Developing strength and conditioning coaches: a case for cognitive apprenticeship

ABSTRACT Traditionally Strength and Conditioning Coaches have been prepared for their roles through the development of a strong theoretical knowledge base and demonstrating proficiency across a range of technical frameworks. Importantly, however, recent research within Strength and Conditioning (S & C) has argued for a focus on cognitive skills and processes to support the comprehensive and established bio-physical educational materials available to learners. Accordingly, an area of growing interest within S & C is how to most appropriately prepare coaches for the authentic demands of the workplace. In other professional domains, Cognitive Apprenticeship (CA) methods have been researched and adopted to enhance the effectiveness of workers. This article provides an overview of the characteristics of CA and how these pedagogical tools could be applied across different S & C learning environments. The approaches discussed, and conceptually modelled, offer a practical and feasible solution for future coach preparation methods. Such an approach would focus on developing more contextually aware and impactful coaches and improve the services provided to an organisation.