The two main areas of focus in the Sport Instruction Lab are teaching expertise and teacher/coach preparation and development. In a search to identify the elements of expertise in teaching, lab members have studied expert teachers and coaches in baseball, dance, volleyball, tennis, football, strength and conditioning, golf, and physical education. Experts' decision-making, diagnostic ability, perceptual skills, instructional routines, background characteristics, interaction patterns with students, memory, and self-monitoring practices have been examined.

Lab research in the area of teacher education has recently concentrated on physical education teacher education program assessment in collaboration with Georgia State University, while research in the area of coach development has examined the qualities of exemplary coach certification programs. Current lab projects include studies of expert instructional communication in golf, characteristics of a professional development program in coaching swimming, and the knowledge sources of expert teachers, to name just a few.