Role
Dr Pete Holmes joined NTU in October 2020 as Senior Lecturer in Sport Coaching. He teaches on the Sport Science & Coaching undergraduate programme, leading the year 1 Exploring Coaching Practice and year 2 Coaching Science modules.
Career overview
Dr Holmes joined NTU from University Centre Doncaster where he led an undergraduate programme in PE & Sports Coaching and a distance learning top-up degree programme. Prior to this he has worked in various roles within the sport and exercise industry, including being an Analyst with ProZone Sports and an Exercise Physiologist with BUPA Wellness, having begun his career as a Fitness Instructor & Personal Trainer with Living Well Health Clubs. Dr Holmes has also coached in a range of sport environments, including junior football, college rugby and in the talent pathway with Castleford Tigers Rugby League Club.
Research areas
Dr Holmes' research interests centre on coach learning, development and practice, though he has a range of interests crossing sociology, psychology and athlete development. He completed his PhD through Leeds Beckett University in 2017, under the supervision of world-renowned Professors Richard Light and Andrew Sparkes. His thesis investigated the lifelong development and practice of professional head coaches in rugby.
Dr Holmes' first journal publication from his PhD came in January 2020, focused on coaches' early life experiences and how these began to shape them as people and coaches. He is currently working on a range of projects including:
- The lifelong development of elite coaches in equestrian sports
- The current state of coaching in equestrian sports
- The development and learning of female football coaches (with West Riding County FA)
- Swim coaches' integration of psychological skills in their coaching practice (PhD project with Nathan Hilton & British Swimming)
- The issue of consent in coaching
External activity
Away from academia, Dr Holmes is a Coach Developer with UK Coaching, supporting coaches over the long term in a range of sports including swimming, volleyball, gymnastics & cycling. He has also held roles as a Senior Coach Developer with the Rugby Football League, an External Examiner for The Open University and a Governor with Doncaster Deaf Trust, a specialist communication college that supports people with a broad range of disabilities. He has coached a range of sports including rugby league and union, football, swimming and cricket. In rugby league, he coached in the England Talent Pathway at Castleford Tigers, a major Super League club, for a number of years.
Dr Holmes is a member of UK Coaching, the professional body for coaching here in the UK, and a fellow of AdvanceHE, the professional body for higher education.
Collaborators
Dr Holmes has worked with the following organisations & institutions:
The Rugby Football League
West Riding County Football Association
UK Coaching
Castleford Tigers RLFC
Leeds Beckett University
Yorkshire RFU
Doncaster Rovers FC
Research Collaborators
Dr Holmes is currently working with:
Dr Julie Johnstone (NTU)
Professor Richard Light at University of Canterbury, Christchurch, NZ
Professor Andrew Sparkes at Leeds Beckett University
Publications
Journal articles
Holmes, P., Light, R., & Sparkes, A. (2020). The influence of early life experiences on English and Australian Super League coaches’ learning. Sport, Education and Society. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/13573322.2019.1710698
The Conversation articles
Women's World Cup: why are there so few female coaches in football? (theconversation.com)
Other media
Dr Holmes was also interviewed by The Metro for the following article: Euro 2020: Even in defeat Southgate's squad still brought football home | Football | Metro News, interviewed live on BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland show on the significance of Gareth Southgate's approach to coaching in England's success in recent years and was referred to in a Sathnam Sanghera column in The Times newspaper.
Press expertise
Sport coaching and athlete development
Course(s) I teach on
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|COURSE
Sport Science
https://www.ntu.ac.uk/course/sport-science