PERSPECTIVE article
Front. Sports Act. Living
Sec. Sports Coaching: Performance and Development
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fspor.2025.1646717
Conducting transformative research protocols in sports science
Provisionally accepted
- 1Université de Montpellier, Montpellier, France
- 2Université de Limoges, Limoges, France
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This article presents a methodology for "fundamental field research" in sports science, from a transdisciplinary and transformative perspective. It is based on a close and symmetrical partnership between researchers and practitioners. The approach is structured around four detailed and illustrated methodological stages: (1) researchers develop an auxiliary hypothesis derived from a stabilized theoretical framework; (2) practitioners and researchers co-design an experimental training set-up that puts this hypothesis to the test; (3) this set-up, designed to disrupt ordinary professional practices, is implemented and analyzed; (4) the set-up's spin-offs are identified, both scientifically for the researchers and professionally for the practitioners. This methodology creates a consubstantial relationship between scientific and professional aims, encourages co-production of knowledge, and questions the relationship with sustainability in a field where the demand for immediate performance tends to curb experimental dynamics.
Keywords: Researcher-practitioner partnership, Transformative research, methodology, sports science, Transdiciplinary
Received: 13 Jun 2025; Accepted: 09 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Santi, ISSERTE, Gaudin and Chaliès. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Simon ISSERTE, Université de Montpellier, Montpellier, France
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