ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the characteristics, strengths, and weaknesses of reviews of academic literature, and how they may be used to generate research ideas in sports coaching. Critical analysis and interpretation of the literature can be a valuable and rewarding journey, providing both an overview of the current state of knowledge and a series of sign posts to further study. In fields of study such as coaching, there is limited consensus on research methodology, and the absence of a consensual research agenda provokes a divergent rather than convergent analysis/review. Sport coaching is an enormously broad field of study. The literature associated with sports coaching is too diverse to support systematic review based on empirical findings. Although it has improved considerably in the past 1520 years, many authors have noted its limitations for example, inadequate conceptualization, epistemologically driven sub-groups, and difficulty in associating coaching behavior with athlete performance.
