Using narrative biography to explore how the formation of ‘funds of knowledge’ mediate coach developer practice: “I don’t want it to be a post-code lottery whether you get a good coach or not”

The purpose of this study was to extend the limited knowledge base about coach developers, certainly in terms of how they have accumulated new skills and knowledge over a longitudinal period but also how they have come to understand themselves and their current coach development practice. Therefore, this study used an adapted version of the Biographic Narrative Interpretive Method to chart the (trans)formation of professional dispositions as evidence of knowledge generation, learning and practice. Through mapping theory to practice, we understand how ‘funds of knowledge’ became funds of a coach developer identity that mediated the work of a professional coach developer. Qualitative data highlight the major influences as we story a holistic, collaborative and (coach) learner-centred practice that cohered around individualised approaches. The findings demonstrate how coach developers can be more than mere knowledge brokers who have to ‘educate’ a certain way in a highly regulated McDonaldised formal coach education system. From here, we frame important and reflective questions for the readership to consider about the future development of coach developers in order to counteract reported knowledge deficits.