Research

The Outdoor team at UCLan are actively involved in industry research. Watch here for updates on research activity of the department.


A number of the Uclan Outdoor team presented at the Adventure Sports Coaching Conference at Plas y Brenin earlier this year. Presentations included:

Prof Dave Collins and Dr Loel Collins: Redesigning Training and Accreditation Systems in Adventure Sports Coaching

The training and accreditation of sports coaches has a long history in Adventure Sports, albeit that Adventure Sports Coaches (hereafter ASCs) have gone by a number of titles!  Clearly, this process serves a number of purposes including but not limited to, client safety, cover against litigation, and quality of service and promoting enjoyment.  Historically, coach education and accreditation was locked to a National Vocational Qualification structure; promoted at the time as a way of moving coaching in all its guises to awards a professional structure and status.   

All coaching is unarguably complex and it may well be that the competency structures used by this approach lack the subtlety for many of the decisions which coaches must make on a daily basis (Collins, Martindale, Burke & Cruickshank, 2015).  For ASCs, the hyper-dynamic nature of the challenge makes this element even more important (Collins & Collins, 2015).  In other words, whilst some elements of AS practice are clearly competencies (that know is either right or wrong!), much of this is essentially a ‘shades of grey’ environment, where multiple options with subsequent chains 

of consequence exist.  This is where expertise is essential (Nash, Martindale, Collins & Martindale, 2012). 

In this presentation, we present ways in which both training and accreditation (together with post qualification CPD) can be built around an expertise structure.  Using examples from methods designed for and in use with Motorsport and Freeskiing and Snowboarding, we suggest some key changes which can be used to introduce, promote and evaluate the key skills of Professional Judgement and Decision Making (PJDM – Abraham & Collins, 2011) in AS settings.  We also show how errors in PJDM, and systems which ‘cover up’ these errors, are unfortunately common features of some high risk professions.

Dr Howie Carson and Chris Eastabrook: Adaptive Automaticity in Adventure Sport: Contemporary Views And implications

Traditional motor learning theory (Fitts & Posner, 1967) utilised within adventure sports coach education, characterises learning as a transitional process in which conscious cognitive control develops into a performance that is smooth, effortless and automatic. Recent approaches to skill learning have particularly emphasised the advantages of the automatic performance, demonstrating superior effects for instance under conditions of high physical and mental stress when compared to a conscious mode of control (e.g., Masters & Maxwell, 2008; Wulf, 2013). Such is the importance placed on automaticity over conscious processing by these approaches, that it is suggested that learners can, and should, by-pass an initial stage of conscious movement processing and instead implement only implicit or subconscious mechanisms during learning. These approaches expressly avoid attempts to develop conscious understanding of the movement, either through dual-task or external focus activities (Masters, 1992; Wulf, McNevin & Shea, 2001). 

This presentation will discuss contemporary views of automaticity as it relates to applied motor tasks in adventure sports. In doing so, it challenges claims that thinking about the movement is always bad and that not thinking about the movement is always good for performance in adventure (Carson, Toner, Collins, Bertollo & Robazza, 2017). Understanding when automaticity occurs during performance and what movement elements are in fact automatic, presents a more complex perspective of the construct than has previously been presented and assumed to be an all-or-none process. In short, addressing the ‘what to focus on’, ‘when’ and ‘how’ questions moves us closer to explaining how performance can be adapted to meet the demands of dynamic environments common to adventure sports. In fact, it will be explained that the conscious performance state may even serve to benefit adventure performance under the most pressured of situations (Carson & Collins, 2016).

Sharon Rosser: Understanding successful ageing through Nature Challenge Activities, insights from the older adult climbers, cavers and sea kayakers.

Developments in social gerontology show the need to more effectively understand the relationship between physical activity and wellbeing in older adults (Chodzko-Zajko, 2014). Whilst some cultures celebrate and accord respect to the ageing process, casting it as one of developing knowledge and wisdom, the trend in many western countries is for it to be ‘pathologized’ and turned into a problem. This has been clearly seen in Britain by the tendency of politicians to correspond the ageing process with fiscal and societal burdening. 

