Towards an understanding of the use of video-based performance analysis in the coaching process

Recent scholarly writing has located performance analysis firmly within the coaching process. Although the what of performance analysis regarding system design and reliability has been well documented, the how and the why or use of video-based performance analysis within the coaching process remains less understood. Therefore, this thesis sought to develop an empirically-based understanding of some of the realities of the use of video based performance analysis feedback within the coaching process. Within a broad ethnographic framework, this thesis followed three key phases of data collection and analysis. Within phase one, a grounded theory methodology, was used to explore the what and why of the delivery of video-based performance analysis in elite youth soccer. Data were collected from interviews with 14 England youth soccer coaches. Through an iterative process of constant comparison, categories regarding Contextual Factors, Delivery Approach and Targeted Outcomes were highlighted. Within phase two, coach-athletes interactions were examined in situ over the course of a 10-month English Premier League Academy season to explore the how of the delivery of video-based feedback. Data were analysed using the techniques and procedures of conversation analysis combined with a social power analysis drawing upon the work of Bertram H. Raven. Analysis of the interactions revealed that the coach attempted to exercise control over the sequential organisation of the session, via asymmetrical turn-taking allocations, an unequal opportunity to talk, control over the topic of discussion within the interactions, and the use of questioning to select speakers to take turns to talk. Within phase three, a narrative ethnographic approach was utilised to examine the how and why of the in situ narrative construction of professional knowledge and coaching identity within video-based feedback sessions. Data were collected during the same 10 months of ethnographic filed work, as presented in phase two, with a Premier League Academy Head Coach. Additionally, in-depth interviews stimulated by video-based reflection were used to explore the participant coach s early interactional practices and subsequent changes in practice in the following four years. Data analysis was conducted using theoretical concepts of identity from the work of Anselm Strauss and revealed a number of features of the development and transformation of identity of the participant coach. Here, a reflective examination of authoritarian interactional practices and the consequences of those practices were critically considered against the creation of a positive self narrative in the development of the participant coach s professional knowledge. The empirical findings of the present thesis have highlighted some the what, why and how of the use of video-based performance analysis within the coaching process. This work has furthered understanding regarding the pedagogical practices which impact upon the delivery of video-based performance analysis feedback. In addition to broadening sports coaching s theoretical and methodological repertoire, the applied value of this work is grounded in the need for coaching practitioners to become more critically reflective about the use of video-based performance analysis within the coaching process, and the impact of their interactional practices upon the coach-athlete relationship.