Anotace:
The paper provides theoretical insights into the sports coach profession. Based on cultural-historical argumentation its ambition is to outline, how the sports coach profession evolved in the context of the development of physical education and sport and which problems it faced. The introductory part provides a historical overview of the development of the sports coach profession. In the next step, the evolution of the sports coach profession is outlined. In the context of the debate on semi-professionalism, the phenomenon of shared professional space, where not only professional, experienced coaches but also volunteer and quasi-professional (novice) coaches are working. In the next step, the functions and competencies of sports coaches are discussed. The education of coaches is analysed. By the end of the paper, selected challenges of the sports coach profession and professionalization are addressed: 1) specific and generic features of sports coaches profession; 2) evolving sports coach profession on a broad scale; 3) education and professional development of coaches.