David Moran

The journey through youth sport is often associated with changing motivations and increasing emphasis on competition. Using rapid, semi-structured interviews with 140 participants (players, parents and coaches from under-13, under-15 and under-18), we sought to better understand the youth sport experience in Gaelic games following the journey from modified games to competitive programmes, through the intended-enacted-experienced, and hidden curriculum framework. Two themes were developed following a reflexive thematic analysis, ‘it's the perceived seriousness’ and ‘it means a lot to us’. Findings suggest that the administration of games, the intended curriculum, was a source of frustration. We suggest that games programmes require attention and articulation by governing bodies to provide meaningful games for players. However, the greatest impact on experienced curriculum seemed to be interactions between players and coaches, the enacted curriculum, highlighting the need to support coaches in meeting participant needs. Furthermore, community was at the heart of the experience, perhaps explained by the cultural importance of Gaelic games. This led to acceptance of certain coaching practices, detrimental to the individual, as being necessary for the betterment of the team, an indication of the hidden curriculum.

Multiple theoretical perspectives point to the need for sport coaches to be highly intentional in their practice. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 high-level team sport coaches to investigate how they form intentions for impact; how these intentions influence planning for game-form activities; and how coaches judge success against these intentions. Data were subsequently analysed using reflexive thematic analysis, with eight themes being generated. Results suggest that coaches’ intentions could be viewed through the various components of fidelity. In this sense, it appeared that whilst coaches were concerned with notions like action fidelity, affective fidelity and conceptual fidelity, based on the measurement tools available, the predominant intention guiding practice was the physical fidelity of session design. These findings are discussed in relation to the increasing emphasis on the use of tools such as Global Positioning System technology and the apparent absence of markers that may inform other dimensions of activity design both in the short and long term. By considering the types and relative fidelity of practice, we can consider how we are challenging performers and what this might mean for transfer of training to performance. We conclude the paper by suggesting that future research should look to develop practical tools to help the coach consider different types of fidelity experienced by athletes.