Evidence based paddlesport coaching

The article that follows discusses the evidence base for coaching models as taught at BCU level 1, and goes on to suggest how we can still improve as coaches in the absence of any firm empirically based foundations. It's aimed at new paddlesport coaches, not pedagogists so I've tried to keep it flowing and as informal as possible. To that end I've glossed over several interesting discussions and bits of research.

I hope it'll be relevant to paddlesport coaches who are struggling with any particular feature of a coaching model, or are struggling with contradictions between different models. It might also prompt some coach educators to consider how best to deliver coaching theory.

In this version, which is intended for submission as my level 5 project, I've included a few asides as comments which appear when you roll the mouse over this sort of text with some longer ramblings which appear in new windows when you click on this sort of text. I've also included a bibliography and have made an effort to reference the article. It still doesn't read like an academic paper and intentionally so. If you want to read this information in a more formal style, then I'd suggest that Frank Coffield's "Learning Styles and Pedagogy in post-16 learning" is an excellent place to start.

It's also available to download in an abridged version as a PDF.

On to the article