The Internet as a source of learning for youth soccer coaches

Introduction

Sport coaching is a complex process that involves planning, implementing, and evaluating coaching programs to meet the needs of various stakeholders’ goals and expectations.^1,2 In this regard, supporting coaches’ improvement of their knowledge is crucial for quality coaching and athletes’ performance. It has been suggested that coaching knowledge includes professional knowledge (e.g., sport-specific knowledge and pedagogical knowledge), interpersonal knowledge (e.g., communication and presentation skills), and intrapersonal knowledge (e.g., reflective skills). These types of knowledge are essential to assist coaches in developing their athletes holistically. ³ Yet, gaining coaching knowledge is not straightforward. Indeed, studies have found that different types of learning situations dramatically influenced coaches’ development. ⁴ In addition, previous life experiences (e.g., as an athlete) have been shown to highly influence coaches’ choices in terms of preferred learning situations. More recently, studies have also shown that even coaches sharing similar roles within similar contexts prefer different learning situations.^4,5 Indeed, Trudel, Gilbert, and Werthner cautioned coach educators and sport organizations that any attempts to develop coaches’ knowledge should consider the contexts in which learning occurs. ⁵

Werthner and Trudel viewed coaches’ learning situations as mediated, unmediated, and internal. In mediated learning situations (e.g., coaching courses and formal mentoring), learning materials presented are decided upon and directed by a person other than the learner. In unmediated learning situations, there are no instructors or teachers and the learner is responsible for choosing what to learn. Finally, in internal learning situations, the learner is not exposed to new materials but reconsiders or reflects on existing ideas in their cognitive structure. ⁶ The effectiveness of different learning situations reported in the literature has yield mixed results.^7,8 For example, mediated learning situations such as formal coach education programs that aim to develop coaches’ knowledge, skills, and quality practices has been disputed in the coaching literature.^2,8 One main criticism includes low transferability of knowledge learned from coach education materials to real-life coaching scenarios.^5,9,10 However, other studies attributed this to a lack of coach education support system for development.^11,12

Indeed, Trudel et al. ⁴ stated that different types of learning situations can influence coaches’ motivation in learning and the extent of the knowledge gained. With increasing evidence of the need for more individualized education for coaches, there is a need to understand coaches’ preference for different learning situations,^6,9,13 and the mechanisms in facilitating the learning process to inform coach education policies and coaching practice. However, research examining the facilitation of different learning situations especially in unmediated and internal learning among coaches remains scarce. ⁴

Using the Internet as a form of learning has gained attention in the recent decades as seen in various fields such as physical education ¹⁴ and sports.^15–18 Studies have found positive effects of utilizing unmediated and mediated Internet learning. For example, a survey of Internet use in the United Kingdom saw 90% of the respondents indicating Internet use for various forms of learning. Specific to sport coaching, 70% of the coaches interviewed use the Internet to locate information and resources on how to coach better. ¹⁸ Similarly, studies also reported the benefits of using the Internet for learning due to time and cost efficiency, easy accessibility, as well as its ability to meet individuals’ learning needs.^17,19

Although several studies have highlighted the resources available on the Internet for coaches’ learning,^6,20 there is still a dearth of research that examines how Internet learning enhances coaching knowledge and practice. ⁴ For example, a study by Wright et al. ²⁰ briefly investigated whether or not coaches used the Internet as a resource for coaching-related purposes. The study found that the Internet was one of seven learning situations that coaches utilized for gathering coaching knowledge and skills. However, the only information gathered was that coaches used the Internet to communicate with people and access information through the World Wide Web (Web). No information was provided as to what types of information were exchanged through the interactions, or gathered from the Web to enhance their knowledge. The study also did not examine how exactly coaches used the Internet for their learning and reasons why they preferred this mode of learning. In a similar study, Pope et al. ¹⁷ investigated the content of the information coaches attained from the Internet on sport psychology resources, their use of such information, and differences in coaches’ used of Internet resources across experience, certification, and competitive level. They found that accessibility and credibility of the specific online resources are the main reasons for the low usage of the Internet resources. However, the study did not examine how coaches used the resources in their coaching practice, which is important to advance our knowledge in this line of research. Given the new age of technology and the possible effect it has on coaches’ learning, it is useful for sports policy makers and coach educators to understand how the Internet can be better utilized as a learning source to enhance coaches’ knowledge.

Given the potential of utilizing the Internet for learning and the scarcity of research in this area, this study sought to fill in these gaps in knowledge by exploring the benefits of using the Internet as a learning resource among youth soccer coaches, and how they locate and apply the Internet materials in their coaching. The study was guided by four research questions: (i) What are the benefits of using the Internet to develop coaching knowledge? (ii) How do youth soccer coaches search for the coaching resources and challenges face? (iii) What kind of information/knowledge do they search for on the Internet? and (iv) How do they use the Internet resources to support their coaching?

