Transfer of professional knowledge to high performance soccer coaching practice: qualitative analysis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24310/riccafd.14.3.2025.21893Keywords:
sporting context, disciplinary knowledge, experience, perception, observational methodologyAbstract
The objective of the study was to understand how the professional knowledge of the soccer coach is transferred into his daily sports practice in high performance sports. The research was of qualitative approach, phenomenological paradigm and hermeneutic type. The selected population consisted of 16 high performance soccer coaches, among them: technical directors, technical assistants, goalkeeper coaches and physical trainers with high experience in the direction of regional and national teams or professional teams. A semi-structured interview was constructed and validated based on expert judgment and was composed of 37 questions. The main category addressed was knowledge transfer with the subcategories: i) types of professional knowledge of the coach; ii) disciplinary knowledge; iii) didactic pedagogical knowledge; iv) life history knowledge; v) contextual knowledge. It is recognized that coaches consider important elements such as the adaptation of the athlete and the structural function of the organism, as well as generating spaces for the adaptation of knowledge so that their athletes achieve better decision making in competition. On the other hand, the didactic-pedagogical elements most frequently addressed by coaches are variability in practice, evaluation formats, and tools that address the physical, technical, psychological and theoretical components. There are countless factors that influence how high-performance soccer coaches transfer professional knowledge, highlighting factors such as informal training, conversations with other coaches and observation in competition.
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