The impact of Threshold Concepts in a football academy

Rationale: There is an established body of research exploring the effectiveness of game-based approaches within sport coaching, indicating an advantage of these approaches over technical-based methods. What is less well-established within the research is when technical activities would be beneficial, or preferable, depending on the needs of the athlete. Crucially, existing research compares technical sessions against game-like sessions, failing to address is how to effectively coach technical foci through game-based approaches or how to supplement modified games with skill development activities. Threshold Concepts, as outlined by Meyer & Land (2005), provide a potential answer to this question. Threshold Concepts suggest that when learners are attempting to acquire troublesome knowledge, it can be necessary for a brief change in pedagogy to occur in order to support them to pass through the “threshold” or “liminal space” as efficiently as possible. Despite Threshold Concepts being an extension of constructivism, they are yet to be explored within sport coaching; the gap this research will seek to address. Threshold Concepts have the potential to support coaches when they make key decisions such as when to adopt decontextualised or whether the approach should differ depending on the circumstances. Threshold Concepts as part of coaching pedagogy may potentially allow coaches to support their athlete performance more effectively by choosing their pedagogical approach with greater clarity and precision, leading to optimal performance.

Research Question: “What is the impact of embedding Threshold Concepts within a football academy?”

Methodology: The proposed methodology for this research project will follow at qualitative approach using a phenomenological case study, based on the guidance within the Threshold Concepts literature of Meyer & Land (2005), who suggests; the most affective approach into exploring Threshold Concepts within a subject is to adjust the teaching of a subject and explore the impact this has on both learners and educators. This research will take place within a football academy setting over the course of one season. This environment was chosen based on its similarity to educational environments with its structure. During the season within the football academy, the research will focus on one specific age group team and the coaching team supporting them. Coaches will be supported to adjust sessions to scaffold players’ development within areas where players traditionally struggle. During this period, coaches and players will be interviewed in groups to discuss players’ progress, areas of difficulty and their beliefs on what helped them through difficult moments. In parallel, the researcher will also conduct observations of coaching sessions throughout the season. Once the data have been gathered, Threshold Concept research will be used to analyse the findings by comparing observations with Threshold Concept theory to identify similarities or contradictions between them.

Implications: The implications for this study would be to encourage further research into the impact of Threshold Concepts with the field of sport coaching, to build on this emerging field of study. Specifically, it has the potential to stimulate further exploration into using Threshold Concepts within coaching pedagogy as well as the design of sport curriculums.