Bill Taylor

The professionalisation of sports coaching: relations of power, resistance and compliance

This paper examines the changing landscape of the professionalisation of sports coaching and is presented in response to the dearth of empirical research and peer-reviewed literature existing within the field. This absence or ‘lack’ has, in turn, created a political context in which the discourses that inhabit transitions towards professionalism are becoming increasingly rigid and inflexible. Policies too, have exacerbated this situation, creating imposed reforms that have sought to homogenise coaching practice and further gloss over cultural difference and diversity. While volunteerism is often regarded as a socially embedded activity, and one that is part of the UKs long-established coaching tradition, still there remains an ambition to transform coaching into a form of certified, professionalised activity. That is, a notion of professionalism with clearly benchmarked standards, novel forms of commercial engagement and ever-present systems of formal accreditation. Out of which has evolved a series of treatments prescribing somewhat standardised solutions to otherwise unique and individualised professional challenges. Against this backdrop, this paper adopts a more critical orientation towards the debate on the professionalisation of sports coaching. It examines the tensions, power and resistance that are manifested in practice across different areas of sport, and moves to understand some of the key differences emerging between contemporary reforms, situated practice and socially embedded coaching traditions. Drawing extensively on Bourdieurian and Foucauldian philosophy, the analysis reflects upon the experiences of coaches and stakeholders operating at the levels of voluntary and community-based practice in the north-west of England. It examines notions of resistance and compliance in situ, external factors and policies that have impacted the field, and analyses the complexities that inhabit the profession of sports coaching as a whole.

Sports coaching in risk society: No touch! No trust!

This paper is informed by a UK based Economic and Social Research Council funded research project which developed and deployed a case-study approach to issues of touch between children and professionals in schools and childcare. Outcomes from these settings are referred to, but the focus here is shifted to touch in sports coaching and its distinctive contextual and institutional characteristics. We consider the broader context of no touch coaching practice, including relevant theoretical accounts, review policy which impacts on coaching activity and report on preliminary enquiries.1 We argue that the disembodiment of practice has undermined the conception and experience of sports coaching and its contribution to educating and socialising young people.

Safeguarding sports coaching: Foucault, genealogy and critique

This paper offers a genealogical account of safeguarding in sport. Drawing specifically on Foucaults work, it examines the ‘politics of touch’ in relation to the social and historical formation of child protection policy in sports coaching. While the analysis has some resonance with the context of coaching as a whole, for illustrative purposes it focuses principally upon the sport of swimming. Our analysis demonstrates how the linked signifiers of ‘abuse’, ‘protection’ and ‘safeguarding’ produce both continuity and change in the philosophy and meaning around coaching practice, giving rise to particular notions of ‘government’ and regulation, risk aversion and prohibitions, and values. Within a culture of fear in sports coaching and society, the analysis traces the development of swimming policy following the exposure of select high-profile cases or critical incidents, where such historical events prompted a series of authoritative statements about the nature of child protection discourse in sport and education, and practice.

Hands off! The practice and politics of touch in physical education and sports coaching

As the editorial group for this special edition of Sport, Education and Society, we are very grateful to the Editorial Board for the opportunity offered to highlight work we consider to be substantial and significant. The edition is focussed on how concerns around touching behaviours, abuse and the protection of children and young people in physical education (PE) and sports coaching contexts have impacted on the experience of teaching and being taught, and of coaching and being coached. It also identifies and considers the implications of particular policy, practical and pedagogical approaches to the issue. Like most special editions, it might be described as having been many years in the making, but there is also a particular and recent prompt which made it timely: the completion of the fieldwork for, and the initial analysis of data from, the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)-funded project Hands-off sports coaching: the politics of touch (Piper, Garratt, & Taylor, 2012). This qualitative research initiative and its context were referred to previously in this journal (Piper, Taylor, & Garratt, 2012). The project is significant as the first substantial, although relatively modestly funded, UK research initiative in the area which was also unconnected to any of the influential organisations which dominate PE and sports coaching, child protection policy and practice, and the critical areas of overlap between the two. However, beyond welcoming the opportunity to include discussion of some project outcomes in a special edition, we were conscious that many colleagues in the UK and other national contexts were researching similar issues, were motivated by the same concerns, and would want to be involved. Because of this, the process of selection was quite competitive, and the result is a special edition which includes papers emanating directly from the ESRC-funded project, some others from the UK, and also some which provide valuable international insights and comparisons. While all the selected papers deploy an essentially qualitative and interpretive approach, under this umbrella there is considerable diversity in terms of the methodologies and conceptual frameworks through which the issues of touch, abuse and protection in sports coaching and PE are addressed. There is also a satisfying variety through the inclusion of early-career researchers alongside others with substantial experience.

Moral panic in physical education and coaching

This book focuses on sports coaching and sports teaching and how touching young sports participants has been redefined as dubious and dangerous. Coaches are constrained by a framework of regulations and guidelines which create anxiety, and many coaches now question the risks and benefits of their continuing involvement. The book includes some data from a recently completed ESRC project: (‘Hands-off’ sports coaching: the politics of touch) and builds on previous ESRC research (Touchlines – the problematic of touching between children and professionals) which illuminated tensions in touching behaviours between professionals and children in education and care settings. It considers the negative effects of particular understandings of risk and moral panic around touching and related behaviours where adults, children and young people interact, and makes a significant contribution to critical discussions around related practice, pedagogy, politics, and policy. While focussed on sports coaching and teaching, it is germane to the situation of all those acting in loco parentis.