Sport Psychology, Education and Coaching Research Group: Postgraduate research
Our postgraduate members consist of MPhil and Professional Doctorate students, and PhD researchers, in the areas of psychology, education and coaching. In addition to applying multiple approaches in areas such as sport nutrition, physiology and strength and conditioning. For more information on postgraduate study with us please see our Postgraduate research opportunities in Sport and Exercise Science webpage.
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Amy Elizabeth Hardwick
Programme: PhD
Thesis title: Exploring Coaches and Coaching in the Context of Special Olympics
About my research: The aim of Amy’s research is to provide an original exploration of coach learning, development and practice within the context of Special Olympics. This area is extremely underrepresented and so research is needed in order to provide an evidenced understanding of coaches within this context, how they can best be supported and in turn how they can best support their athletes.
Andrew Newland
Programme: PhD
Thesis title: Exploring the Athlete-Coach relationship within high performance football.
About my research: The aim of Andy’s research is to explore the Athlete-Coach (A-C) relationship within high performance football. The research focuses on developing our understanding of the knowledge and skills required in order for coaches to develop and maintain high quality relationships with athletes. Initially, the research explores the role of formal coach education and looks specifically at the conceptualisation of the A-C relationship and focuses on how knowledge and skills are developed through the English FA’s coaching pathway at Level 3 and Level 4. Subsequently, the research captures the perceptions of high performance coaches. This includes the realities and challenges of forging and maintaining these relationships in practice. Lastly, the athletes voice is captured in order to better understand their perceptions and experiences relating to the key competencies of coaches they were able to develop high quality relationships with.
Camden Eldon
Programme: Professional Doctorate
Research Project title: Psychological characteristics of elite rugby league match officials.
About my research: Camden’s research aims to identify the psychological characteristics of elite rugby league referees and use its findings to create a psycho-educational model for rugby league officials that will help them develop these characteristics from novice to elite level. The current literature base of sports officiating reveals its complexity, meaning that practitioners working with sports officials, who provide vital psychological support and development, must understand their niche psychological characteristics unique to the sport they officiate, which this research hopes to provide.
Eleanor Cantwell
Programme: PhD
Thesis title: Talent development in the British Gymnastics pathway
About my research: My research forms part of a collaboration between LJMU, British Gymnastics and UK Sports Institute (UKSI, formerly EIS) and has involved operating in a dual capacity as a researcher-practitioner within BG and UKSI performance support teams. Particularly focusing within BG's performance pathway, I am looking at the psycho-social factors within talent development in these spaces. I am especially interested in exploring how such factors may be influenced systemically such as through coaching practice and environment/practice design.
Ella Johnson
Programme: MPhil
Thesis / Research Project title: Investigating and developing novel training practices of professional rugby match officials
About my research: The aim of Ella’s research is to explore the development of novel training practices used by elite rugby match officials to meet the demands of the contextually difficult environment of officiating. There is an extreme paucity of literature exploring match officials within rugby, this body of knowledge requires further investigation to establish most effective training practices to equip match officials both physically and cognitively for the demands of officiating.
Staff: Professor Craig Twist, Dr Sigrid Olthof, Dr Edward Hope
Collaborating Organisations: The Rugby Football League
Ellie Glover
Programme: Sport and Exercise Psychology Professional Doctorate
Thesis title: Investigating the Professional Development of Sport and Exercise Psychology Professional Doctorate Students – a Longitudinal Study
About my research: The aim of Ellie’s research is to gain first-hand accounts of how Professional Doctorate students believe they develop their applied sport and exercise psychology service delivery effectiveness, particularly in relation to their knowledge, skills, and character. This research is the product of a research team and has been undertaken since 2018 in an attempt to develop a longitudinal representation and understanding of practitioner development within the context of sport and exercise psychology. There is a lack of research investigating early career practitioners’ experiences throughout the course of the 2 to 4 year (full time/part time) accreditation process, so interviews explore motivation, central task of the moment, sources of influence, emotions around service delivery, theoretical orientation, role and style, measures of effectiveness and preferred learning style of each participant.
James Bush
Programme: PhD
Thesis Title: TBC
About my research: My PhD thesis covers online coach education, and is an overall exploration of online coach education given the increased prevalence in online coach education in the last 5 years, due to advancements in technology, increased user knowledge of technology use, and the forced use to the pandemic.
