as
the methods of the old days’’ (C8); ‘‘Because knowledge
in sport changes quickly, only if we participate in train-
ing courses can we renew our knowledge’’ (C16).
Fourth, for the coaches, continuous development
can happen during long/short-term programs:
‘‘Participation in training programs makes me familiar
with the most advanced developments in the sports
world’’ (C1); ‘‘Training programs are essential because
7
every job needs updating’’ (C8). At these training pro-
grams, coaches have the opportunities to hear experts
from China and from abroad: ‘‘Top experts are usually
invited from home and abroad to deliver lectures’’ (C9);
Foreign experts are invited by the National Team to
pass on the newest training methods’’ (C10).
Fifth, clinics/seminars/meetings are also contexts for
learning, but the content is usually more specific and
such settings provide a unique place for coaches to meet
and discuss: ‘‘They are important because it is where we
can solve practical problems.’’ (C2); ‘‘Seminars also
provide opportunities to problem solve and everyone
is eager to learn from each other’’ (C5); ‘‘Training
courses are to teach us knowledge, but a seminar pro-
vides us with a platform to exchange feedback from
practice. Personally, I attend training courses to learn,
and seminars and meetings to share what I have
learned’’ (C7); ‘‘Seminars are very useful because
coaches have their own methods to coach and by dis-
cussing with other coaches they see there are other ways
to coach’’ (C8). This learning source might help to
counteract a tendency of not sharing knowledge when
interacting with other coaches, particularly their closest
peers: ‘‘Competition among coaches hinders the inter-
actions. Coaches for the same age are most likely to
hold back information but that doesn’t include experi-
enced coaches, especially head coaches. They are more
than willing to transfer everything they have’’ (C2);
‘‘I generally interact with familiar coaches and will cer-
tainly hold back information when talking with
unfamiliar ones’’ (C3); ‘‘I consult experienced coaches
but rarely interact with coaches of my athletes’
age’’ (C10).
As we conclude this result section, it is important to
highlight two points. First, we have presented tenden-
cies and by no means do we suggest that all coaches
agree on the importance of each SKA. For example, a
score like 44 (mentor – selection of players) suggest that
56% of the coaches did not select mentor in their top
two sources. Extracts from the interviews can also show
disparities in the coaches’ perspectives of the import-
ance of SKA, for example:
Athletic experience. ‘‘Athletic experience is the most
important because the theoretical knowledge is not
enough for a coach’’ (C16); ‘‘I did not choose athletic
experience because outstanding athletes will not
become good coaches as they are so good that they
always wonder why their trainees have difficulty’’ (C6).
Mentor. ‘‘I could not have made it without my mentor
giving me his knowledge’’ (C6); ‘‘What my mentor
taught me has been left in the dust. What I learned
was so limited and knowledge from the old days is of
little use today’’ (C8).
8 International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching 0(0)
Formal education. To be honest, my formal education
plays a very small part in my coaching work . . . The
formal education on the whole is not that useful for
gymnastics coaches’’ (C11); ‘‘The second most import-
ant is formal education, which helps me expand my
mind and create a thinking mode’’ (C7).
Second, many coaches point out that to learn how to
coach they need many different SKA: ‘‘As far as the
options about knowledge sources, each source plays an
important role. One or two sources cannot guarantee
the wholeness of the knowledge we need’’ (C2);
‘‘This kind of learning is not from the single channel
but from various sources of information’’ (C9); ‘‘Both
athletic experience and academic education provide the
basic knowledge but you cannot stop learning. The
Internet and training courses have helped me create a
learning environment’’ (C8).
Discussion
The Chinese Gym and R-Gym coaches in our study
seem to have the typical Chinese coaches’ profile as
they had accumulated many years of experience as an
athlete before moving to coaching.45,51 In the western
literature, it is also mentioned that coaches have ath-
letic experience,74 specially at the professional level,75
but there are also studies showing successful coaches
with little athletic experience in the sport they
coach.9,13 Coaches in our study suggested that athletes
who had a lot of success will not necessarily make good
coaches, which has also be mentioned in western
studies.14,76
Generally, Chinese athletes during their athletic
training years will attend school but their education
tends to focus on sport performance to the detriment
of knowledge related to culture and self-development,
making them not ready to coach.51,57,77 As early as
1985, the Chinese General Administration of Sport
made a regulation that in the ‘‘future, the retired ath-
letes who have not achieved a college degree should not
be appointed as coaches of elite athletes’’; and stipu-
lated ‘‘actual coaches younger than 40 and without a
college degree, must obtain a college degree within 5
years. Otherwise, they should not be appointed as a
coach’’.78 Compared with other sports, gymnastics coa-
ches tend to have a higher level of education.61 When
they start coaching, the coaches involved at the elite
level generally had access to a mentor, identified as an
important SKA. Furthermore, coaches are expected to
continue their development through short-and long-
terms programs (exposition to experts from China
and abroad),38,45 and clinics/seminars/meetings (occa-
sions for coaches to interact).40,46,48,50,56.
