Developing sport officials: What can we learn from our knowledge on coach development?

Officials are a key stakeholder in the sporting ecosystem, similar to coaches and athletes. However, the development of officials has been significantly under-explored in the literature. The aim of this paper is to outline coach learning within development literature to identify concepts most relevant to officiating development, with a particular focus on formal, non-formal, and informal modes of learning. Drawing on the literature on coach development, we identify current knowledge on these developmental approaches in officiating, highlighting key gaps and future research directions in this area. In the context of coaching and officiating, formal approaches refer commonly to accreditation, whereas non-formal commonly refers to workshops/seminars, which are a broad term that can focus on specific topics of need. Informal learning represents a range of other learning approaches, where this paper focuses specifically on learning in context, observation, mentoring, and communities of practice. While this does not present an exhaustive list of informal approaches, these activities are relevant to the officiating role and have been explored in research. It is anticipated that this paper will facilitate a growth in research and evidence-informed practice in officiating, specifically on learning within development, which is an area that has often been under-resourced and under-developed. It is anticipated that this will provide a path forward for researchers and practitioners to understand the nuances of these approaches across different sports, countries and cultures.