Established evidence shows a connection between older adults’ physical activity and health and wellbeing (Nimrod, 2011), often with prescribed exercise being used to promote and underpin these. However, researchers have recently called this into question suggesting that ‘adventure sports’ could offer a viable alternative with an even wider range of long-term benefits (Boyes, 2013; Howes, 2016). With the advantages of being self-paced, experiential, connected to both natural environment and affording high levels of social interaction, research into the value of such experiences remains in its infancy (Hickman, Inkster & Rosser, 2017).  

Steptoe, Deaton and Stone (2015) identify three core elements of subjective wellbeing:  

• evaluative (life satisfaction) • hedonic (happiness)  • eudemonic (sense of meaning and purpose). 

The research supporting this presentation will clearly show that, in a range of diverse ways, ‘adventure sports’ participation supports the development of each of these. 

However, the presentation will engage with the problematic terminology associated with ‘adventure sport’ (Rinehart & Sydnor, 2003; Robinson, 2008). This research supports Stebbins’ (2005) disputation over the notion that engagement in activities such climbing, caving and sea kayaking focuses on risk, danger or even adventure. Instead, such activities are perceived and described by the older adults in this research as closer to Stebbins’ (2009) proposal that ‘nature challenge activities’ focus on task completion and immersion in serious leisure.

Dr Paul Gray: Using Social Interaction to promote, All good coaching is individualised

Adventure Sport Coach and participant interactions are abundant, eclectic and pervasive, owing somewhat to the coach’s omnipresence within the dynamic and open environment within which they are undertaken. However, limited attention has been paid to the social aspect of coaching (Cushion, 2010), which, along with interactive practices, is an underdeveloped, and under researched area (Potrac, Jones & Armour, 2002; Jones, Potrac, Cushion & Ronglan, 2011). This is somewhat surprising due to the social nature of coaching (Dennison, 2007). Accordingly, and in the absence of any literature or evidence within the adventure sports context, exploration of the potential influence of social interaction and how this might contribute to current Adventure Sport Coach Education was the focus of this DProf research. 

British Canoeing Level 5 Coaches’ (n=4), recreational paddlesport participants’ (n=14) and my own perspectives (n=1) were all considered through a range of data collection methods; including, but not exclusive to, semi-structured interviews, field observations and the personal narrative. Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis guidelines (Smith, Flowers & Larkin, 2009) were observed and emergent themes within and throughout all perspectives supported social and interpersonal interaction as influential. Pertinent to such influences within the applied context were the coaches’ utilisation of ‘informal interactions’ (Levett-Jones, et al., 2009) and ‘conversational centering’. This promoted a commonality of people, place and experience and supports the ‘all good coaching is individualised’ philosophy.    

It was also highlighted that Adventure Sport Coaches training of, and understanding in, the value and influence of social and interpersonal interaction is limited. As such, the innovative approach of the personal narrative to explore and write about coaching (Jones, 2006) is suggested as a means to consider and challenge current Adventure Sports Coach education and practices

Dr Helen Hooper, Rosemary Smith and Cath Wilson: Learning through sharing experiences: critical reflections of the experiences of three female outdoor instructors

As three experienced female outdoor leaders/coaches and coach educators, we turn our attention inward to our perceptions of personal experiences that have shaped our own professional 

development. Our experience is that there are a greater number of females now working in the outdoor industry, and one might assume that the experiences of females who participate in adventure sports have changed over the past 25 years. But have they?  

Engaging with an autoethnographic methodology, this presentation offers the experiences and critical reflections of three female outdoor instructors, who have been operating in a wide range of adventure sports including Paddle Sport, Mountaineering, Caving and Windsurfing. Working individually, within the constraints of an agreed five pages, our written accounts focused on what were deemed the prevailing influences on our own development as outdoor instructors. These autoethnographic narratives were then shared electronically enabling analysis by the other authors. Following critical discussion and reflection, we can present possible shared influences on our professional pathways, as well as several distinct divergences.  

Jones, Adams and Ellis (2013) suggest that autoethnography can be used to create space to think, and in turn comment on cultural practice, and contribute to current research. Drawing on our own experiences in adventure sport disciplines we hope to extend current thinking on gender issues in the outdoors, and contribute to current discussions on coach education in our fields.