Coaching resources - a quick guide to locating and purchasing
Issue: Volume 29 Number 4
Since the early 1980’s I have worked in sport information services and assisted many coaches during this period to locate and access information. A great deal has changed in the sport information field since then and this article provides a brief snapshot on coaching information resources and services available. You will see from the information services and resources below that access to coaching information is no longer the challenge it was in the 1980s.
Accessing information through the National Sport Information Centre (NSIC)
Arguably one of the best sport information centres in the world the National Sports Information Centre is a program of the Australian Sports Commission and located at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra. Outlined below are the information resources maintained within the NSIC and how coaches in Australia can access them.
The book, journal and video/DVD collection covers all major sports played in Australia and has a focus on the technical aspects of sports such as coaching, skill acquisition, training, psychology, physiology, nutrition and sports medicine. In addition, there is a good book collection of biographies/autobiographies on high profile coaches. The video/DVD collection is unique in the world and has over 4000 titles covering coaching methods in specific sports. Coaches can now locate books and videos/DVDs through the NSIC’s online catalogue.
Books and videos/DVDs listed in the catalogue can be borrowed through your local library on inter-library loan or borrowed directly through the NSIC’s Sports Library Membership.
To be kept up to date with the latest articles coaches can receive the free monthly email alert service called SportScan Update. This alert lists articles that can be ordered from the NSIC and covers all areas of sport. To locate articles listed since the early 1980’s you can search the SportScan Database containing over 13,000 article references.
Literature searches can be undertaken to assist coaches in locating information on a topic of interest. For instance, the NSIC can assist a coach to locate information on motivating adolescents to stay involved in their sport.
While the NSIC is Australia’s premier sport information centre, there are sport information centres in most capital cities. Visit www.ausport.gov.au/information/nsic for a list of these centres.
Resource suppliers
Australia is fortunate to have several excellent suppliers of sports information resources. Listed below are suppliers that the NSIC uses to purchase resources.
- Australian Council for Health Physical Education and Recreation (ACHPER) Bookshop (www.achper.org.au ) located in Adelaide, South Australia sells a comprehensive range of resources, specifically covering physical education and coaching. ACHPER publish a print and online catalogue of resources.
- Adelaide is also home for Human Kinetics Australian office (www.humankinetics.com). Human Kinetics is the world’s largest publisher of sport resources. Popular titles published include: Successful Coaching, She Can Coach etc. Online and printed catalogues are available from Human Kinetics.
- Still in Australia, Melbourne Sports Books (www.melsportsbooks.com.au ) is one of the few specialist commercial sports bookshops in the world. The bookshop caters for all sports and carries a good collection of coach biographies. It can assist you in ordering books from overseas or advise on what is popular.
- Finally the mail order service through the Australian Sports Commission’s Publishing unit (ausport.gov.au/about/publications) which sells Beginning Coaching, Better Coaching and other NCAS resources is also worth a look.
Despite the excellent availability of resources in Australia it’s often still necessary to purchase from overseas. Coachwise’s 1st4sport (www.1st4sport.com ) located in Leeds, England provides one of the most comprehensive ranges of coaching resources available outside Australia. Coachwise sells sports specific, general coaching and training resources.
Finally, there is Amazon (amazon.com) particularly useful for books and also very useful for purchasing titles that may be out of print.
This list of resource suppliers is by no means exhaustive and it is still worthwhile searching the internet for other useful suppliers.
Internet resources
The growth of the internet since the late 1990’s has resulted in greater accessibility to sport information resources. Most sports organisations now have websites that list resources for sale or in some cases make them freely available. Many organisations are making available video and audio resources for downloading.
A good starting point to identify useful coaching sites on the internet is NSIC Coaching Topics - ausport.gov.au/information/finding_sport_information
It is worth noting that there are now an increasing number of coaching journals becoming freely available on the internet. These include:
- Olympic Coach (www.usoc.org )
Canadian Journal of Women in Coaching (www.coach.ca/women/e/journal/) covers issues relevant to female coaches - NSCA Performance Training Journal (www.nsca-lift.org/Perform/) provides practical training articles with each issue generally specialising in a particular sport.
During 2008 Sports Coach itself will be made available online.
Conclusion
This summary has highlighted a number of organisations where coaches can borrow or purchase resources to assist their coaching. The internet has greatly assisted in improving access to resource suppliers and their catalogues. It is now easy to identify a resource and have it delivered to your home or workplace within 24 hours or better still be able to download if from the internet.
Further information about resources/services listed in this article or for assistance in locating information please contact:
National Sport Information Centre
Tel: (02) 6214 1369
Fax: (02) 6214 1681
nsic@ausport.gov.au
www.ausport.gov.au/information/nsic
