Effective Coaching: the Winning Discourse or Educational Foundations?

Abstract

A multitude of discourses inside and outside of sport suggest the value of winning. The result of these discourses has contributed to the belief that winning is evidence of effective coaching and that winning is the aim of sport. This paper begins by describing several of the winning discourses constructed by the media, academic community, sport stakeholders, and coaches. Furthermore, I argue that the winning discourse has tacitly contributed to coaches identifying the outcome of a sport contest (e.g., win or loss) as an appropriate measure of good, effective coaching. After identifying the perils of this view and associated illogical thinking, I suggest the creation of new discourses related to the educational foundations of effective coaching.

Learning to Coach: A Qualitative Case Study of Phillip Fulmer

“…Combined with the findings of the present study, we argue that Fulmer's personal coaching philosophy (Carless & Douglas, 2011) reveals a story of an educator-coach working within the problematic space of "big-time" intercollegiate athletics, which has long faced heavy criticism (e.g, winning-at-all-costs, detracts from academics, exploitation of labor; Coakley, 2008). The belief that sports can be used as an educational activity appears consistent with other theorizing on the educational foundations of effective coaching (Gearity, 2010), holistic coaching (Cassidy, 2013), and coaching programs such as InSideOut Coaching (Ehrmann et al, 2011) and Double-Goal Coaching (Thompson, 2003). While the coach's role regarding problematic issues of intercollegiate athletics warrants further research, Fulmer's story reveals how he learned to be a quality coach (i.e., positive, supportive, caring, following the rules).…”

Taking a Timeout to Ensure Well-Being: Social Work Involvement in College Sports

“…The college athlete-coach and teammate relationships are extremely important as many college athletes spend more time within an athletic environment than they do with their own family and friends, especially during their sporting season (Gearity, 2010;Gearity & Murray, 2011;Poczwardowski, Barrot, & Jowett, 2006;Smith, Smoll, & Curtis, 2007;Stewart & Owens, 2011). The time a coach and teammates spend with a college athlete is critical to early detection of what eventually could be serious and even debilitating psychosocial risks.…”

“…College athletes also believe that disclosing a psychosocial risk could result in loss of playing time, loss of scholarship, loss of relationships with teammates, and cause disappointment in the eyes of a coaching staff and their informal support network (Ford, 2007a;Williams et al, 2008). Gearity (2010) found that participants feel that athletic and academic success is more important than personal safety and well-being in the eyes of their coaches and other leaders within a university's athletic department. If college athletes feel that sport and academic performance is more important than seeking help for their personal challenges, the rate of psychosocial risks will likely increase over time.…”

‘It’s an experiential thing’: the discursive construction of learning in high-performance coach education

“…Individuals were positioned as 'legitimate enunciators' (Foucault, 1972) sanctioned to be taken seriously and to be thought of as knowing the truth (cf. Gearity, 2010). For coaches, this meant being, paradoxically, an 'active [responsible] learner' while passively occupying a position to absorb uncritically expert information and advice.…”

“…Innovative or progressive coaching, or thinking outside the prevailing discourses, can therefore be dismissed or even 'excommunicated', leading to reproduction of dogma and stagnation (Denison et al, 2017;Piggott, 2012). Dominant discourses identified in coaching include, for example, the discourses of 'science', 'performance', 'winning', 'philosophy', 'athlete-centredness', and reflection (Avner et al, 2017;Cushion & Jones, 2014;Downham & Cushion, 2020;Gearity, 2010;Grahn, 2014).…”