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Abstract

Internship opportunities can provide coaches with the chance to learn through experience and explore their personal theories in practice. However, to effectively develop coaches during internships facilitators of learning need to know more about what student coaches typically perceive and find meaningful to puzzle through to support their learning and developing theory of practice. Grounded in experiential learning theory and the notion of the reflective practitioner, the authors sought to examine how early-career sport coaches identify, frame, and explore practical coaching issues presented through a virtual international coaching exchange. Using a descriptive multiple-case study approach, the authors presented the coaching issues raised and generation of feedback for six student coaches and a cross-cases synthesis. The findings revealed that coaches shared a variety of issues related to relational coaching, practice design, learning principles, athlete behavior, and organizational constraints. While growth was observed in the ability to frame coaching issues and generate feedback, the level of critical reflection and feedback generation varied among the six participants. The preliminary findings of this pilot study provide coach developers with additional understanding of how early-career coaches typically reflect upon and generate feedback from others to help them further explore their role frame to better support their learning. This work also provides practitioners with another venue (i.e., a virtual exchange) for promoting such learning.

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