Career development of elite coach developers

Coach development is a relatively recent innovation in the field of sport coaching. Sport organisations have established criteria to follow when recruiting elite athletes into coaching and are clearer on how to support retiring elite athletes transitioning to coaching careers. The following three case studies demonstrate the different entry points into coaching, coach development, the learning pathways followed by each coach developer and what each considers to be their most important takeaway. In the sport of gymnastics, obviously there's key safety components and baseline things that the people need to know and need to be able to deliver for coaches. The context is highly competitive, dynamic and intense and provides enormous challenges for developing coaches. Identifying areas of learning and providing support around that means a great deal of that does end up being experiential or blended learning that supports the needs of the individual coach.