Dr. Claire Mulvenna

Lecturer

Sports Coaching and Performance

Claire is an experienced academic, football coach and performance analyst. She has over fifteen years of coaching and performance analysis experiences across a range of contexts, including working as a coach in elite girls football environments and working as a performance analyst in the English Football League.

Claire has completed her PhD which focused on the use of performance analysis by coaches and which proposed the contextualisation of performance analysis for clubs and coaches. Claire is an active researcher with recent projects focusing on the use of performance analysis in the English Football League, academy football coaches use of performance analysis and the micro-political skills of the performance analyst.

Dr. Claire Mulvenna
Areas of Expertise
Teaching & Research Interests
Qualifications & Accreditations
Publications & Research

Area of expertise

  • Use of performance analysis in football.
  • Effective coach development.
  • Coaching practice.

Industry expertise

  • Learning and Development Manager.
  • Coach educator.
  • Performance analyst.
  • Football Coach.
  • How coaches use performance analysis.
  • Effective use of performance analysis in football.
  • Micro-political skills of performance analysts in football.
  • MA – Community Sport Development
  • MSc – Sport Coaching.
  • PhD – Performance analysis in soccer: A contemporary examination of its role within the coaching process.
  • Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher and Professional Education.
  • Ashdown, Ben, et al. “The evolving role of performance analysis in football: Integrating the observation of psychological behaviours.” International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching 21.3 (2026): 1739-1750.
  • Aderiye, F., Mulvenna, C., & Lusted, J. (2026). ‘I’m just doing it because it’s what the club wants’: exploring the (mis) alignment between policy compliance and preferred practice among English football youth academy coaches. Sports Coaching Review, 1-14.
  • Mulvenna, C., Evans, N., Brady, A., McCall, A., Datson, N., Emmonds, S., & Okholm Kryger, K. (2025). A scoping review of the research supporting coaching practice in women’s football–as the game grows the research strives to keep up. Science and Medicine in Football, 1-10.
  • Mulvenna, C., Bloyce, D., Twist, C., & Thomson, E. (2024). ‘I code as much as I can because you never know what they might ask for’. The role of the coach in Performance Analysis: The view of the analyst. International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching, 19(6), 2345-2355.
  • Mulvenna. C., (2024) Research with Children and Young People in Physical Education and Youth Sport. Edited by Fiona C. Chambers, Rachel Sandford, Oliver Hooper and Lee Schaefer, Routledge, 2023. Book Review. European Journal for Sport and Society.
  • Mulvenna. C., & Viner. A. (2024) The use of reflective conversations as a professional development tool – A narrative exploring the experiences of a performance analyst working. Reflective Practice.
  • DeLord. G., Oxenham. P., Mulvenna. C., Ayres. M., & Sellers. J. (2023) Application of Data Analytics in Youth Football. Sport Performance and Science Reports.
  • Mulvenna, C. (2023). Identifying the characteristics, constraints and enablers to creating value in applied performance analysis: A commentary. International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching, 17479541231190798.
  • Leslie-Walker. A., Mulvenna, C., & Bramble, O. (2022) Exploring the motivations and challenges West African female students experience engaging in university sport, Curriculum Studies in Health and Physical Education, DOI: 10.1080/25742981.2022.2073458
  • Duckett. E., Mulvenna. C., & Murray. M. (2022) Opportunities and challenges for knowledge sharing on games approached – A case study of a physical education department. Physical Education matters. Spring Edition.
  • Leslie-Walker, A., & Mulvenna, C. (2022) The Football Association’s Women’s Super League and female soccer fans: fan engagement and the importance of supporter clubs, Soccer & Society, 23:3, 314-327, DOI: 10.1080/14660970.2022.2037218
  • Mulvenna, C., A. Leslie-Walker., Wadsworth. N., & Moran. M. (2021) Understanding the coach’s role in identifying and meeting the motivations of soccer players. Journal of Sport Behavior. Volume 44, No. 3.
  • Duggan, C., Mulvenna, C., Hounsell, T., & Fonseca. J. (2021) Exploring Coaching Behaviors and the Relationship to Coaching Philosophy: A Study of Grassroots Soccer Coaches. International Journal of Sport and Society. Volume 12. Issue 2. 137-151. https://doi.org/10.18848/2152-7857/CGP/v12i02/137-151
  • Hounsell, T., Oxenham, P., & Mulvenna, C. (2021) The great balancing act – The art of performance analysis in academy soccer in England. Sport Performance and Science Reports.
  • Mulvenna, C., & Leslie-Walker., A. (2020) Exploring the Role of Identity in Motivating Walking Netball Participants. Athens Journal of Sports. 7: 1-16 https://doi.org/10.30958/ajspo.X-Y-Z
  • Cronin, L., Merchant, D., Allen, J., Mulvenna, C., Cullen, D., Williams, G., & Ellison, P. (2019) Students’ perceptions of autonomy-supportive versus controlling teaching and basic need satisfaction versus frustration in relation to life skills development in PE. Psychology of Sport and Exercise. 44 79-89.
  • Mulvenna, C., Moran. M., & Leslie-Walker., A. (2019) Investigating the Way Soccer Coach Education Discusses Player Learning Styles. International Journal of Sport and Society. 11 (1). DOI: https://doi.org/10.18848/2152-7857/CGP/v11i01/1-1
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