What Coaches Value about Coaching Knowledge: A Comparative Study Across a Range of Domains

This study aimed to provide a better understanding of what coaches value about the knowledge necessary to effectively accomplish their job tasks across a range of domains. Coaches’ perceptions related to knowledge areas were analyzed regarding the influence of professional experience and academic background. A sample of 343 coaches from 22 different sports responded to a questionnaire applied to understand coaches’ perception of the knowledge value, and to relate it to demographic characteristics. Data analysis began with an exploratory factorial analysis with Maximum Likelihood Factoring (MLF) and Oblimin rotation. The emergent factors were then submitted to One-way ANOVA and Tukey’s post hoc multiple comparisons to analyse the influence of professional experience and academic background. The results showed that important knowledge areas for coaches are assembled in two major domains: knowledge about sport-specific contents and knowledge about educating other coaches and management. Coaches’ characteristics influenced their perceptions about the value of sport-specific knowledge as the more experienced coaches and those with higher education degrees, both in Physical Education and Sport and in other courses, ascribed more importance to sport-specific knowledge than coaches with less experience or academic qualification. On the other hand, coaches’ characteristics did not induce differences in coaches’ perceptions about knowledge to educate other coaches and management.