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Mentoring as part of a coach certification system

Canada's National Coaching Certification Program has been undergoing a re-structuring, resulting in a coaching education program that will be based more on enabling coaches to develop various coaching competencies, rather than on simply the teaching or provision of information that the coaches may or may not actually be able to implement with their athletes. In the sport of alpine skiing, for a coach to become certified within this new program, he or she must also participate in a mentoring process, where the focus is on the on-going learning of coaches. The mentoring process involves being mentored by a more experienced coach and having this mentor sign off on particular tasks over the course of the season.
The purpose of the present study was to explore the learning process of two pairs of coaches in a formalized mentoring relationship within the context of a competitive alpine ski club, and to gain a better understanding of the interpersonal relationship between a coach and his or her mentor. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, field notes, and a series of on-hill observations.
Findings from this study have indicated that (a) through the process of mentoring, coaches can become more reflective thinkers, (b) a clear separation of the mentoring process from the certification process is necessary, (c) the training session for the mentor evaluator coaches was a valuable learning opportunity, and (d) not only is mentoring a complex process with many facets but it also appears to be a personal dynamic and one mentoring relationship can be very different from another.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/27822
Date January 2007
CreatorsCloutier, Robin A
PublisherUniversity of Ottawa (Canada)
Source SetsUniversité d’Ottawa
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis
Format87 p.

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