{"id":32989,"date":"2026-01-12T11:21:28","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T11:21:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/?post_type=article&p=32989"},"modified":"2026-01-27T11:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T11:44:10","slug":"calling-all-coaches-why-research-should-be-part-of-your-coaching-journey","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/calling-all-coaches-why-research-should-be-part-of-your-coaching-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"Calling All Coaches: Why Research Should Be Part of your Coaching Journey"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n 12 Jan 2026 <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>Articles<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

Calling All Coaches: Why Research Should Be Part of your Coaching Journey<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n \n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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As Jamie Taylor of Dublin City University and the CoEx|Lab explains, the university\u2019s master\u2019s and doctorate programmes are designed to help coaches and other high-performance practitioners embed research into their daily practice \u2013 a habit that is sometimes overlooked in sport.<\/p>\n \n \n \n

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By Jamie Taylor<\/h6>\n
Most people in sports coaching have little interest in research.<\/h6>\n

Additionally, one of the key challenges in coaching is that there is a world of evidence that can help practice, but most do not know about it.<\/p>\n

At Dublin City University we are trying to subvert that attitude through our online doctorate and MSc programmes, which are aimed specifically at coaches and practitioners in high performance sport.<\/p>\n

We have a community of around 100 coaches and practitioners who appreciate the capacity for research to enhance both theirs and their organisation\u2019s practice in ways that have long been transformational in, say, S&C or medical.<\/p>\n

In many respects, coaching is a discipline apart, yet sports performance has long-been reliant on other domains to pick up and apply research. More research can and should be done.<\/p>\n

Below, I explore \u2013 drawing on insights from students across the doctorate and MSc programmes \u2013 the common barriers in coaching, before making the case for evidence-informed research that can meaningfully support practice. The programmes are delivered by a team of practitioner-researchers, including \u00c1ine MacNamara, Dean Clark, Robin Taylor, Rosie Collins, Stephen Behan and myself.<\/p>\n

The common barriers<\/strong><\/p>\n

As a coach, you should be weaving research into your practice \u2013 it should not be additional.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast Friday, we protected two hours for some internal professional development with a group of practitioners,\u201d says Ian Costello, the General Manager of Munster Rugby. \u201cThere\u2019s 20 reasons not to do it, but if it\u2019s important, it\u2019s protecting the time in your diary, no matter how busy you are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ian believes the programme has opened up new career options, potentially even beyond professional rugby union. He has now got into the habit of writing in his diary in three colours: black for operational matters; green for strategic issues; and blue for learning and personal development.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomeone gave me one of those multicoloured pens \u2013 I hate them because of my bad handwriting and these don\u2019t help \u2013 but it\u2019s brilliant for my diary,\u201d he continues. \u201cLearning and personal development can be anything from podcasts to light reading or heavy reading. It can be writing too \u2013 that was a good life skill and practical skill that a mentor shared with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additionally, coaches have not often been shown how to critically organise their thinking, even when they thought they were doing so.<\/p>\n

Ian has been coaching for more than two decades, but still wouldn\u2019t describe himself as the finished article.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first year broke me down in terms of questioning everything I know around critical thinking and reflective practice,\u201d he says. \u201cWhat the doctorate does is give you more structure to that process. It provides you with a more robust and applicable skillset to be accurate in research terms and then to think critically about the information you\u2019re absorbing. As time goes on, you\u2019re able to transfer that to your practice more readily and with a lot more clarity.\u201d<\/p>\n

He is not the only one to find the first year challenging. \u201cIt was quite confronting and shocking,\u201d says Jamilon M\u00fclders, the Performance Manager at the Royal Dutch Hockey Association. \u201cYou try to present where you\u2019re coming from, what you have achieved, what you have done and why you have done things, and the staff at DCU will pose little questions like \u2018where\u2019s the evidence?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Jamilon has won Olympic and world championship medals as a coach, and yet, as he says, \u201cI have to acknowledge that nine out of ten things we did worked for whatever reason at that stage, but there was no underlying theory, no evidence. There was nothing you could fall back on where you can explain it or also just make sure that you detect possible mistakes, issues, challenges, hurdles which might have happened or occurred in other areas.\u201d<\/p>\n

He sensed that something was absent. \u201cI felt that something was missing in my personal education and growth,\u201d he continues, further reflecting on that induction period at DCU.<\/p>\n

Some coaches may never have set foot in an academic setting but, whether it\u2019s our doctorate or MSc programme, we don\u2019t need to simplify course material for coaches. We just need to make sure we are providing the right provocation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we\u2019re asked better questions it causes us to say \u2018actually, I took that situation for granted, but I need to peel that back a little bit more\u2019,\u201d says Rachael Mulligan, the Athlete Support Manager at the Federation of Irish Sport. \u201cIt forces you to go \u2018what is the best question to ask in order to get to a better outcome?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

