Sport Coaching

Effective Coaching 1: Strategy And Practice

Sports coaching has evolved rapidly in recent years in its quest to be recognised as full profession. Yet, rhetorical statements based on pseudoscientific principles, along with poor coaching practices continue to dominate much of the coaching landscape. This module, therefore, immediately encourages you to evaluate and problematise your own coaching assumptions so that you can begin to appraise the basis for your coaching strategies and practices. The module introduces you to several contemporary topics that contribute to coaching efficacy. You are then supported in appraisal your existing knowledge and skills by critically analysing coaching practices with contemporary developments within the scholarly literature. Ultimately, this encourages you to underpin your rationale for effective coaching strategies and practices with a solid theoretical foundation.

Module code: SPOR70938

Skilled Performance Under Pressure

This module uses psychophysiological interpretations of how athletes interact with motivated performance situations to explain skilled performance under pressure. Traditional approaches to skill acquisition will be contrasted with an emerging constraint lead approach with a focus on how such models can promote an informed organisation of the learning and practice environment. Contemporary approaches to understanding skilled performance under pressure including psychophysiological markers (cardiovascular reactivity) of the human reaction to stress will be examined as indicators of adaptive and maladaptive responses to human performance stress.

Module code: SPOR70950

Advanced Research Methods And Data Analysis

This module will enable students to develop and enhance contemporary research methods and data analysis skills in sport and exercise. The content of the module includes: a critical appreciation of both quantitative and qualitative research, evaluating sources of data, appraising research designs, considering researcher’s philosophies, statistical data analysis via SPSS covering tests of differences and relationships, interpretation of research findings, and the presentation of research results. Students will learn practical analytical skills by working with provided sport and exercise datasets to conduct quantitative analyses and report the results. A variety of approaches to qualitative research will be critically appraised (e.g., thematic analysis, interpretative phenomenological analysis) and applied to sport and exercise datasets. The theoretical rationale for, and execution of, a range of inferential statistical techniques will also be covered (e.g., t-tests, correlations, regression, and mediation).

Module code: SPOR70944

Masters Research Project: Science/Coaching Journal Article Part 2

This module supports students in conducting a rigorous and ethically-sound MSc-level research project in the students’ topic area of choice within their course remit. Students will independently manage and execute their research project, under the supervision of an allocated member of staff. These activities will lead to the production of a written journal article (as chosen by the student), followed by a 30-minute viva voce.

Module code: SPOR70945

Masters Research Project: Science/Coaching Proposal And Ethics (Part 1)

Module code: SPOR70943

Group Dynamics And Leadership In Sport And Exercise

The module covers the application of social psychological theory to sport and exercise settings, with a focus on audience effects, group dynamics, and leadership, and on how these processes may impact on the performance of athletes, coaches, trainers and managers. There is a critical focus on the psychology of group dynamics (and associated interventions to optimise team functioning) as well as leadership (and associated interventions to optimise leadership skills), using a theory to evidence to application framework.

Module code: SPOR70939

Effective Coaching 2: Reflective Practice

Reflective practice has become a central feature within the provision of coach education throughout the world, yet coaches struggle to move beyond superficial aspects of reflection. The objective of this module is to support you in developing greater critical reflexivity skills. This affords you the opportunity to achieve a greater insight into your coaching identity and help you apply theory into your coaching practice more effectively. The assessment also focusses on enabling you to influence, lead and manage other coaches become ever more critically reflexive.

Module code: SPOR70940