Abstract
I was diagnosed with Stargardt’s eye disease when I was very young and attended a School for the Blind and Visually impaired. I participated in athletics and judo at provincial, national and international level. Performing well in sport earned me a university sport bursary where I studied BA Sport Psychology, BA Honours in Sport Science as well as Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE). Currently I am a Physical Education teacher at a special needs school in a suburb of Johannesburg in Gauteng, South Africa. I am also a judo coach for all ages. I obtained an International Judo Federation (IJF) Level 1 Instructor qualification in judo. All these aspects, in short, motivated the further investigation of sport coaches coaching with a physical, visual and auditory disability. A study which focuses on the lived experiences of coaches with a disability within South African Context emerged. Therefore, coaches with various physical disabilities were invited to participate in this study. The main objective, led to investigating the lived experiences of the coaches with a disability.
Qualitative data was collected using the case study design. With two of the case studies the coach and two parents of the athletes in those training groups were investigated. With the third case study, the parents were excluded due to Covid-19 restrictions imposed on the South Africans by Government. Qualitative data was analysed using themes. Data sets were triangulated to cross-corroborate the findings obtained from the interviews and observations. Ethical principles of informed consent, anonymity, confidentiality, autonomy, justice, beneficence and non-malfeasance were adhered to.”
The information gathered from the participants reflect on how coaches with a disability adapt their coaching methods to deliver quality coaching and the competency level of coaches with a disability. Being a coach with a disability is not common in the sporting world, which means that these coaches in the study have certain views and experiences. These research findings revealed various motives for engaging in coaching, constraints experienced by coaches, how they adapted their methods and ways of overcoming their disability and coaching. Their perceived strengths and recommendations as well as their selected parent’s views towards their child’s coaches could be seen as recommendations and some motivation with vital implications for the implementation and improvement for”further adaptations and modifications to address the needs of their athletes, and for future studies in this field. This study provides future researchers with a good platform from which they can conduct studies involving a bigger sample group and a variety of different coaches with various disabilities.
Key words: Disability/Impairment, Coach/Coaching experiences, Adapted methods of coaching, Para-athletes. Para-coaches