ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book concerns sport coaching research and its underpinning philosophy, methodology, methods and subjects, the knowledge it generates, and to a lesser degree, how this knowledge is used. Sport coaching research can be improved, by paying closer attention to the multi-layered, multi-faceted, and interrelated nature of sport coaching. The book demonstrates the descriptive, explanatory and prescriptive understandings of sport coaching and its development can be enhanced by transcending existing disciplinary approaches to develop a multi-layered interdisciplinary conceptualization, while incorporating the good work from existing disciplinary approaches. The book provides philosophical insights and a proposed bio-psycho-social (BPS) ontology, along with similarities identified in the existing sport coaching research literature across disciplines, to develop a 'specific' sport coaching ontology. The resultant embedded, relational and emergent (ERE) model offers the ontological components: embeddedness, goal-orientation, resource, reasoning, reflecting, strategizing, action and outcome.
