The surge in sport coaching science (SCS) highlights the necessity of regular knowledge synthesis. This article provides a comprehensive overview of the field of SCS from both macro-level and historical perspectives. A bibliometric analysis was conducted on 4264 SCS publications indexed in the Web of Science (WoS) up to 2024, following a standard four-step procedure. The results showed that the development of SCS spans nearly a century, with publications and citations accelerating sharply over the past 15 years. Journals specialised in coaching and sport psychology served as the primary publication outlets. Western countries, institutions, and authors dominated the research community. Seven research themes (co-word) and their evolutionary trajectories were revealed. Moreover, 18 research specialties (co-citation) were identified, along with their knowledge bases and temporal trends. Based on these results, we highlighted some key gaps and trends in SCS and proposed future research directions. This study helps SCS researchers set research agendas and reflect on academic achievements, while offering insights for journal editors, funders, policymakers, practitioners, and coach developers/educators, thereby contributing to the advancement of SCS and the coaching profession.
Zhou et al. (Sat,) studied this question.