Judo Coaches: An International Contextualization on Professional Education and Career

Background. An increasing international competitiveness in sports have induced nations to adopt a range of strategies to foster elite sports development. One of these strategies include the recognition of coaches' qualification to support athletes' preparation. However, understanding on how coaches are trained to fulfil their roles within elite sports is still required.Problem and Aim. Knowledge on coaches' professional education and career is scarce in a range of sports, including judo. In this context, the purpose of the study was to analyze top-level judo coaches' professional education and career across countries. Methods. Qualitative comparative analysis method framed the study. Participants included 17 judo coaches of top-level youth teams from 14 countries. Data were generated through semi-structured interviews and examined by a process of content analysis.Results. Seven categories were generated: athlete life, career transition, qualification, professional education, career, job assignments and professional training process. The main findings suggested that judo coaches' professional education and career can be described into four groups at an international level, depending on the presence/absence of characteristics that connect/distance the coaching activity to/from the scientific-professional perspective. The four groups were described as institutionalized by sports organizations, based on academic knowledge provided by universities, partially institutionalized by sports organizations, and based on practical experience acquired as an athlete.Conclusions. The study suggested a relationship between national sports systems and judo coaches' education and career. The study supported the need for countries to elaborate policies for judo coaches ' development to work with elite sports.