Olympic coaches’ learning and experiences: A scoping review

This review is to examine what is known, and what important areas remain unknown, in the empirical research on Olympic coaches related to how they learn their craft. Using Arksey and O’Malley's six-stage framework, a scoping review of the published literature was conducted. Key words (and their variations) that guided the searches included, Olympic, learning, and coaching. Twenty-four peer-reviewed empirical studies were included. A process of thematic analysis led to the formation of descriptive and thematic summaries. In addition, a frequency analysis highlighted information on study design, academic field, study tools, publication year, sport, and population. There was consensus across the studies that the learning of Olympic coaches occurs across time, learning communities are highly valued by Olympic coaches, the Olympic environment is crucial for learning, and the learning pathways of Olympic coaches are idiosyncratic in nature. An important gap perceived in the literature is the lack of studies examining athletes’ voices in coach learning and the potential role athletes play in shaping what, why, and how Olympic coaches learn. Furthermore, there is scant research that explicitly examines coaches’ learning prior to, during, and/or after Olympic Games. Therefore, not much is known empirically about the learning of Olympic coaches in these three time periods. Neither is there any examination of the impact of athletes’ influence on Olympic coaches’ learning. Future research is encouraged to embrace a myriad of research methodologies to include both coaches’ and athletes’ contributions to coach learning that, in turn, might enhance coach development and subsequent practice.