Whilst video is increasingly recognized and utilized within elite sport settings as an appropriate medium for delivering information about performance (MacRae, Miller-Perrin, & Tinberg, 2003), the exact role of the video as a development tool within youth football remains unclear (Groom, Cushion & Nelson, 2011). It is argued that further research is needed which is grounded in the day-to-day realities of the players, coaches and practitioners using video to develop players for senior football. Drawing from a wide range of scientific disciplines, the term 'video-based practice' is employed throughout this research to represent the overall activities and processes surrounding video delivery in youth football settings. The main aim of this research project was to gain an in-depth understanding of video-based practice within elite youth football. Mixed-methods were undertaken to tackle these applied research questions. Forming a two-part investigation, study one focused on developing an understanding the perspectives of the key participants in the VFB process within youth football. Interviews were conducted with eleven coaches and twelve players currently based with elite youth football environments. A thematic content analysis yielded rich data pertaining to their perceptions of the factors involved in the delivery of video feedback within youth football. In study 1a with coaches, 421 distinct raw-data quotes were abstracted into 111 lower-order themes, and 17 higher-order themes; while in study 1b with players, 490 distinct raw-data quotes were abstracted into 104 lower-order themes, and 16 higher-order themes. These higher order themes were grouped together under three general dimensions. These focused on (i) the psychological processes engaged during delivery, (ii) the impact of using different delivery strategies, and (iii) the impact of the delivery climate surrounding video- ii based practice. Whilst a broad range of common themes were identified, the findings also highlighted differences in the way coaches and players perceived the VFB delivery process. In the second part of this research, the emphasis shifted from exploring the factors influencing delivery, to directly exploring their impact from within elite youth football settings. In study two, an 'individual-focused' video intervention - based on the tenets of self-modeling theory - was delivered to five players within a single-case design to explore its effect on subcomponents of performance and selected psychological variables during a competitive football season. The findings were mixed. Whilst positive changes were observed on certain subcomponents of performance for three of the four players who received the video intervention, the findings showed that no impact was observed for other subcomponents. The findings also highlight the potential mediating influence of a number of psychological variables in the video-performance relationship, including self-efficacy, affect, imagery and motivation. Finally, in study three, a two-year narrative-based reflective piece is presented of the principal researchers' experiences working as an practitioner within video-based practice within an elite professional youth football setting. Using reflective journals and observations in the field, a number of practical, philosophical and ethical issues were explored through the perspective of the coach-practitioner relationship. Overall, the findings of this thesis reveal the central importance of psychological factors in influencing the effectiveness of video-based practice in youth football, and suggest that the skill and expertise of the Sport Psychologist may add significant value to video-based practice alongside the coach and performance analysis practitioner.

The purpose of this thesis was to provide a context specific insight into how life skills and resilient coping behaviors could be developed through the medium of football. In study 1, a triangulation of experiences from players, coaches, parents, and teachers was sought through a series of focus groups. The findings highlighted that football can develop a range of life skills that contribute towards developing a resilient person, and emphasized that social interaction with a coach, along with a collaborative approach, were key to adolescents’ development of these skills. Building on these findings, Study 2 aimed to design, deliver, and evaluate a coach education intervention program that enabled coaches to integrate life skills development within their coaching sessions. The findings demonstrated an intervention effect on coaches’ knowledge of life skills and resilient behavior development. Further, an in-depth social validation process demonstrated that coaches were not only able to retain and apply the new knowledge acquired but that it had transformed their approach to coaching. The final study in this thesis culminated the exploration of the impact of the intervention program by evaluating the effectiveness of a coach in delivering sessions that promote life skills development from the perspective of his/her players. Through a combination of focus groups and the analysis of participants’ reflective logs, it emerged that the players had a sound understanding of the importance of life skills, and had been successful in transferring a number of them acquired through football to other environments. Overall, the thesis has provided conceptual and practical implications for coaches and NGB’s alike in the understanding, development, and integration of life skill development into coaching practice, training and development. As a result, young people’s capacity to thrive in life as well as sport can be enhanced.

In recent years, the provision of formal coach education has been regarded as a crucial mechanism for endorsing sports coaching and facilitating sports coaching practitioners’ professional development and competency. As a result, there has been a noticeable increase in the number of sports coaching research scholars investigating formal coach education. Previous research however has recognised that formal coach education has had a limited impact on learning and professional development. In addition, the research surrounding females in sports coaching, and in particular their experiences of formal coach education, is limited. It is considered an under-researched area, and currently it is unclear why females are under-represented in formal coach education courses. This thesis therefore aims to explore gendered issues associated with the complexities of the Football Association’s formal coach education process, and the issues associated with female football coaching practitioners’ attending coach education courses. The sports coaches who participated in this work were recruited via purposeful sampling procedures, and importantly demonstrated characteristics which resonated with the aims of this research study. The research study was separated into a four-phase, sequential, exploratory method design, which included a series of in-depth, one-to-one semi-structured interviews. Data were analysed utilising a thematic analysis approach, and aligned with a Bourdieun and feminist theoretical framework. The findings revealed a range of contexts and challenges for female coaches undertaking formal coach education. Specifically, high levels of gender discrimination, inappropriate cultural practices, and sexual impropriety were recorded. These insights are discussed in line with the Bourdieun notions of social acceptance, symbolic language and violence. In conclusion, it is argued that the attrition levels of the sports coaching practitioners’ have indeed been affected, and could well continue to be, unless change occurs. Hopefully, the recommendations provided could go a long way to enhancing the future provision of formal coach education.

