This thesis represents a journey that began its life a number of years ago. It is an account of that journey and records the initial aims and subsequent changes to the research that was undertaken. Studies 1a and 1b dealt with the identification of problems that coaches encountered in the course of their work and that they deemed to be detrimental to their duties as sports coaches. Semi-structured interviews (n=10) and workshop attendees (n=67) provided data that following inductive analysis led to the development of a taxonomy of problems with three distinct dimensions and seven distinct categories into which all of the responses sat. The categories were Athletes' Personal Issues; Athletes' Status Determinants; Coaches' Personal Issues; Coaches' Perceptions of Self; Specifics of Coaching Practice; Sports Organisational Issues and; Sports Institutional Issues. While providing a tool through which discussions and developments of coach education programmes might be directed, it was felt that further work was needed to develop the taxonomy and also to illuminate what a coach does through a theoretical framework. To this end a second study was designed. Study 2 employed the Critical Incident Technique to elicit details of real-life problems encountered by coaches and identify what they did to resolve the incidents. Twenty coaches participated in semi-structured interviews and ninety five took part in workshops to provide the data. Dewey's Theory of Knowledge was used as an instrument through which transcripts were analysed. This study resulted in the validation of much of the taxonomy at the higher levels of categorisation but found some ambiguities at the raw data level. The study also affirmed that coaches undertake a process of problem solving that accorded with that of Dewey's (1938) Theory of Knowledge. Key to this process was the interaction between the coach and his/her environment through which ACTION as thinking was demonstrated. This work has added to the knowledge of coaching practice by illuminating what disturbances a coach has to deal with in the course of his or her duties, how those issues get resolved, and the justification for such resolution in terms of the knowledge base utilised by the coach. It has also extended the theoretical base that is gradually building around this embryonic profession.