Facilitating change in coaching practice: a longitudinal case study of a collaborative coach development programme in an English premier league football academy

Background Coach development programmes (CDPs) represent a key avenue for enhancing coaching quality. Although existing research has yielded valuable insights into the effective operation of CDPs across contexts, it remains characterised by over-reliance on cross-sectional approaches, scarcity of post-programme follow-up, and insufficient integration of learning theory into practice. These limitations could obscure the processual nature of coach learning within/beyond CDPs and hinder the alignment of programme design, delivery, and evaluation across the theory–practice continuum.Purpose Drawing on transformative learning theory, this study developed, implemented, and evaluated a collaborative coach development programme (CCDP). To examine the outcomes, processes, and conditions of learning in the CCDP, we longitudinally traced coaches’ behaviours/perspectives throughout three seasons of a professional football academy.Methodology Underpinned by a social constructionist paradigm, 17 coaches, a head of coach development, and a critical friend participated in the CCDP as co-creators of knowledge. Coaches were grouped by athletes’ developmental stages. A methodological bricolage – systematic/participant observations and stimulated-recall/semi-structured interviews – generated multi-layered datasets and supported coaches’ learning. Observational data were analysed using the coach analysis and intervention system; interview data were interpreted through reflexive thematic analysis.Results and conclusions Of the 17 coaches, 16 exhibited changes from baselines in at least one intended behavioural domain. Changes in coaching perspectives were likewise evident; nevertheless, efforts to foster transformative learning through critical assessment of assumptions and acquisition of knowledge/skills for implementing new plans were limited throughout the CCDP. This suggests a risk that coaches’ perspectival changes may remain partial adjustments within extant belief structures rather than progressing towards fuller transformation. Post-programme trajectories diverged across Groups 1 (stagnation/regression), 2 (continuity/delayed change), and 3 (sustained development). Such divergences may reflect the influence of group-specific learning conditions, which shape idiosyncratic resonances among the core elements of transformative learning. The findings extend understanding of CDPs by illuminating what changed in situ, how such changes unfolded, and why they were – or were not – sustained.Impact statement Moving beyond longstanding critiques of decontextualised, one-size-fits-all approaches to coach education, this study highlights CCDP’s potential as an alternative that (a) positions coaches as agents who take ownership of their development in collaboration with facilitators rather than recipients of transmitted knowledge, (b) demonstrates how research methods function as pedagogical tools that create opportunities for coaches to critically reflect on, support dialogic engagement, and experiment with their frames of reference, and (c) deploys coaches’ workplaces as legitimate sites for in-situ learning.