Remote coaching, defined as the delivery of coaching through digital platforms rather than physical co-presence, has become increasingly common in strength sports such as powerlifting. While existing research has shown that remote coaching can sustain training under constrained conditions, less is known about how athletes and coaches experience this form of coaching across different developmental stages and cultural contexts. This study explored the use and experience of remote coaching in competitive Chinese powerlifting during a period when in-person training was not feasible. Using a qualitative case study design, semistructured interviews were conducted with three coach–athlete pairs representing novice, intermediate, and advanced stages of competitive development. Analysis examined how remote coaching practices were shaped by pedagogical demands, relational expectations, and athlete autonomy. Findings indicate that the perceived value and limitations of remote coaching varied across developmental stages. The novice coach–athlete dyad experienced heightened cognitive and motivational demands, the intermediate dyad valued flexibility and reflective learning, and the advanced dyad appeared well suited to trust-based, autonomy-oriented mentorship relationships. Across cases, relational history, shared technical language, and cultural norms strongly influenced how remote coaching was interpreted and enacted. By examining remote coaching through a developmental and sociocultural lens, this study extends existing research beyond questions of delivery efficiency. The findings suggest that remote coaching is neither uniformly beneficial nor inherently inferior to face-to-face practice, but functions most effectively when aligned with athletes’ developmental readiness, relational context, and pedagogical design. Remote coaching may therefore serve as a complementary and strategically integrated approach to performance coaching in individual strength sports.
Coaching scholars have extensively studied coaches’ reflective practice (RP) and, to a growing extent, coaches’ emotions and their cultural production and labor. Less research exists on psychosocial aspects of strength and conditioning coaches (SCCs), including analyses of their RP and emotions. SCCs’ training sessions with athletes is a fruitful context to extend an understanding of how emotions and RP are co-produced. The purpose of this study was to identify, describe, and map SCCs’ emotions throughout a RP cycle on self-perceived face-to-face interpersonal problems with their athletes during training sessions. Qualitative data from five collegiate SCCs indicated that while reflecting in and on interpersonal problems in their training sessions, they experienced a range of emotions within each stage: problem framing and identification (e.g., anger, annoyance, compassion); strategy generation (e.g., anger, anxiety, care); experimentation (e.g., anxiety, disappointment, empathy); evaluation of a solved problem (e.g., annoyance, confusion, appreciation); and evaluation of an unresolved problem (e.g., fear, frustration, self-doubt). While emotions across stages of RP were generally negative, the findings are discussed in relation to barriers and facilitators to learning through reflection, coaching education and research, and the potential for alternative ways of solving coaching problems in the S&C context.
This scoping review examines the extent, nature, and key findings of literature related to coaching youth athletes with attention-related challenges, including attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Guided by Arksey and O’Malley’s methodological framework, database searches across SPORTDiscus, PsycInfo, and Web of Science identified 13 relevant peer-reviewed articles published between 2001 and 2025. Findings indicate that research in this area remains limited and fragmented, with a reliance on practical/applied literature and small clusters of contributing authors. Across studies, attention-related challenges are described using varied and often broad terminology (e.g., attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and hidden disabilities), which complicates the translation of findings into practice. Thematic analysis revealed five categories of coaching strategies: environmental and structural organization, behavioral support and reinforcement, communication and clarity, instructional representation and differentiation, and strategic planning and pedagogy. Common strategies included the use of predictable routines, positive reinforcement, simple and clear communication, and multimodal instruction. Many of these strategies align with principles of Universal Design for Learning, suggesting a transferable pedagogical framework for inclusive coaching. Overall, the findings highlight the need for more empirical, sport-specific research and coach education initiatives to better support youth athletes with attention-related challenges.
Digital coach developer networks offer new possibilities for connection, yet their role in nurturing belonging and collaborative learning remains underexplored. This study examined the Oceania Online Coach Developer Pilot Project (OCDPP), a trans-Tasman online social learning initiative involving coach developers from Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. Thirty coach developers participated in the programme; data were generated through two qualitative online questionnaires at approximately 3 and 6 months, with 18 and 14 responses, respectively, and two online focus groups involving six participants. Using reflexive thematic analysis, we developed five interrelated themes: connection and learning across distance, platform fit and technological friction, whanaungatanga as a culturally grounded catalyst for belonging, leadership clarity and facilitation, and participants’ uncertainty about the community’s identity. Findings suggest that the OCDPP was not yet a mature Community of Practice. Rather, it functioned as an early-stage online social learning space where relational support, sense of belonging, culturally grounded rituals, low-friction technology, and facilitative leadership created conditions in which Communities of Practice-like work could intentionally mature. We therefore propose the Online Cooperative Community as a design heuristic rather than a new theory. The heuristic helps facilitators diagnose whether online coach developer communities require stronger support to move from connection towards sustained learning.
