Abstract

The competency-based education approach is being incorporated into sport, targeted at sports technicians. In the different fields, professional competences are defining the profile of the coaches in charge of sports training, coaching and management. In this case, we shall examine tennis.
This doctoral dissertation aims to detect and analyze the professional competencies of a tennis coach in general according to the level of training at which they work and the role they play.
The overall objective of the research is to “identify and analyze the professional competencies that define a good tennis coach from the standpoint of the heads of training in tennis federations.”
It is a basic, transversal or synchronous study with field work; it is exploratory and descriptive, both qualitative and quantitative, and approached from the constructivist paradigm with an interpretative, comprehensive methodological perspective.
The background of the research was analyzed in relation to studies which are thematically and/or methodologically similar to the research presented in the dissertation.
The theoretical framework lays the groundwork which provides theoretical and conceptual support to the study, such as the organization and institutions of tennis, the stages and levels of coaching and training, the training of the tennis coach, the definitions and classifications of the competencies, the professional competencies of the tennis coach, the identification of professional competencies, the role of the tennis coach, and their areas of work and job market.
To carry out the research, the opinions of a total of 64 experts in the training of trainers in tennis federations all over the world, Spanish regional federations and experts in development in the International Tennis Federation (ITF) were consulted through a self-administered online questionnaire.
The results were analyzed based on the classifications of competencies of Echeverría (2002), the emotional competencies of Bisquerra and Pérez (2007), and the competencies of the ITF.
With regard to the conclusions, specific competency profiles are shown, with, however, shared competencies such as those associated with training and updating knowledge, with teaching methodology, with social competencies, communication, empathy, passion and planning.
According to Echeverría’s classification, the most important competencies are related to the methodological components (knowing how to do) and the technical components (knowing). With regard to Bisquerra and Pérez’s emotional competencies, the most important ones are social competencies and emotional autonomy. The ITF’s classification emphasizes competencies associated with training and coaching.
The professional competencies proposed by the ITF are valued by some experts as important and very important; however, they do not bear in mind the participative and personal components (knowing how to do) nor emotional competencies. They situate the sport in performance, not in participatory sport.