Jason Doggett
Programme: PhD Sports Coaching
Thesis title: Working title: An holistic -ecological perspective of elite women’s academy football transition: a case study of the environment.
About my research:
The aim of Jason research is to explore how women’s regional talent centres (RTC) create holistic ecological talent development environments to support players development and transition without jeopardising the ethos of the club or aspects of personal and educational development. The second part of the research aims to gain insight into players perceptions of their experiences of holistic talent development environments and its support mechanisms. Upon completion the aim is to frame these findings within the holistic-ecological framework, and, by doing so inform future practice in an underrepresented field.
Jenna Louise Rice
Programme: PhD
Thesis title: The effect of a gamified motor skill intervention on emotional intelligence in 10-11-year-old disadvantaged primary school children.
About my research: The aim of Jenna’s research is to increase the emotional intelligence of 10-11-year-old primary school children through the improvement of motor skill via the development and evaluation of a gamified approach in physical education. This area of research has not been directly investigated before and offers significant theoretical and practical implications for teaching and learning, whilst promoting positive development trajectories of motor competence and emotional intelligence.
Jono McPhail
Programme: PhD
Thesis title: Coaching Philosophy and the Authentic-Self – A Journey from Conception to Action
About my research: The aim of Jono’s research is to further explore the process of developing a coaching philosophy from conception to action and its associated implications for coaching practice/ process. Whilst research into the area is by no means sparse, this to date has been found to lack philosophical underpinning and in turn, lacks a genuine connection between coaching philosophy and the act of sports coaching. To this end, the intention is further to developing an intervention strategy to positively impact practice and/ or process for the individual coach, organisation and wider groups.
Mary Fitzgerald
Programme: MPhil in Sport and Exercise Science
Thesis title: Intersectionality in Practice: Exploring Diverse Women Coaches’ Experiences of Sexism in the Football Industry
About my research: The aim of Mary’s research is to use an intersectional approach to explore women coaches’ experiences of sexism within the football industry. This research will intend to influence policymakers and educate the sports industry on the effects of different facets of marginalisation on women football coaches’ experiences of sexism. Thus, aiming to create change and invoke understanding among thus who benefit from the systematic privilege in place throughout the industry.
Maxine Bristow
Programme: PhD
Thesis title: Exploring and Developing Psychological Safety in Supervised Social Exercise Settings
About my research: Maxine's research explores psychological safety in supervised social exercise settings, including health and fitness clubs and exercise classes. Her research aims to explore how a lack of psychological safety impacts motivation and adherence to exercise programmes for those looking to improve their physical and mental health. Psychological safety has been studied in fields such as business, education, health, and sports performance, but it is significantly underexplored in supervised social exercise settings and population health. This study aims to fill that gap by providing evidence on how different levels of psychological safety affect exercise engagement, performance, mental health, and overall well-being. This study's findings will help to shape interventions aimed at improving psychological safety in supervised social exercise settings.
Millie Graveson
Programme: PhD
Thesis title: An investigation into body image psychological projections of physical education teachers and the potential transfer consequences on their students
About my research: Millie's research is looking at how physical education teachers’ body images are projected onto their students through social interactions and pedagogical practice, alongside student affective consequences.
Ollie Yeomans
Programme: PhD
Thesis: An exploration of the Dark Triad of Personality in elite sport
About my research: Ollie’s research explores the role of the Dark Triad personality traits (narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy) in elite sporting contexts. It aims to better understand the prevalence of these traits in this setting and to evaluate their facilitative and debilitative effects on key individuals and situations within competitive environments.
Sam Richardson
Programme: PhD
Thesis title: Understand before we act: Exploring a golf coach’s perception and application of a game-based approach and a female cricket coach’s perception and application of nonlinear pedagogy.
About my research:
My research is focused on coaches’ and teachers’ perceptions and application of game-based approaches (GBA), nonlinear pedagogy (NLP) and constraints-led approach (CLA), and how best to support their understanding and application of these pedagogies. From conducting a systematic review on coaches’ and teachers’ perceptions and application of GBAs, NLP and CLA, the findings revealed a dearth of research evidence on target and striking/fielding games, as well as female coaches’ perception and application of the pedagogies. Therefore, I am investigating a male golf coach’s perception and application of a GBA and a female cricket coach’s perception and application of NLP. This research aims to provide a much-needed insight on how these coaches’ perceive and apply these pedagogies in their practice, as well as providing the basis to how these coaches could be supported with their understanding and application of the pedagogies.