Edward Hall, PhD 2015

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Thesis: 

The coaching process in international rugby union: an ethnographic case study

Supervisors

Dr Shirley Gray

Dr John Kelly 

Dr Amanda Martindale

Professor John Sproule

Where are you from?

Northumberland, England

How did you fund your PhD?

University scholarship

How did you find postgraduate research study at Moray House?

Reflecting on 10 years of undergraduate and postgraduate education, spent at different institutions across the UK, I feel very fortunate to have completed a PhD at Edinburgh. It was such a supportive and inspiring environment, one that both engaged and challenged me. Any form of doctoral study is a significant challenge, but my supervisory team and the interactions I had with a diverse group of peers always spurred me on and scaffolded that journey. Being part of an institution with a long history of successful PhD completions, and working within a school with so many different students joining, progressing and graduating, there were plenty of experienced colleagues around with whom I was able to share in the challenges and opportunities that accompanied my own research. We generated a real sense of community, and I had (and still have) positive relationships with my supervisors, which made navigating the inevitable ups and downs of research and life, in general, all the more manageable.

What made you choose Moray House School of Education and Sport?

Sport coaching has been a personal passion for my entire adult life, and coaches perform both important and influential roles in society. Despite this, sport coaching is a relatively new area of scholarly interest. Thankfully, Moray House School of Education and Sport offered one of the few funded doctoral opportunities in this area at the time. Their reputation as a school producing world-leading research in sport, and the University’s wider global standing in higher education, were unparalleled. Given that sport coaching (the focus of my PhD) is a complex, multifaceted pursuit, I was fortunate to be able to draw upon an inter-disciplinary team of expert supervisors to guide and shape my research.

Where are you now? What are you working on and how has your time with us influenced your current work?

I am currently Senior Lecturer in Sport Coaching at Northumbria University where I have developed and lead modules at undergraduate and postgraduate levels based upon findings from my PhD. I am now working with a fantastic team of collaborators and PhD students to further build upon and advance understanding generated in my doctoral work, which relates to the relational, (micro)political and emotional complexities of sports work. We continue to draw upon theory and methods that were integral to my doctoral research at Edinburgh.

What impact did your research have on your area of study?

The findings of my PhD and other research developed during my time at Edinburgh have been translated to support thousands of sport coaches and coach educators, in rugby union and other sports, through specialist professional development courses, seminars, webinars and podcasts. We’re proud to know that changes to coaches’ practice based upon these workshops have further benefitted tens of thousands of athletes around the globe. In addition to this more direct impact, the research has helped to inform new training approaches for UK-wide sporting bodies. One National Governing Body changed how it monitors coach development and defines good coaching practice, which will continue to shape the long-term planning for youth talent development coaching for hundreds of British athletes and coaches until the 2028 summer Olympics.

Alumni wisdom: If you could offer a piece of advice, a tip or some words of encouragement to fellow members of the University of Edinburgh community, what would it be?

Connect and share. You are part of a huge community of scholars striving (and struggling) to generate knowledge of value to society. Knowing that you can lean on others, and they can lean reciprocally on you at times, can help to make pursuing this, perhaps, daunting but, certainly, worthy goal more enjoyable, personally meaningful and manageable.