Methods

Procedure and instrument

Prior to data collection, approval to conduct the study was obtained from the ethical review board of the first author’s university. Participant coaches gave their consent to be involved in the study. They were briefed that participation was voluntary, and assured their rights to confidentiality, anonymity, and freedom of withdrawal from the study.

Data analysis

The transcripts were analyzed following a five phase thematic analytic approach adapted from the past literature. ²⁵ This approach was chosen because it enabled the researchers to identify key features (similarities and differences) across the data set related to the research questions, with a strong emphasis on interpretation of the data. ²⁶ The five phases included the following: (a) immersion—becoming familiar with, and making sense of the data by reading the interview transcripts on numerous occasions; (b) generating initial codes—coding the entire data set in a systematic fashion, concluding with the identification and production of a long list of different codes; (c) searching for and identifying themes across codes—coded data were collated to produce overarching themes; (d) reviewing themes—this required checking if themes appeared to form a coherent pattern, and how these themes fit together to form the overall story; and (e) defining and naming themes—this involves identification of the theme and determining what aspect of the data each theme captured. Following that, each theme was given a concise tag that provided a clear interpretation of the data. ²⁶ For example, tags that share similar meaning such as “save time,” “easy accessibility,” “update-to-date materials,” “low cost,” and “provide coaching ideas” were grouped under the theme of “reasons for using Internet.”

Results

The results presented in the following sections are ordered according to the research questions. Findings are also discussed against past literature. Numbers were assigned to each participant to maintain confidentiality of their identity and to differentiate the coaches. For example, Coach 1 and Coach 2 were coded as C1 and C2, respectively.

Challenges faced

Discussion

The purpose of this study was to examine the benefits of using the Internet as a source of learning for youth soccer coaches, and how coaches locate and apply the Internet materials in their coaching. Our results are consistent with the literature that the Internet has wide-reaching effects on learners all around the world.^16,20,27 The benefits of easy access of coaching resources and time-saving nature of it provide individuals with the freedom to work around their schedules. At the same time, this allows learning to take place at anytime and anywhere, which are critical factors in facilitating coaches’ development. They are only required to filter resources they need, making the process of acquiring knowledge more efficient and meaningful. This is very important to sport coaches as they often cited difficulties in accessing coaching resources and lack of time as the main reason in whether they pursue coaching knowledge.^6,28 This is in contrast to conventional coach education courses that usually present standardized packages of information to coaches that lack variety, or are even outdated. ²⁹

Studies have also showed that coaches often lack sufficient financial resources to continue upgrading knowledge and skills.^11,30 Sport organizations struggled to provide coaches with subsidized or sponsored courses for personal development. ³¹ This is a more pronounced problem in less developed countries where Internet access is not common and coaches are not highly paid. Moreover, sport organizations often have limited government funding to support coach development programs. ¹¹ Such issues might hinder coaches’ motivation in using the Internet as a convenient platform for learning. Our result shows that participants prefer Internet as opposed to fee-paying coaching resources in view of the low cost in gaining coaching knowledge. With increasing free Wi-Fi locations in most of developed or developing countries, coaches are likely to have full access to the Internet to acquire coaching knowledge. ¹⁸ Coaching materials from the Internet therefore provide an economical source of learning opportunities for coaches, allowing them to further their knowledge and skills amidst the shortage of financial support. Indeed, participants from this study are quick to seize this opportunity to develop and enhance their coaching knowledge; they can now choose to access coaching information conveniently from the Internet often for no or minimal cost.^18,32

Our results mirrored past research that showed how youth soccer coaches utilized popular Internet platforms like Google, YouTube, and Facebook to seek coaching knowledge. ¹⁸ More importantly, coaches can access all three types of coaching knowledge (i.e., professional, interpersonal, and intrapersonal). Given the popularity of the Internet, ³³ this platform allows exchange of knowledge and skills between people of all walks of life, different cultural backgrounds, and geographical locations. It also allows coaches free access to the expertise of experienced coaches who might not publish their coaching knowledge and experience in traditional forms of coach educational materials (e.g., books, DVDs). The Internet is therefore a fertile platform for coaches to acquire coaching knowledge and skills from their own culture as well as gain new perspectives and practices beyond their national borders.

