Typology of silence in sport coaching

Background: Research in sport pedagogy and coaching has largely privileged coaches' verbal behaviours (e.g. instruction, questioning, feedback). Yet observational studies indicate that coaches are silent for substantial periods during training and competition. Despite this, silence is typically treated as incidental rather than as a strategic act. Consequently, conceptual clarity about how coaches use silence in youth sport remains limited. Purpose This study examined how youth football coaches strategically use silence in their day-to-day work and developed an empirically grounded typology to conceptualise it.Methods: A two-stage qualitative design was employed. In Stage 1, stimulated recall semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 academy coaches from one English Category Two club. Video footage of training and competition was used to elicit detailed accounts of when, where, why, and with whom coaches chose to remain silent. In Stage 2, an online survey completed by 34 coaches from Category One to Three academies was used to interrogate and extend the initial typology. Following peer review, the authors undertook further reflexive analysis of the existing interview and survey data; no additional data were generated. This refinement consolidated the typology into three functionally distinct categories. Data were analysed using Reflexive Thematic Analysis, enabling iterative development and refinement of the typology across the two empirical stages and the subsequent reflexive refinement.Results: Analysis generated a typology of three forms of strategic silence: (a) silence to review and plan, (b) silence as a pedagogical strategy, and (c) silence to manage emotions and social interactions. Across these types, coaches positioned silence as purposeful, interactionally consequential, and embedded within the pedagogical and social demands of academy environments.Conclusion: This study extends sport pedagogy scholarship by examining coaches' accounts of silence as a pedagogically meaningful and relationally strategic practice that is temporally and rhythmically situated. The typology offers a contextually situated conceptual and heuristic tool for researchers, practitioners and educators to examine intended uses of silence within coaching interactions. Impact statement By conceptualising silence as an intentional pedagogical and social practice, this study challenges the assumption that quality coaching is exclusively characterised by verbal engagement. The empirically grounded typology provides a starting point for professional learning and further research, enabling practitioners to recognise and critically reflect on how intended uses of silence may shape learning tasks, interactional ownership and relationships in particular contexts.