Accessibility, integration and transfer of sport science knowledge to high-performance coaching in South Africa

Abstract

The professionalisation of sport has engendered the global demand for a competitive advantage, otherwise termed the “winning edge”. For coaches to meet high-performance demands, they must be able to keep abreast with global sporting trends. This enables them to make informed decisions concerning their athletes. This study was carried out primarily to examine how high-performance coaches accessed sport science knowledge and their perception of sport science information. A secondary purpose of the study was to determine the barriers and limitations encountered by high-performance coaches in accessing and applying sport science information in their professional practices. Using a mixed methods approach, data were collected by administering 90 questionnaires to coaches in 14 national sport federations and conducting a focus group interview with 12 high-performance coaches. The study addressed four key areas, namely, the learning intent of coaches, the knowledge transfer and influence of sport science on coaching practices, coaches’ understanding of sport science, and the accessibility of sportcience knowledge to coaches. A few key themes that emerged from this study included relevance, access, dissemination, and language. The results of the study suggest that coaches learnt significantly from sport scientists. Collaborative relationships appeared to be an influential factor regarding knowledge transfer and integration. In contrast to individual-sport coaches, team-sport coaches worked more often with sport scientists and engaged with them through consultation; hence, they responded positively to knowledge transfer. Team-sport coaches’ determining factors mostly concerned learning intent, learning capacity, and sport science accessibility. Discrepancy in the findings could be attributed to unique attributes of organisational cultures in individual- and team-sports.