In the West, coaches’ developmental pathways seem
to be less straightforward. First, many coaches are
already coaching when they register in a formal coach
education program.10,11,79,80 Second, these programs
might be offered by universities but, more likely by
national sport governing bodies.81 Therefore, educa-
tional requirements to coach can vary from one sport
to another sport within the same country. Third, while
most of the Chinese Gym and R-Gym coaches had a
degree from a sport/physical education program, west-
ern coaches often have a higher education degree but
not necessary in such programs.18,19,23,29 Fourth, many
actors in the sport field value the presence of mentoring
systems, and mentors can be an key SKA as shown in
Irwin et al.’s76 study with elite men’s artistic gymnastics
coaches. However, mentoring remains an ill-defined
activity and new models should be implemented.82–84
Fifth, while there is a relatively small body of literature
on continuing professional development,85 a few stu-
dies suggest that coaches spend little time in them20,80
and are often dissatisfied with the content.86
When comparing the actual and ideal SKA of these
Chinese coaches, our data suggest that the coaches
would like a greater contribution from their education
(formal education, long/short-term programs, clinics/
seminars/meetings) to decrease their learning through
trial and error. To this end, the content of these learn-
ing situations should provide a better match between
theory and practice. At the moment, there is too much
theory, and the focus is on the hard sciences (biomech-
anics, physiology, nutrition) at the expense of the social
sciences (sport psychology/pedagogy/sociology).41,49,56
Also, there should be better collaborations between
coaches and sport specialists/researchers.50,87 These
changes hopefully will help develop more reflective, cre-
ative, and innovative coaches.46,57,58 In other words,
coaches need to develop self-learning abilities to
become lifelong learners.46,50,62 It is interesting to
note that similar issues and suggestions can be found
in the western literature: (a) formal education courses
are often too theoretical and prescriptive,88,89 (b) coa-
ches and sport organizations should show more interest
in the researchers’ work and vice-versa,90 (c) coaches
should be more reflective,91 and (d) coach development
should now be viewed as a lifelong learning process.7,92
The Gym and the Internet R-Gym coaches in our
study tended toward very limited use of the internet
although it is an important asset to their develop-
ment.53 The same can been found in western stu-
dies.14,93 In the case of Chinese coaches, the major
factor is their lack of ability to speak English.39,51
Turkish coaches also mentioned this language barrier.25
Finally, considering that the importance of the SKA
varied depending on the five coaching practice compo-
nents and there being no one profile of the Gym and
R-Gym coaches’ perceptions of their actual and ideal
SKA, we support the proposition that how coaches
He et al.
learn to coach is very idiosyncratic.13,25 Therefore,
future research might focus more on the complementa-
rities of the various SKA rather than the relative
importance of each one.18
Conclusion
A few Chinese authors have mentioned that the
Chinese coach education system, when compared with
other countries, is not as well developed.54,60 We believe
that this study will contribute to a better understanding
of how Chinese coaches learn to coach. However, as
any study, ours has limitations. First, our findings come
from coaches involved in the Gym and R-Gym sports
and therefore should not be generalized to Chinese coa-
ches of other sports. Special features that might influ-
ence the type of knowledge needed and the SKA for
these coaches are, for example: (a) early entry and
extreme time investment, (b) increased risk for athletes
to retire before adulthood,94–96 and (c) the need to
innovate and find new skills with a higher degrees of
difficulty.41 Second, we did not conduct analyses using
some of the coaches’ characteristics that might have
explained differences between coaches’ perspectives,
such as: years of coaching experience,25,27 and career
expectations.65 Third, despite our diligence, translation
was an issue but, like Hu,97 we prefer to look at the
positive:
A study using cross-language discourse analysis may be
challenging and subject to subtle interpretation, espe-
cially in some terminologies with subtle connotations,
nevertheless it is still a potentially fruitful academic
area which is built upon academic analysis and expli-
citly justified understandings (p. ix).
As we analysed our data and interpreted them with the
Chinese and western literature, we were able to see
many similarities that support Hu’s97 comment: ‘‘It
[sport] has developed into a universal term, providing
opportunities to transcend the borders of nations, race
and cultures by offering what has been referred to as a
‘global language’ (p.11). In a perfect ‘global village,’
migrant coaches would act as knowledge carriers and
organizations would facilitate the transfer of know-
ledge or the co-learning process.37 However, because
of the competitive nature of sport, countries might
look for best practices by visiting or inviting experts
and searching on the Internet while at the same time
not revealing information to keep the upper hand.98 In
this aspect, China is not different from other countries
and for Fan et al.:35 ‘‘Chinese nationalism will also
make the government eager to preserve the title of the
‘world sports superpower’ and keep it unassailable.
This may result in the consolidation and the promotion
9
of China’s unique elite sport system’’ (p.2399). Finally,
given that China will hold the Olympic Games in 2022
for the second time in 16 years, and that it is the aim of
the Chinese government to double (with their citizens)
the number of the world population who participate
in winter sports (personal communication, the
Honourable John McCallum, Ambassador of Canada
to the People’s Republic of China, November, 2017), it
is imperative that international coaches, coach devel-
opers, and researchers begin to understand the SKA
of Chinese coaches.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with
respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research,
authorship, and/or publication of this article.
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