Dr Anna Stodter

Anna is a senior lecturer, researcher, and practitioner in sport coaching with interests in coaches’ learning and education. She is a senior fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a qualified coach in rugby union and football.

anna.stodter@aru.ac.uk
Follow Anna on Twitter

Background

Anna Joined ARU in 2015 after working as an online tutor on the Coaching for Performance in Football degree alongside her role as performance pathway coordinator for Archery GB.

Before this, Anna was based at Loughborough University, completing her PhD on coaches’ learning, and working on several evaluation projects for The FA and UK Sport.

Anna’s research directly informs her teaching, pedagogy, and applied work, which has included consultancy and coach development in the local area and beyond with Living Sport, Sport Scotland, and UK Coaching.

Research interests

• Coach learning
• Coach education
• Coaching behaviour
• Professional development and CPD evaluation
• Mixed methods research

Areas of research supervision

• Anna supervises projects broadly relating to sport coaching and coaches’ learning.
• Current PhD Supervision
• Educating the educators: Understanding sport coach educators' practice and influence on coaches' learning.
• Katrina McDonald – Athlete education: A grounded theory approach
• Andie Riches -From Henley to Thames: Institutional Entrepreneurship and the Oxford-Cambridge Women’s Boat Rac

Teaching

MSc Sport Coaching

MSc Sport and Exercise Science

BSc (Hons) Sport Coaching and Physical Education

BSc (Hons) Sport and Exercise Science

BSc (Hons) Coaching for Performance in Football

BSc (Hons) Coaching for Development in Football

DProf (Faculty of Science and Engineering)

Qualifications

• PhD Understanding coaches’ learning and education, Loughborough University
• MSc Psychology of Sport and Exercise, Loughborough University
• BSc Biological Sciences (Hons: Psychology), The University of Edinburgh

Memberships, editorial boards

• Research group lead, Coaching and Management Research Group (ARU).
• Co-Editor, UK Coaching Applied Research Journal.
• Steering group member, Cluster for Research into Coaching.
• Rugby Football Union Level 3 Licensed Coach

Research grants, consultancy, knowledge exchange

Anna has worked with various performers as a coach and programme manager. Following her role managing Archery GB’s regional and Paralympic performance academies, she is currently coaching at Cambridge University Women’s Rugby Football Club. Recently she has worked with a number of partners in delivering webinars and CPD sessions on coaches’ learning, and has designed and implemented a research-informed coach development and mentoring programme at Shelford RFC in Cambridgeshire.

Selected recent publications

Cushion, C.J., Stodter, A., & Clarke, N.J., (2021). ‘It’s an experiential thing’: The discursive construction of learning in high-performance coach education. Sport, Education and Society, DOI: 10.1080/13573322.2021.1924143

Stodter, A., Cope, C., & Townsend, R.C., (2021). Reflective conversations as a basis for sport coaches’ learning: a theory-informed pedagogic design for educating reflective practitioners. Professional Development in Education, DOI: 10.1080/19415257.2021.1902836.

Dowling, M., Mills, M., & Stodter, A., (2020). Problematizing the adoption and implementation of athlete development ‘models’: A Foucauldian-inspired analysis of the Long-Term Athlete Development framework. Journal of Athlete Development and Experience, 2(3), 182-197

Stodter, A. & Minto, I., (2020). Reflection and Reflective Practice: A Theoretical and Practical Guide. In E. Cope & M. Partington (Eds.) Sports Coaching: A Theoretical and Practical Guide. Abingdon: Routlege.

Stodter, A., & Cushion, C.J., (2019). Evidencing the impact of coaches’ learning: Changes in coaching knowledge and practice over time. Journal of Sports Sciences. 37 (18), 2086-2093.

Stodter, A., & Cushion, C.J., (2019). Layers of learning in coach developers’ practice theories, preparation and delivery. International Sport Coaching Journal 6 (3), 307-316.

Stodter, A. & Cushion, C.J., (2017). What works in coach learning, how, and for whom? A grounded process of soccer coaches’ professional learning. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 9(3), 321-388.

Stodter, A. (2017). Learning in sports coaching: theory and application - Book Review. Sports Coaching Review, DOI: 10.1080/21640629.2017.1414424

Stodter, A. & Cushion, C.J., (2016). Effective coach learning and the processes of coaches’ knowledge development: what works? In P.A Davis (Ed.) The Psychology of Effective Coaching and Management. Nova Science Publishers.

Stodter, A. & Cushion, C.J., (2014). Coaches’ learning and education: a case study of contexts in conflict. Sports Coaching Review, 3(1), 63-79.

Recent presentations and conferences

Stodter, A., Cushion, C. J., 2018. ‘I can only go on my experiences’: challenges in coach educators’ training and understandings of learning. 6th International Conference on Qualitative Research in Sport and Exercise, Vancouver, BC, 6–8h June

Stodter, A., Cushion, C. J., 2017. Evaluating formal coach education: how design and delivery relate to coaches’ learning outcomes. 11th ICCE Global Coach Conference, Liverpool, 31 July-2 August

Stodter, A., Cope, E., 2017. Developing reflection in an online learning community of coaches. 12th ICCE Global Coach Conference, Liverpool, 31 July-2 August

Stodter, A., and Cushion, C. J., 2015. Evidencing the Impact of coaches’ learning: Changes in coaching knowledge and practice over time. MMU CRiC International Coaching Conference, Crewe, 9-10 September

Media experience

• Co-host, The Coaching Discourse Podcast
• Anna Stodter to take charge of first Cambridgeshire women’s rugby team (cambridgeindependent.co.uk)
• ‘Celebrating achievements and more visibility of women's sport is crucial’ (cambridgeindependent.co.uk)
• A thinking tool to improve learning | by Kurt Ewald Lindley | Medium
• Why the Six Nations Rugby tournament should resist kicking Italy into touch (theconversation.com)