Building a Pedagogical Coaching Base: Pursuing Expertise in Teaching Sport: Pursuing Expertise in Teaching Sport

The quest to obtain coaching knowledge to reach a high level of expertise is an ongoing journey, and a variety of factors can influence the development of a coach in becoming an expert (Turner, Nelson, & Potrac, 2012). Thus, the path to becoming an expert teacher in sport is not uniform, and the coach must be willing to relearn things and adapt to changes along the way. In addition, pursuing expertise requires coaches to deliberately challenge themselves to grow and develop personally and professionally (Gallimore, Gilbert, & Nater, 2014; Gilbert & Trudel, 2012). Within the coaching education literature, the key characteristics demonstrated by expert coaches are frequently discussed (see Table 1). They include the ability to teach so that the learner understands, the ability to provide tactical instruction, and a desire to pursue personal mastery.