Practical knowledge in expert coaches: on-site study of coaching in sailing.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the practical knowledge of expert sailing coaches of the French team preparing for the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. Coaching knowledge was studied from a cognitive ergonomics perspective based on the task activity model. According to this model, a task is a set of constraints facing individuals. To meet the demands imposed by these constraints, an individual engages in an adaptative activity which can be studied from the point of view of his or her knowledge and cognitive operating modes. In-depth interviews were conducted after observation of five training sessions, and the verbal protocols obtained were coded inductively. The results showed that coaching tasks were considered by coaches as a set of interacting constraints which generate complex, contradictory, and ill defined problems. Coaches' operating modes appeared to be based on organization routines, cognitive anticipation on flexible plans, flexible on-site adaptation, joint control of training with athletes, and involvement in the training situation based on past experiences.

[1]  Rainer Martens,et al.  Science, Knowledge, and Sport Psychology , 1987 .

[2]  J. Leplat,et al.  Collective activity in work: some lines of research , 1994 .

[3]  E. Hutchins.  Cognition in the wild , 1995 .

[4]  D. Schoen.  The Reflective Practitioner , 1983 .

[5]  Herbert A. Simon,et al.  The Sciences of the Artificial , 1970 .

[6]  Steven L. Mandell,et al.  Understanding Computers , 1984 .

[7]  Jens Rasmussen,et al.  Information Processing and Human-Machine Interaction: An Approach to Cognitive Engineering , 1986 .

[8]  Herbert A. Simon,et al.  The Structure of Ill Structured Problems , 1973, Artif. Intell..

[9]  P. Johnson-Laird,et al.  Mental Models: Towards a Cognitive Science of Language, Inference, and Consciousness , 1985 .

[10]  J. Cȏté,et al.  The Coaching Model: A Grounded Assessment of Expert Gymnastic Coaches’ Knowledge , 1995 .

[11]  A. Gentile.  A Working Model of Skill Acquisition with Application to Teaching , 1972 .

[12]  David C. Berliner,et al.  The Development of Expertise in Pedagogy. , 1988 .

[13]  L. Suchman.  Plans and situated actions , 1987 .

[14]  L. P. Matveev.  Fundamentals of sports training , 1981 .

[15]  J. Lave.  Cognition in practice , 1988 .

[16]  Marc Bellin du Coteau,et al.  L'entraînement sportif , 1924 .

[17]  Terry Winograd,et al.  Understanding computers and cognition - a new foundation for design , 1987 .

[18]  M. Wittrock.  Handbook of research on teaching , 1986 .

[19]  Jacques Leplat,et al.  Skills and Tacit Skills: A Psychological Perspective , 1990 .

[20]  David C. Berliner.  The development of expertise in pedagogy : Charles W. Hunt memorial lecture , 1988 .

[21]  M. Chi,et al.  The Nature of Expertise , 1988 .

[22]  J. Current,et al.  Theory and methodology , 1991 .

[23]  A. Strauss,et al.  Basics of Qualitative Research , 1992 .

[24]  Lauren A. Sosniak,et al.  Developing Talent in Young People , 1985 .

[25]  T. Rupert,et al.  Teaching and Coaching: A Comparison of Instructional Behaviors , 1990 .