Although coaches in this study preferred such a learning mode as they have control over what they would like to learn and the pace of learning, such a self-directed learning mode may compromise the quality of learning as it is unguided. ⁵ For example, the majority of the coaches in this study used “random browsing” as a strategy to locate coaching resources. A problem with using self-sourced and random browsing strategy is that the coaching resources sought may be restricted by what coaches are familiar with (e.g., knowledge of this sport), which could limit their learning. Our results also suggest that some coaches are unsure of what information, and perhaps websites, to take reference from when pursuing coaching knowledge. It is also uncertain how this “random browsing” could extend coaches’ knowledge in areas which they were not familiar, or challenge their understanding of coaching. For example, studies have highlighted that Internet users often face problems of “information over-load” and being “lost in hyperspace” because the abundance of information from various sources on the Internet can become confusing, making the Internet an ineffective learning source.^17,18 More research is warranted to investigate if browsing the Internet randomly can help coaches acquire useful knowledge effectively. It is therefore crucial that coaches are equipped with appropriate skills and knowledge perhaps through coach education programs to manage the plethora of information, learn to evaluate the quality and credibility of the source, and use them appropriately.^26,34

Our results suggest that coaches may need more professional guidance in discerning the credibility of learning resources found online. The participant coaches in this study evaluated the credibility of information gathered from the Internet by identifying whether sources were from established coaches and authoritative organizations. When such information is not available, they drew on their past experiences and the display quality of the websites to determine the reliability and accuracy of the information on the Internet. Clearly, distinguishing credible online resource is challenging but important in coaches’ learning given that the Internet is a free space that any person, whether trained or untrained, can upload information that is accessible to all Internet users. One possible solution to address this issue is to have sport organizations include links of informative and credible sites to their websites to facilitate the searching of reliable information by coaches. In fact, none of the participant coaches mentioned receiving links or suggested Internet sources from coaching courses or the football association. The proposed suggestion would also resolve the challenge highlighted by Mallett et al. ⁵ of promoting all kinds of learning situations to coaches to enhance their coaching knowledge. Another suggestion is to provide, within a coach education program, a checklist like the Website Quality Evaluation Tool ³⁵ that examines the content, function, authority, currency, links, graphics, and style to help coaches evaluate and verify the reliability and credibility of websites or online materials. In conjunction with providing a list of credible links, sport federations could also pose questions relating to enhancing inter- and intrapersonal knowledge for coaches to learn when they access the links. Coupled with self-directed learning behaviors seen among coaches who learn through the Internet, the proposed solution would further promote and facilitate sustainable learning.

Professional knowledge such as soccer drills and tactics were the most sought Internet materials as reported by all the coaches in this study. The result is consistent with past studies where a majority of coaches focused their Internet searches primarily on drills and exercises specific to their sports to meet their coaching needs.^8,20,28,36 Given that coaches seek resources from this platform out of self-initiation and on a voluntary basis, this form of self-directed learning is likely to motivate them wanting to learn more and be better coaches. ⁹ The challenge is how to facilitate such mode of learning and yet maintain quality learning experience. Unfortunately, the importance of acquiring relevant skills through the Internet has been neglected given that this platform has largely been an unsupervised and unstructured tool. ³⁷ For example, the coaches in this study highlighted some navigational difficulties such as the ability in using concise key words to locate the resources they need that hindered their learning on the Internet. Another difficulty they faced is the ability of discerning the credibility of the coaching materials. Similarly, this could also be a problem for countries that are relatively less advanced in the use of Internet learning. ¹⁸ Future coach education programs might want to address this gap to better prepare the coaches.

In addition, it appears that the coaches in this study focused their learning on sport-specific information (e.g., technical, tactical) as opposed to inter- and intrapersonal knowledge. Studies have showed that an appreciation of all three types of coaching knowledge can positively influence the holistic development of athletes.^1,3,38 Given the tendency for the participant coaches to focus on sport-specific content knowledge (e.g., drills, strategies), their Internet searches may contribute little as a learning source for other important content knowledge such as inter- and intrapersonal knowledge. The lack of participant coaches pursuing interpersonal and intrapersonal knowledge (two of ten participants) is not surprising given previous research^9,15,34,39 highlighted that such knowledge has been found to be considerably underdeveloped in pre-existing coach education programs. One of the possible reasons could be due to the lack of emphasis in these areas in coach education programs, or perhaps the lack of effectiveness in delivering it to coaches.^3,9 Given the three types of coaching knowledge that are available for coaches to access from the Internet, the Internet holds potential that has been largely untapped by coaches to enhance their coaching effectiveness, especially in the areas of intra- and interpersonal knowledge. Greater awareness need to be raised for coaches to make better use of such platform to gain the necessary knowledge to support their coaching.

