Systematic observation as a coach development tool

“Systematic observation is one of coaching's most valuable tools and though not a panacea for all ills it has for several decades consistently proven its worth”

Cope, Cushion, Harvey, & Partington (2022)

What is ‘systematic observation’?

Systematic observation is a method of gathering data about what a coach says and does. It dates back to the 1970s, when a pair of researchers from the education faculty at UCLA used the same methods employed to observe school classrooms to examine the coaching of highly successful basketball coach, John Wooden.

Systematic observation researchers use a range of tools designed to capture information about a coach’s behaviour. Some observational tools focus on what the coach says. They might capture data such as how many times the coach uses a certain type of question or feedback. Other observational tools might focus on what the coach does, such as modelling a skill to their players. The data is collected by an observer external to the coach – a researcher, coach developer, or critical friend. Often, the data takes the form of a count (for example, 16 instances of verbal encouragement) or a percentage (for example, 37% of feedback was positive).

Coaches can have a big influence on the performance of their athletes, so it’s important that we know which coach behaviours generally lead to positive outcomes. This is one of the reasons for the first studies into John Wooden back in 1976; the researchers thought it was important to observe a successful coach, so that we could start to understand more about what good coaches do.

What are some of the benefits of using this approach?

Coaches can have limited awareness of their own behaviour, and can be inaccurate when reflecting on their own performance after a training session or match. For example, some studies found that coaches can overestimate desirable types of feedback when recalling their performance after a training session.

Allowing a third party observer to collect objective data about the coach’s behaviour can provide the coach with an opportunity to reflect on their performance in a more reliable way.

Gathering information about the behaviour of a coach you are working with can form a useful baseline from which changes can be made and evaluated over time.

Providing the coach with data about their behaviour can also encourage self-assessment and allow the coach to change their behaviour in an autonomous way. Rather than imparting an opinion about how the coach should behave, the coach is able to make this decision themselves based on the data in front of them.

Importantly, several studies have concluded that systematic observation can lead to meaningful shifts in behaviour when used appropriately.

What are some cautionary notes when using this approach?

It’s important to remember that coaching is never independent from the context in which it happens. Systematic observation tools only measure direct and observable parts of coaching, and can’t account for the many complexities and subtleties that different contexts bring.

There is also a danger that the data generated through systematic observation can be used to conclude that “doing X leads to Y”. For example, if the systematic observation was conducted during a winning game, it may be tempting to attempt to recreate that coaching behaviour in future games. However, it’s impossible to boil down something as complex as coaching into overly simplistic statements such as this.

In the early days of systematic observation, the method was seen as something “done to” the coach by a researcher. However, more modern approaches to this method position the coach as “the researcher as well as the researched”.

Questions to reflect on in your own practice:

• How could systematic observation help the coaches you are currently working with?

• How can you decide which coach behaviours to capture? Should this be consistent for each coach you work with, or individualised?

• How should you capture the data? Pencil and paper? Something more high-tech? Audio or video recordings?

• How could you reflect the data back to the coach in a meaningful way?

• How can you best preserve the coach’s autonomy during the process of systematic observation, so that you are “doing with” the coach and not “doing to”?

• When might systematic observation not be the most appropriate coach development tool?

Want to read more?

This blog post is a summary of a 2022 paper titled ‘Re-visiting systematic observation: A pedagogical tool to support coach learning and development’. It was published by Ed Cope, Chris Cushion, Stephen Harvey and Mark Partington. You can find a link to the full paper here.