Understanding Power and the Coach’s Role in Professional English Soccer: A Preliminary Investigation of Coach Behaviour

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to analyze the coaching behaviours of top‐level professional English soccer coaches within the practice environment. The Arizona State University Observation Instrument (ASUOI) was used to compile data on four coaches during three phases of a given season. The results indicated that the categories of ‘pre‐instruction’, ‘concurrent instruction’, and ‘post instruction’ represented 54.45 per cent of all the recorded behavioural intervals. In addition, the data indicated a substantial praise to scold ratio (approximately 23:1). While ‘praise’ represented 15.44 per cent of the total coded behaviours, ‘scold’ accounted for only 0.67 per cent. The overall trends and variations in coaching behaviour between the observed coaches are primarily discussed in relation to existing sociology research.