Coaches’ education programmes have previously been considered as being dissociated from the realities of practice (Jones, 2007). This leads to the premise that such programmes should be transformed from those based on a didactic classroom-based approach to better involving student-coaches in their own knowledge development (Jones and Turner, 2006; Mesquita et al., 2010). Therefore, echoing Jones, Morgan and Harris. (2012), a current challenge for coach education programmes is to promote practical situations where a combination of theoretical and craft knowledge is required to address everyday coaching problems. Here, the intent is to develop in student-coaches an integrated, realistic knowledge base of how theory can and should be reflected in practice.

A more holistic approach to coaching has become progressively more documented as an essential part of the coaching process, in order to better ensure the complete development of athletes (Jones, 2006). It has been argued that such a goal can only be realised through the development and utilisation of other pedagogical concepts to promote both theory-related experiential knowledge, and a shared understanding of possibilities (Cushion, 2001).  

The aim of this work is to provide student-centred learning opportunities inclusive of an explicit connection between theory and practice. It is postulated that this would allow student-coaches an opportunity to better engage in the process of their own learning, thus increasing the pertinence of coaching experience (Jones and Turner, 2006). More specifically, the concept of ‘scaffolding’ (Wood, Bruner and Ross, 1976, p.90) as a pedagogical tool is employed, and subsequently evaluated, in terms of how and why it is used by coaches in practice. ‘Scaffolding’ is a “process that enables a child or novice to solve a problem, carry out a task or achieve a goal which would be beyond his unassisted efforts” (Wood et al., 1976). In this respect, the metaphor can be seen as being allied to the support given by a “more capable other” (Vygotsky, 1978). Indeed, it has been claimed that scaffolding is the activity that occurs within the Vygotskyan notion of a ‘zone of proximal development’.

Based on the idea that coaching occurs through the everyday practice of social actors in context (Trudel and Gilbert, 2006) little is known about such interactions in relation to influencing the learning of others. This extends to knowing how coaches (as a “more capable others”) mediate athletes’ learning through various strategies (e.g., questioning, modelling, opposition, peers) within a dynamic process. Similarly, little research exists exploring exactly how coaches ‘scaffold’, deconstruct and reconstruct athletes’ learning, thus promoting decisional opportunities and self-regulated guidelines. The value of the work then lies in better understanding how and why coaches erect and take down pedagogical scaffolds in their quest to maximise player engagement and learning. 

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