Abstract

Sports Coaching is not keeping up with the global trend for creativity and critical thinking skills, with little deliberate uptake of creative thinking processes and techniques.

Empirical evidence shows that many coaches continue to think in the same old ways to solve the increasingly diverse problems encountered in modern sports coaching.

Coaches need to apply creative problem solving techniques to resolve complex coaching challenges they face at every level.

This report presents established creativity definitions, and explains types of creativity and creative problem-solving perspectives, to demonstrate how each could be applied in sports coaching – by individuals, by clubs, and by coaching organisations.

It ends with a series of recommendations to introduce more creative thinking into sports coaching to improve coaching performance and outcomes.

Audience

Sports organisations that coach; coaching educators and trainers; individual coaches

Key Words

Sports coaching; creativity; problem-solving; creative thinking techniques; cross-disciplinary; creative self-belief