The global population is ageing, and with it has been a growth of mature aged participation in sport. Following this trend, swimming amongst the adult population in South Africa, whether it is for recreation or competitive purposes, has increased. This research reports on the coaching strategies used by one coach who is training Masters swimmers in Johannesburg. It examines whether or not andragogical principles and teaching methods could be applied to an informal swimming coaching context. Qualitative methods were used for data collection, including an interview with the coach, focus group discussions with the swimmers, pool deck observations and video recordings of the training sessions. Results indicated that adult education principles could be applied to an informal swimming coaching context through flexible and accommodating coaching practices, ensuring effective communication between the swimmer and the coach and utilising the community of practice between the swimmers and coaches to ensure effective adult learning.

This thesis aimed to: (a) design a factorially valid survey to assess sub-themes relating to ‘involvement opportunities’ (IOs), which are an antecedent variable in the sport commitment model (Wilson et al., 2004); (b) examine the placement of enjoyment alongside IOs in the sport commitment model; (c) determine the pathways (i.e., direct and/or indirect) by which specific IOs sub-themes affect functional and obligatory commitment and if they differ in number, strength and direction of association (Choosakul et al., 2009); and (d) examine differences between recent initiates compared to those who have been more continuously involved (Chu & Wang, 2012) in Masters swimming. Based on exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of survey data from 725 swimmers (260 males, 465 females, M age = 50.5, range = 25-92), results confirmed a 10 factor solution of IOs sub-themes. Structural equation modeling demonstrated that the number, direction, and strength of associations between specific IOs sub-themes and commitment vary depending on commitment type, as do the nature of direct and indirect pathways affecting commitment. Invariance testing showed recent initiates and continuously-involved swimmers to be invariant across measurement and structural models. Overall, results support the need to measure and assess IOs at the level of the sub-theme and to consider a bi-dimensional (Santi et al., 2014; Wilson et al., 2004) sport commitment model.