Skill acquisition specialists, coaches and athletes : the current state of play?

Skill acquisition is a vital aspect of athletic development, however, specialists in this area are generally underutilized by coaches and athletes compared to other sport science disciplines. Therefore the purpose of this study was to examine how coaches and athletes understood the role of a skill acquisition specialist and what factors affected their use. Ten sport institute-based participants (5 coaches and 5 athletes) volunteered to take part in semi-structured interviews. Analysis of the data suggests that neither coaches nor athletes understand the role of a skill acquisition specialist, though both groups' rate skills as vital to sporting success and most athletes and coaches stated they would welcome any additional assistance in improving their skills.