This research analyzed sources of knowledge used by Spanish coaches according to competition level, gender, and professional experience. It provides valuable insight regarding the influence of demographic factors on the knowledge acquisition of coaches in a sub-group of the population (Spanish coaches) for which little is known. Participants were 675 coaches of different team and individual sports. Data were collected through the use of a standardized validated questionnaire. Results indicated that coaches in Spain subscribe to informal knowledge acquisition methods more than formal and non-formal ones. The sources of knowledge most used were an exchange of knowledge with other professionals, observation of other coaches, and previous athletic experience. The sources of knowledge least used were reading books or magazines, and conducting research. Additionally, it was found that coach demographics were associated with differences in the priority given to specific sources of knowledge. Consequently, commonly utilized formal knowledge translation approaches may need to be reconsidered.Jenkins proposes that coaches should engage in `legitimate philosophical thinking`. In essence, he suggests that coaches should put the Philosophy (back) into coaching philosophy. We have supported this proposal, but we have suggested that the best way to achieve this is to advance a virtue-based rather than pragmatic study of coaching. Such an approach provides a clear pathway and menu of questions for coaches to begin thinking philosophically. It concerns the virtues of a good coach generally, not merely the intellectual virtues of a good coach. It is capable of making sense of integrity, and virtue ethics does not come with the many and varied wider philosophical commitments associated with philosophical pragmatism. In short, we can put the Philosophy back into coaching philosophy in the way that Jenkins suggests without having to swallow the heady brew of philosophical pragmatism. FROM AUTHOR
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