Sport coaching development in New Zealand

Abstract

This study is undertaken at a time of rapid change and development on the world sporting scene. The East Germans have achieved remarkable success at international level largely due to a scientifically based system of selection, coaching and conditioning. Changes of a less comprehensive nature are also taking place in the industrialised Western World with governments lending financial support to sports federations endeavouring to improve participation and levels of performance. In Great Britain a good deal of government support has been given to establishing sports centres at a national and regional level throughout England, Scotland and Wales and individual sportsmen and women have been awarded financial assistance in their efforts to achieve international sporting success. Both Canada and Australia have set up national coaching accreditation schemes in an effort to improve coaching standards and have also spent public money in improving sports facilities and in assisting international sportsmen and women to take time off work to train for competition. This year (1981) in Australia, a National Sports Institute has been established in Canberra designed to bring together the best coaches and most promising athletes for training up to international level. The centre also houses a sports medicine facility equipped for testing and measuring and staffed by experts in the subject. It is also planned to follow the Canadian lead in setting up a sporting information centre at the Institute capable of giving the most recent data in international sports research. New Zealand has a very fine sporting tradition both at international level in elite sport and in the numbers of its people participating in a wide variety of sports at a recreational level but it is apparent that planned change is necessary if this tradition is to be maintained. It is upon this theme that the study is based. The study examines only one aspect of sporting development, that of coaching, which is one of the most important factors in elite sporting performance and in the enjoyment of recreational sport. Sports coaching development in England, Canada and Australia as well as in New Zealand is compared with reference to the rationale behind it, the changes brought about and the effects upon sporting participation and performance. Each country is at a different stage in its advancement of sports coaching and each has pursued a different course to realise similar objectives. New Zealand for a variety of reasons has not yet entered a period of marked change. It is hoped that this study may contribute towards a development programme based on a careful evaluation of the programmes in the countries studied and on the particular needs of the N.Z. sporting scene.