Timeout for Irish international basketball : consequences to coaches and players.

While research has investigated the development of coaches and athletes in top-level sport limited research exists that has examined the consequences to coach and athlete development when sources of development are removed. The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of players and coaches after finding out that the Irish senior international basketball programs had been discontinued. Eight senior international members (two coaches, six players) participated in the study. This study relied upon grounded description methods, including semi-structured interviews, to gather and analyse data. While findings supported previous work which indicates that the main sources of development for the coaches included: experience, other coaches and reflection. The sources of development for the players included: exposure to top-level coaches, top level players and competition. This study has identified that the basketball structure played an important role in coach and athlete development through the provision of development opportunities associated with the international programs. Most notably, it was found that the removal of the senior international programs negatively impacted on the development and participation of younger players and reduced the popularity of the sport. However, the long-term consequences of the removal of the senior international programs warrants further research.