An examination of how voluntary international netball officials view and experience well-being

Research aimThe purpose of this research was to explore the views and experiences of international volunteer netball officials about their well-being and its contributing factors.Research methodsA qualitative methodology, involving semi-structured interviews, was used. Fourteen participants (10 females and 4 males) occupying different official and official coach roles at the highest qualification tier were interviewed from across all five global netball regions. A thematic analysis was used to inductively code interviews to investigate well-being perspectives and influencing factors.Results and findingsFive main themes were found to most affect netball officials’ well-being: (i) structured support: uneven or absent; (ii) juggling and prioritising; (iii) feedback: private praise, public criticism and feeling under-valued; (iv) the mentally prepared official; and (v) being a successful “brand”. General findings showed a perceived stigma around revealing well-being issues, the need for further organisational resources and support and unfairness that might contribute to the well-being of officials in high-performance sport.ImplicationsThe findings suggest a greater focus on individualised and peer-based support mechanisms, other education to enhance well-being literacy and the need for explanation and improvements to be made to processes surrounding the progression pathway.Research contributionThe research provides new insights that contribute to the current lack of knowledge about well-being in volunteer sport official populations and uniquely studies this in a high-performance, international sport setting

Implementing reflective practice approaches with elite team athletes: Parameters of success

The purpose of this paper is to exemplify the integration of reflective practice principles into coaching strategies as a means to facilitate performers engaging with their own development. Accordingly, the paper describes a two‐part reflective practice intervention used with elite hockey players. Engagement and empowerment were promoted through a structured system of one‐to one, player‐to‐coach communications. Common principles of play were evolved through team reflection accomplished through structured interaction at group and sub‐group level. In tandem, these approaches enabled a shared understanding of the situation together with an individual clarity on what each player needed to do. As a result, team identity was strengthened specifically in the performance context, enabling players to respond quickly to the high‐pressure but varied challenges inherent within international play. The paper concludes with some brief recommendations to coaches working with elite selective teams

Developing rapid high-pressure team decision-making skills. The integration of slow deliberate reflective learning within the competitive performance environment: A case study of elite netball

This paper explores the complexity of developing decision-making skills in elite netball. Using the attacking centre pass as a theme, we present a framework designed to develop decision-making capabilities of the coach, performers and the players collectively as a team. The paper exemplifies the integration of reflective practice principles into coaching strategies, as the cyclic link between the ‘off-court’ slow deliberate environment and the ‘on-court’ applied performance environment. Using a five-stage framework adapted from field hockey, we describe various reflective mechanisms which can be used and incorporated into coaching strategies to develop effective team decision making. The paper utilises a period of preparation from a world cup programme to demonstrate how a coach can empower players individually and collectively as a team to reflect ‘on-action’ which, in turn, facilitates the coach, players and team ‘reflecting-for-action’ and ultimately ‘in-action’