Sample Size, Selection and rigour

There is no established optimal size of a unit of analysis in content analysis (Bengtsson, 2016; Creswell, 2014). However, Côté et al., (1995) and Abraham et al., (2006) use 16 and 17 participants respectively. I aimed to match this number of participants, but due to the difficulty of finding enough coaches who were willing to be participants in the study, my sample was ten. This

represented a form of Purposeful sampling (Patton, 1990), and more specifically

Criterion sampling which I employed when choosing the expert coaches. This

ensured that all participants fitted the necessary criteria, to contribute to the scope of this study (Palys, 2008). It was important for the participants to relate to the underpinning framing theories, written by renowned authors and related to the fields of coaching, pedagogy, instruction, learning and any other related field. Personal contacts, and snowball sampling (Hardon, Hodgkin, & Fresle, 2004), were used to find the ten expert coaches who were willing to participate in the study reported in this thesis.

Bruner (1960, p. 19) suggests that “… the best minds in any particular discipline must be put to work on a task” (Brunner, 1977, p. 19). The expert coaches participating in this study have contributed populating on the previous developed conceptualisation, aiming at the provision of depth, empiricism and trustworthiness. During the selection process, I rigorously applied the

purposeful sampling criteria for coaches’ checklist (Appendix 3.3). Participants who did not fit the criteria were excluded.

Coach Acronym Interviewed on Minutes Pages

Sergio Raimundo Sergio 13/3/17 90 5

Nationality Licence Obtained in Coaching in

Portuguese UEFA A Irish FA Brazil – Young Portuguese coach with more than 10 years’ experience in various clubs worldwide. – Worked at Benfica (Portugal), in Senegal, Austria and Brazil. He is a full-time coach. – Obtained a Degree in Sports Sciences and a Master’s in physical education from the University of Human Kinetics of Lisbon.

Hugo Vicente Hugo 6/2/17 101 5

Nationality Licence Obtained in Coaching in

Portuguese UEFA A Portugal China & Norway – Portuguese coach with more than 15 years’ experience in various clubs worldwide. – Worked at Benfica (Portugal) and FC Copenhagen (Denmark), amongst other clubs in Portugal, Norway and China. He is a full-time coach.

Joseph Grech Joseph 13/2/17 99 5

Nationality Licence Obtained in Coaching in

Maltese UEFA PRO Malta FA Malta – Maltese coach with more than 15 years’ experience in various clubs in Malta and Gozo. – Worked in all the divisions of Maltese football. He is a part time coach.

Andrew Weavill Andy 2/3/17 125 10

Nationality Licence Obtained in Coaching in

English UEFA A Malta FA / FA Coaching Mentor – English coach with around 40 years’ experience in various clubs in England and Malta. – He coached at Premier Division Level in Malta

– He led coaching education in Malta. He stayed involved in coaching education and mentoring in the later part of his career.

– He is an educator by profession.

Mark Miller Mark 1/4/17 75 1

Nationality Licence Obtained in Coaching in

English UEFA PRO Malta FA Malta – English national who had a playing career in Malta, and then moved into a player-coach position in the early 1990s.

– He coached the majority of the Premier Division teams in Malta and had an 8-year-spell within the national team setup.

Fannar Berg Gunnolfsson

Fannar 11/4/17 60 1

Nationality Licence Obtained in Coaching in

Icelandic UEFA A NFF Norway – A young Icelandic coach with more than 10 years of experience

– He coached at youth level and senior level in Iceland and Norway. He is a full-time coach.

Sean Connor Brian 16/4/17 55 1

Nationality Licence Obtained in Coaching in

North Ireland UEFA PRO Irish FA Ireland – An Irish coach with more than 14-years’ experience in coaching at senior level

Coach Acronym Interviewed on Minutes Pages

Russel Smith Ray 16/5/17 57 1

Nationality Licence Obtained in Coaching in

English UEFA A FA England – Young English coach with experience in Development coaching and social sports coaching. – He coached in Development Programmes at Aston Villa and West Bromwich Albion. – Also involved in Coaching Education with the FA.

Sergio Soldano Soldano 19/5/17 70 1

Nationality Licence Obtained in Coaching in

Argentinian UEFA A Malta Malta – An Argentinian who moved to Italy to play football and then started coaching in Italy. – He was coaching educator for foreign coaches for Parma AC and Inter Milan.

– He moved to coach and Develop the Under 16 and Under 17 Maltese National Teams. – He coached Malta in the UEFA European Under 17 Finals in 2014.

Paul Zammit Paul 22/5/17 77 2

Nationality Licence Obtained in Coaching in

Maltese UEFA PRO FIGC (Italy) Malta – One of the main coaches in the Malta Premier Division.

– Leading coach at the Malta National Sports School

Coaches Acronym Interviewed on Minutes Pages

10 - - 809 32

Nationality Licence Obtained in Coaching in 6 Countries UEFA A / PRO 6 Countries 6 Countries

Table 3.3: The Participating Expert Coaches.

Selected participants were asked to provide a copy of the latest coaching licence certificate and the latest coaching card, to assure their expertise level and recent activity in the field.

Identifying coaches who fitted the sampling criteria and had the time to participate in the study was very challenging. To start with, not all coaches coach through principles of play, and some of those who do, are too busy. Although only males were interviewed, a diverse population (Shenton, 2004) was still obtained. The ten participating expert coaches, whose age ranged between thirty-three and sixty-three in 2017, came from six different countries, have obtained their highest coaching badge from six different associations, and are coaching in six countries across three continents.