Sport is a location in which inequalities and power struggles regarding gender, race, and sexuality are reproduced […] This culture of sport has a tremendous impact upon female, racial minority, and gay and lesbian coaches… (Kamphoff and Gill, 2013: 53)
Many of the mainstream explanations of what coaching is, and what coaches do, will start with the observation that coaching is a multi-faceted, and varied occupation that has become increasingly professionalised over the last few decades (Robinson, 2010; Day, 2013; and Gordon, 2009). Consequently, both thinking about coaching; the roles coaches assume; the knowledges that they are expected to have; and the environment within which coaches operate has become more widely considered and – some would argue – more complex. Having said that, as a discipline it can be argued – as Lyle (2002: 16) does – that “it is difficult to escape a sense that, until recently, sports coaching did not receive the attention necessary to give it recognition and a priority that its proponents and initiates felt it deserved”. There are signs however that this has been changing, and especially the context within which coaching occurs is gaining more and more attention (Lyle, 2002).
In specific regards to this, it must be acknowledged that a number of wider social issues affect the practice of sports coaching. Whilst it may be difficult to give an exhaustive list of these issues one key example could be the continued relative absence of female coaches [especially from high performance coaching] as
As such, new entrants to the coaching field as well as students of coaching in all of its disciplines may wish to start considering themselves as expert deliverers in particular areas. To facilitate such specialisations, it is necessary to develop what C. Wright Mills (1959) called a ‘Sociological Imagination’. The ability to understand the social experience of other, or at least imagine what that experience may be like. Furthermore, Mills advocated the need to be aware that personal experiences are necessarily and inextricably connected to wider social structures such as race, gender, social class and disability (Giddens, 2006). Applying such a perspective to the field of sports coaching would allow coaches a deeper insight into those issues, and in so doing develop specialist expertise when it comes to working with those who are affected by their practice.
During future blog posts, some of these specialist knowledges and groups will be considered in more detail. Specifically, attention will be paid to the specialist skills required of coaches to work effectively with under-represented, discriminated and / or poorly serviced sections of the population. In so doing, consideration will be given to the historical (and other) factors that have led to the creation of these social groups, and [as mentioned] the specialist skills required to work within them, as well as the role that coaches can play in combating social exclusion.
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Reference List
Black, K. (2011) ‘Coaching Disabled Children in Sport’. In Stafford, I. [ed] Coaching Disabled Children in Sport. London: Routledge
Day, D. (2013) ‘Historical Perspectives on Coaching’. In Potrac, P., Gilbert, W. and Denison, J. [eds] Routledge Handbook of Sports Coaching. London: Routledge.
Fasting, K. and Pfister, G. (2000) ‘Female and Male Coaches in the Eye of Female Elite Soccer Players’. European Physical Education Review. Vol. 6(1): 91-108
Gordon, D. (2009) Coaching Science. Exeter: Learning Matters
Giddens, A. (2006) Sociology. Cambridge: Polity
Lyle, J. (2002) Sports Coaching Concepts: A framework for coaches’ behaviour. London: Routledge
Mallett, C., Rynne, S. and Dickens, S. (2013) ‘Developing High Performance Coaching Craft Through Work and Study’. In Potrac, P., Gilbert, W. and Denison, J. [eds] Routledge Handbook of Sports Coaching. London: Routledge.
C Wright Mills (1959) The Sociological Imagination. Oxford: Oxford University Press