It is interesting and insightful to know that coaches who sought information from the Internet show enthusiasm in applying the knowledge they gained with their athletes. This is in contrast with formalized coach training programs that have seen low transferences of knowledge and skills into actual practice.^5,9,10 It is possible that such active learning behavior is a result of coaches searching for coaching materials that are relevant and meaningful to them, which may aid them in solving their coaching issues. This could be motivating for them as it gives purpose to expending the time and effort in sieving through the abundant Internet for information. Indeed, past studies have shown that the relevance of learning materials is associated with learners viewing the learning subject positively ⁴⁰ and sustained motivation during learning. ⁴¹ Further research could investigate how the affordance of control over learning content by the Internet can contribute to the effectiveness of the learning process among coaches. Such information would greatly benefit coach educators and sport organizations in enhancing coaches’ learning. Moreover, Cropley et al. ⁴² suggested that motivation is a key factor to engage coaches in learning and improve coaching practice. We argue that the Internet could be a source of motivation for sport coaches to acquire more knowledge and skills to further their coaching craft. More importantly, some coaches in this study reflected on the Internet resources used after each training session and sought feedback from their athletes to improvise and improve the resources. Such internalization of learning is indeed more powerful than traditional mediated coach education programs as coaches took ownership of not only their learning but also the quality of what they learned. Such behavior is in fact an example of self-regulated learning where learners are able to work remotely and autonomously, while being able to monitor and motivate themselves until learning objectives are met. ⁴³ More importantly, self-regulated learning as an intrapersonal skill has been related to effective learning and desirable educational and career outcomes. ⁴⁴ Although more empirical evidence is needed to examine how self-initiated browsing on the Internet can indeed motivate coaches to learn and improve the quality of their coaching, our results suggest that coaches need to be educated on the importance of acquiring intrapersonal and interpersonal skills in order to help them to be more effective. This could be of paramount relevance to coaches, as their career often requires them to work and acquire knowledge and skills independently.

Limitations and future research directions

Although this study has contributed to the literature by investigating how the Internet has been, and can be used, as a source of mediated and unmediated learning to enhance coaching knowledge, there are some limitations to consider. First, the sample size of 10 developmental youth soccer coaches may be too small to reflect the information-seeking behaviors and preferences of coaches in this field. Future research should explore this topic with a larger sample size to enhance the representation and generalization of the key findings. Future studies may also focus on surveying coaches in other sports (e.g., individual, other team sports) and levels of coaching (e.g., developmental, elite level) to gain further insights into the differences and similarities of learning patterns among different groups of coaches. Second, although our results show Internet learning as a preferred learning situation by all participant coaches, the quality of learning and effectiveness of the application of such learning to coaching practice is unknown. More empirical studies are needed to explore if the Internet can indeed be an efficient learning tool to be utilized alongside mediated coach education programs to develop coaching knowledge and impact athletes’ development; of significance are the operational processes and mechanism that promote this mode of learning. Further investigation is also warranted to find out if learning through the Internet can be incorporated into mediated learning situation and whether doing so can enhance the learning of sport coaches. Such information would be useful for national sport organizations and coach educators to design and develop relevant coaching materials and curricula, building on the strengths of the Internet.

Practical implications

We believe that learning through the Internet could complement and facilitate mediated learning for coaches. Such approach would be beneficial to coach learning. Based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations are made.

First, national sport organizations should ensure that their webpages are of good quality as it is likely to attract potential Internet users such as coaches to visit and connect with them. They should also consider creating links of useful, informative, and credible sites to their websites, and recommending good coaching resources or materials from the Internet to facilitate coaches’ independent learning on the Internet. Second, coaches should be educated on strategies to search for credible and reliable coaching resources, probably through mediated coach education programs/clinics, or the national sport organization’s websites. In addition, national sport organizations may consider establishing an online “learning community” or other opportunities such as blog or tweet to attract coaches to discuss, reflect, and construct solutions to their coaching issues, and share good practices to improve coaching practices to promote continued learning. It also gives coaches the flexibility of time and the autonomy to choose what they would like to learn, which is characteristic of unmediated learning. ⁶ Finally, in light of the unequal accessibility of the Internet in different parts of the world, there needs to be more effort from international sporting bodies to provide coaches working in developing countries with more access to the Internet to assist them to develop their coaching knowledge.

Conclusion

The findings of the study provide valuable insights into underlying reasons why youth soccer coaches used the Internet to gain coaching knowledge, how they access the available resources, what kinds of coaching resources are sought, and how they are used in coaching practice. Our results show that the Internet has the potential to serve as a useful learning tool for coaches to enhance their knowledge and skills in coaching. In this regard, more effort, adequate resources, and training are warranted to help sport coaches tap on this learning tool to enhance their coaching knowledge and practice. As our understanding of coach learning through the Internet is in its infancy, more research is required to help us have better understanding of this burgeoning field.