Although it seems clear that coaches become effective practitioners through idiosyncratic combinations of learning experiences (Werthner & Trudel, 2009), little is known about how and why this occurs and impacts on coaching knowledge and practice (Cushion et al., 2010). This research sought to understand the processes and impact of coaches learning in the context of UK youth football coaching, specifically centring on a formal education course. The research process utilised a pragmatic and integrated perspective, influenced by impact evaluation frameworks (e.g. Coldwell & Simkins, 2011). A group of 25 coaches were investigated at different points over a period of a year and a half, using a mixture of semi-structured interviews, systematic observations, video-based stimulated recall interviews and course observations, to build up increasingly in-depth levels of data. Using the principles of grounded theory methodology (Strauss & Corbin, 1998) as well as mixed analyses of variance (ANOVA), changes in the knowledge use and practice behaviours of course candidates, and equivalent coaches not undertaking formal education, were compared. The course had subtle impacts on coaches knowledge conceptions in interaction with wider knowledge sources, yet impact on practice was generally demonstrated only in the areas of questioning content and individually directed coaching interventions. Mismatches between the espoused theory of the course and what the candidates actually perceived, as well as a lack of individualised support to overcome disjuncture (Jarvis, 2006) created barriers to learning, preventing integration of theoretical conceptions into altered coaching practice. A substantive grounded theory was generated to explain the underpinning double-loop cognitive filter and reflective feedback processes involved in coaches learning. The model demonstrated that practitioners learning, guided by existing biography and driven by a practical focus on what works , was heavily influenced by context. Meaningful learning connected knowledge with implementation in practice through reflection. These processes help explain uneven learning across individuals; addressing for the first time questions of what works , how , 'why', and for whom in coach learning (McCullick et al., 2009). Thus the results generate an understanding of coaches learning which can be practically relevant in fostering better opportunities to enhance the development of capable and creative coaches.

The purpose of this research was to explore the phenomenon of parenting in English elite youth football and provide a rich, detailed description and nuanced interpretation of parenting in this highly challenging and competitive culture. The research positioned parenting in youth sport as a dynamic, culturally-situated process, constituted through interaction with significant others. This allowed for an in-depth understanding of how parenting was experienced in elite youth football that included children s accounts of their interaction with parents. Using a phenomenological methodology, research was undertaken in three English professional football clubs to explore how parenting in elite youth football was experienced as lived. Parents of players registered to an elite youth football academy, players aged between 8 and 17 years and academy coaches participated in interviews. Participant observation was used to complement interview data. Embracing multi-perspectivalism (Kellner, 1995), multiple qualitative analytical techniques were used to explore data from different epistemological perspectives, providing sensitivity to the variation and subtlety of participants experiences. The findings from four empirical, qualitative research studies are presented. Firstly, an exploration of the experience of being a parent of an elite youth footballer described how parents were socialised into the academy culture, and experienced a change in identity and a heightened sense of responsibility to facilitate their child s football development. Secondly, an examination of elite youth footballers experience of interaction with their parents demonstrated how players experienced their body as an object to be scrutinised and assessed when watched by parents, experienced conflict with parents from within a power relation, and ascribed meaning to their interaction with parents in relation to their goal of becoming a successful academy footballer. Thirdly, an idiographic analysis of parents and players individual and dyadic experiences of parent-player interactions highlighted how relationships were constituted by; relations with other family members; an embodied sense of closeness; the temporal significance of football transitions; and gender and power relations. Finally, an analysis of coaches accounts of the parent-coach relationship in elite youth football demonstrated how parent-coach interactions occurred within an imbalanced power relation, which centred on establishing the rights to be responsible for player development. Together, these findings present a complex picture of parenting in elite youth football, as an embodied, temporal and culturally-situated experience, constituted through interaction and power relations between parents, players, coaches and academies. This research highlights the importance of conceptualising parenting in youth sport as a social, culturally-embedded process and supports the need to include children in research about issues that affect them. Extending this further, adopting a theoretical perspective that allows for the contextual power relations to be examined can further enhance understanding of parenting in youth sport. Finally, this research recommends that listening to and valuing the experiences of participants in the elite youth football culture, alongside open discussion and critical reflection upon academy practices, may have the greatest potential for enhancing the experiences of parents, players and coaches.

The formation of the Football Academy in Malaysia was seen as the best possible way to develop young footballers, through a decentralized programme with the aim to provide a strong base for many players who are sound and strong and to produce an individual player who can reach world class standard. With the problem of performance of the Malaysia national football team, which has been considerably affected by problems relating to the knowledge of coaching and behaviour of the football coaches in the coaching process, the study of the academy football coaches in Malaysia was conducted to offer some possible ways to address the issues facing the coaching profession in Malaysia. It is significant to study the academy coaches since the football academies are expected to play a prominent role in producing quality players for the states, national and international teams. The study applied a qualitative methodology to explore the unique features and circumstances surrounding the football academy coaches and players in the context of this study and the major sources of data include the interview, observation and documentation analysis. Subsequently, the findings of this study revealed that i) the development of knowledge of coaching has taken place in the academy but constrained by factors involving the coach education programme at the academy level; ii) the weaknesses of the coaches in transferring important knowledge to the players showed a significant impact on the players' performance; iii) the coaches' behaviour that were seen in organizing the players and training them for competition has impacted on the players' performance; iv) the important relationship between coaches' knowledge and behaviour that play a significant role in the development of the players; and v) other factors which have impact on the coaches' behaviour during the coaching process.