The most recent cohort of students on DCU’s professional doctorate and MSc programmes lines up for a group shot at DCU in Dublin.<\/p><\/div>\n

The case for evidence-informed \u2013<\/em> not evidence-based<\/em> \u2013 research<\/strong><\/p>\n

I hear all the time that \u2018we need to quantify this\u2019. It leads us to measure things that don\u2019t really matter simply because we can count them.<\/p>\n

There are different ways of seeing this and my view is that evidence should inform coaching, working alongside professional experience, theory, and context, rather than being treated as something on which coaching can be straightforwardly evidence-based.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor anybody to be genuinely comfortable about their view of the world or their view on practice, it should be research-informed,\u201d says Scott McNeill, the Head of Coach Development at the Premier League. \u201cThe risk and challenge of research is that sometimes things can go out of date very quickly. A body of research can be nearly out of date the day that it\u2019s printed. So to keep that as a consistent and live way of engaging in practice would make sense to me, that suggestion that knowledge isn\u2019t fixed, that these things keep evolving.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first thing I said was my issue with research is I sometimes think researchers are almost in an ivory tower and very much removed from what goes on in the day-to-day field of performance sport,\u201d says Rachael of the topic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat perception was completely quashed after a couple of weeks in the programme because there\u2019s so much emphasis in terms of, yes, this is fantastic in the academia space, but how do we move this into real-life practice?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to always say I was evidence-based and a lot of coaches will pride themselves on that,\u201d says Christoph Wyss, the Lead Physical Performance Coach at Red Bull. \u201cBut I think evidence-informed makes more sense because if a research paper comes out, being evidence-informed is taking that research, reading it, critiquing it, seeing what\u2019s good and what\u2019s not, and then applying that to your setting, because every setting is different.\u201d<\/p>\n

As he says, \u201cwith evidence-based you\u2019re just transplanting it, doing exactly what they did, but then evidence-informed is more translating it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not necessarily one solution,\u201d says Eilish Ward, the Head of Player Development at the Ladies Gaelic Football Association. \u201cThere\u2019s no one way to learn anything or to gain experience or expertise.\u201d The key for Eilish in her work is to ensure she and her colleagues are \u201cmaking as informed decisions as possible when we\u2019re designing learning activities\u201d because \u201cnot everything from research may be transferable into a practical environment and, equally, every practical environment is going to be hugely different.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing evidence-informed is probably more aligned with what we do on a day-to-day basis,\u201d says Niall O\u2019Regan, the Head of Education & Development at the Football Association of Ireland (FAI). \u201cIt is something that has helped me to understand how to be authentic, how to be creative in adapting what the research is saying is to suit the needs and the context and the environment that you\u2019re in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plus, as Scott says, \u201cpeople sniff you out pretty quickly whenever there\u2019s a gap between what you\u2019re saying and what might feel real to them. Our job as people that work in this space is to either translate the messaging in a more accessible way or to admit that there probably still is a gap.\u201d<\/p>\n

And therein lies the opportunity to ask better questions.<\/p>\n

Research should never be far from practice<\/strong><\/p>\n

While the programmes can be intimidating for coaches, we\u2019re here to help in any way we can because it is important that research is not too far from practice. When they are close, the research finds practical application.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a part I enjoyed from day one because you could immediately see the practical implications and make an impact,\u201d says Jamilon of his coaching in field hockey. \u201cSo if I were talking with S&Cs about load management around our training, my new way of approaching them and asking questions really helped me to have a clearer view on the team and the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

In some cases, research can help to highlight the current inadequacies in a high performance programme.<\/p>\n

Niall, for one, thinks differently these days about coach development structures at the FAI; and it feeds into his practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are some experienced coaches that have so much knowledge and so much expertise in their fields that they may not need to go systematically through a certain set of steps,\u201d he says. \u201cThey may have the ability to effectively communicate, empower others or share knowledge in a way which doesn\u2019t require them to go through a checklist. They can get to the end with the exact same learning and sometimes even more learning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such an approach doesn\u2019t necessarily sit right with the coach and it wouldn\u2019t necessarily sit right with the coach developer. \u201cThere\u2019s a grappling effect where those people probably feel like, \u2018well, I\u2019m being rigidly pushed into a checklist of things and being asked to do things that I naturally wouldn\u2019t do myself\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

It comes back to being research-informed. \u201cThe person in front of you is the actual start point, and then it\u2019s up to us as the educators and developers to be able to link it into research. The practice comes first and then it\u2019s a matter of layering in what research is out there that can inform the decisions that that person is making.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you would like to know more about the professional doctorate and MSc programmes at DCU please email Jamie Taylor at:<\/strong><\/p>\n

jamie.taylor@dcu.ie<\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/div>\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n

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