Eate to all students (coaches) favourable conditions for learning. The experience as athlete was also recognized by coaches as a valuable source of coaching knowledge, more so than the particular level reached. Indeed, both voluntary coaches (Erickson et al., 2008; Lemyre et al., 2007; Wright et al., 2007) and elite coaches (Abraham et al., 2006; Irwin et al., 2004; Salmela, 1995; Schempp, 1998) stated that as athletes they acquired a vast understanding of the coaching role. Furthermore, Gilbert et al. (2009, pp. 428) echo that “the developmental process of future coaches may be accelerated if youth-sport athletes occasionally assume the role of coach” creating opportunities to design and deliver practice drills and sharing some of the organizational and administrative decisions. However, there is some controversy among coaches about the actual role of this variable; while some of them believe fixedly that past athletic experience is an advantage others indicate that it is not very important (Wright et al., 2007). These stances suggest that the years of experience as athletes could not be important to acquire some understanding about coaching role if they are not involved and committed with the coaching practices. Further research is needed to analyze the characteristics of the athletes’ coaching engagement throughout their carriers. Regarding the personal and professional characteristics of the coaches, the major finding demonstrates that the profile of coaching knowledge sources is stable among coaches. Only the academic education level differentiated the importance ascribed to some sources whilst no interaction between the three variables (coaching experience, academic education level and coach certification level) was found. Concerning coach education in Portugal, there is a high diversity within each level due to the variability between differing coach education curriculum among the national sport federations (Mesquita, 2010). This could lead to coaches who possess different certification levels having similar representations about the importance attributed to variable knowledge sources. In respect to the coaching experience, since it is a complex variable its characterization as the number of years of active involvement could be limiting (C ?and Gilbert, 2009). As this study included a large sample, it would be difficult to include several criteria to define coaching experience. This means that, due to its problematic nature, perhaps this variable should not be analyzed using extensive samples. Consequently, an open debate in the literature to discuss what is explicitly meant by the terms experience is needed, so that more explicit criteria can be used in further research. Nonetheless, the findings related to the variable academic education level should be considered both in further research and in designing future coach educationMesquita et al.curricula. The results showed that coaches with Higher Education in Physical Education and Sport attributed more importance to the some BL-8040 chemical information informal and non-formal sources (working with expert coaches, attending seminars/clinics outside the formal systems, reading books/magazines and watching videos of coaching education and learning by doing) and to the academic background, than the coaches with a degree Below Higher Education. As Jones (2006) states, coaching is seen increasingly as an intellectual endeavour requiring practitioners who are capable of engaging in complex cultural buy UNC0642 processes sim.Eate to all students (coaches) favourable conditions for learning. The experience as athlete was also recognized by coaches as a valuable source of coaching knowledge, more so than the particular level reached. Indeed, both voluntary coaches (Erickson et al., 2008; Lemyre et al., 2007; Wright et al., 2007) and elite coaches (Abraham et al., 2006; Irwin et al., 2004; Salmela, 1995; Schempp, 1998) stated that as athletes they acquired a vast understanding of the coaching role. Furthermore, Gilbert et al. (2009, pp. 428) echo that “the developmental process of future coaches may be accelerated if youth-sport athletes occasionally assume the role of coach” creating opportunities to design and deliver practice drills and sharing some of the organizational and administrative decisions. However, there is some controversy among coaches about the actual role of this variable; while some of them believe fixedly that past athletic experience is an advantage others indicate that it is not very important (Wright et al., 2007). These stances suggest that the years of experience as athletes could not be important to acquire some understanding about coaching role if they are not involved and committed with the coaching practices. Further research is needed to analyze the characteristics of the athletes’ coaching engagement throughout their carriers. Regarding the personal and professional characteristics of the coaches, the major finding demonstrates that the profile of coaching knowledge sources is stable among coaches. Only the academic education level differentiated the importance ascribed to some sources whilst no interaction between the three variables (coaching experience, academic education level and coach certification level) was found. Concerning coach education in Portugal, there is a high diversity within each level due to the variability between differing coach education curriculum among the national sport federations (Mesquita, 2010). This could lead to coaches who possess different certification levels having similar representations about the importance attributed to variable knowledge sources. In respect to the coaching experience, since it is a complex variable its characterization as the number of years of active involvement could be limiting (C ?and Gilbert, 2009). As this study included a large sample, it would be difficult to include several criteria to define coaching experience. This means that, due to its problematic nature, perhaps this variable should not be analyzed using extensive samples. Consequently, an open debate in the literature to discuss what is explicitly meant by the terms experience is needed, so that more explicit criteria can be used in further research. Nonetheless, the findings related to the variable academic education level should be considered both in further research and in designing future coach educationMesquita et al.curricula. The results showed that coaches with Higher Education in Physical Education and Sport attributed more importance to the some informal and non-formal sources (working with expert coaches, attending seminars/clinics outside the formal systems, reading books/magazines and watching videos of coaching education and learning by doing) and to the academic background, than the coaches with a degree Below Higher Education. As Jones (2006) states, coaching is seen increasingly as an intellectual endeavour requiring practitioners who are capable of engaging in complex cultural processes sim.
