A season long investigation into coaching behaviours as a function of practice state: the case of three collegiate coaches

Coach behaviour, practice activities and the relationship between the two are seen as essential components in athlete learning and development. This study examined the coaching intervention behaviours employed by three collegiate coaches as a function of ‘practice state’ over a season long period. Systematic observation of these coaches' behaviour was conducted using the Coach Analysis Intervention System (CAIS). Coaches also participated in semi-structured interviews to explore how and why they used the intervention behaviours in the ways they did within the different practice states. Whilst the data from the systematic observation were analysed descriptively and inferentially, the interview data were analysed deductively. Although multivariate analysis of variance tests revealed significant differences for the practice state of two of the three coaches, follow-up analyses revealed that the main differences in coaching behaviour were between ‘other’ states when compared to ‘training’ and ‘playing’ states. The results demonstrated limited changes to coaching behaviour as a function of ‘practice state’ for the three coaches, intimating that the drivers of the coaches' design and implementation of practice sessions and the delivery of instruction were their existing ‘folk pedagogies’ rather than scientifically-based evidence.