Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This study examines professional Australian coach and athlete perceptions of effective coaching. Rather than assess the ability or effectiveness of the coaches and teams involved, the purpose was to gather perceptions of what professional coaches and players believe it takes to be an effective coach. Given the broad range of tasks that fit under the auspice of coaching, an important question to address was ‘what’ a coach does in order to be considered effective. In addition, an understanding of ‘why’ and ‘how’ these factors are effective was also essential. These questions formed a starting point in order to find out what professional coaches do (including how they behave), and why players and coaches perceive certain coaching strategies to be effective. This study employed a qualitative research design to identify perceptions about, and strategies of, effective coaching within the professional sport context. Interviews enabled participants to discuss their interpretations of the world in which they live, from their own point of view – a key feature of the present research. Observational data allowed me to view coaching behaviours and interactions with players in training and competition contexts. Using professional Australian coaches and players from cricket, rugby union and rugby league, 6 coaches and 25 players were interviewed while up to 16 coaches and 80 players were observed during 41 observation sessions at training and competition venues. The constant comparative method (Côté, Salmela, Baria, & Russell, 1993; Côté, Salmela, & Russell, 1995b; Glaser & Strauss, 1967) was used to analyse the observation and interview accounts. This enabled rich descriptions of what effective coaches do as well as providing information regarding how and why they carry out certain actions. Findings from the current research indicated that an effective coach possesses specific personal characteristics, qualities and skills as well as a general philosophy or direction for the team. The effective coach uses their own unique leadership, player management, communication and planning skills to create and maintain the team environment to ensure that everyone involved with the team ‘works off the same page’. The interaction of all these features leads to the primary goal of player development, improvement in player performance and winning matches. This thesis identified key perceptions and applications of effective coaching based on Australian professional coach and player experiences.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This study examines professional Australian coach and athlete perceptions of effective coaching. Rather than assess the ability or effectiveness of the coaches and teams involved, the purpose was to gather perceptions of what professional coaches and players believe it takes to be an effective coach. Given the broad range of tasks that fit under the auspice of coaching, an important question to address was ‘what’ a coach does in order to be considered effective. In addition, an understanding of ‘why’ and ‘how’ these factors are effective was also essential. These questions formed a starting point in order to find out what professional coaches do (including how they behave), and why players and coaches perceive certain coaching strategies to be effective. This study employed a qualitative research design to identify perceptions about, and strategies of, effective coaching within the professional sport context. Interviews enabled participants to discuss their interpretations of the world in which they live, from their own point of view – a key feature of the present research. Observational data allowed me to view coaching behaviours and interactions with players in training and competition contexts. Using professional Australian coaches and players from cricket, rugby union and rugby league, 6 coaches and 25 players were interviewed while up to 16 coaches and 80 players were observed during 41 observation sessions at training and competition venues. The constant comparative method (Côté, Salmela, Baria, & Russell, 1993; Côté, Salmela, & Russell, 1995b; Glaser & Strauss, 1967) was used to analyse the observation and interview accounts. This enabled rich descriptions of what effective coaches do as well as providing information regarding how and why they carry out certain actions. Findings from the current research indicated that an effective coach possesses specific personal characteristics, qualities and skills as well as a general philosophy or direction for the team. The effective coach uses their own unique leadership, player management, communication and planning skills to create and maintain the team environment to ensure that everyone involved with the team ‘works off the same page’. The interaction of all these features leads to the primary goal of player development, improvement in player performance and winning matches. This thesis identified key perceptions and applications of effective coaching based on Australian professional coach and player experiences.

Med utgångspunkt i det transformativa ledarskapet (TFL) och Positive Youth Development (PYD) är syftet med studien att undersöka hur tränare för äldre ungdomslag arbetar för en inkluderande verksamhet där ungdomar får göra sin röst hörd. Det finns ett antagande som säger att organiserad idrott utvecklar ungdomar positivt. Tidigare forskning ifrågasätter detta antagande och menar i stället attidrotten har potential att generera en positiv utveckling för ungdomar men det sker inte automatiskt. Tidigare genomförda studier visar att det finns en utmaning för äldre elitsatsande ungdomslag att kombinera viljan att vinna matcher med att skapa en miljö för positiv utveckling för idrottande ungdomar. Tränarens betydelse har visat sig vara avgörande och TFL anses vara en optimal ledarstil för att idrottande ungdomar ska kunna utvecklas på ett personligt plan i kombination med en idrottslig utveckling. Genom att, ur ett socialkonstruktivistiskt perspektiv, studera tränares upplevda transformativa beteenden skapades en större förståelse för ledarskapet i en elitsatsande verksamhet. Semistrukturerade intervjuer genomfördes med sju tränare för sex ungdomslag (tre pojk- och tre flicklag) i fotboll och analyserades med hjälp av meningskoncentrering. Ungdomarnas ålder var 17 år. Resultatet visar att de intervjuade tränarna besitter den intra- och interpersonella kunskap som, tillsammans med en professionell kunskap, definierar en effektiv tränare för ungdomslag. De intervjuade tränarna påvisar önskvärda transformativa beteenden i form av förmågan att vara en förebild för ungdomarna, att kunna inspirera och motivera dem, att ge dem möjlighet att uttrycka sina åsikter samt att uppmärksamma enskilda individer. Dock visar sig dessa beteenden endast i en mer implicit form. För att kunna synliggöra dessa önskvärda beteenden behöver det lyftas fram som explicita kunskaper i både tränar- och ledarskapsutbildningar inom idrotten. Framtida forskning bör inkludera de aktiva ungdomarna som målgrupp