Joseph P. Mills

Sports’ disciplinary legacy and the challenge of ‘coaching differently’

ABSTRACT Be empowering. Be athlete-centered. Be autonomy supportive. These are three related topics currently being promoted by sport psychologists and sport pedagogists in an effort to recognize athletes’ unique qualities and developmental differences and make coaching more holistic and coaches more considerate. This has led us to ask, how likely are such initiatives to lead to coaches putting their athletes at the center of the coaching process given that coaches’ practices have largely been formed through relations of power that subordinate and objectify athletes’ bodies through the regular application of a range of disciplinary techniques and instruments [e.g. Barker-Ruchti, N., & Tinning, R. (2010). Foucault in leotards: Corporeal discipline in womens artistic gymnastics. Sociology of Sport Journal, 27, 229–250; Heikkala, J. (1993). Discipline and excel: Techniques of the self and body and the logic of competing. Sociology of Sport Journal, 10, 397–412; Gearity, B., & Mills, J. P. (2012). Discipline and punish in the weight room. Sports Coaching Review, 1, 124–134]? In other words, to try to develop athlete-centered coaches capable of coaching in ways that will empower their athletes without also problematizing the discursive formation of coaches’ practices concerns us [Denison, J., & Mills, J. P. (2014). Planning for distance running: Coaching with Foucault. Sports Coaching Review, 3, 1–16]. Put differently: how can athlete empowerment initiatives be anything more than rhetoric within a disciplinary framework that normalizes maximum coach control? It is this question that we intend to explore in this paper. More specifically, as Foucauldians, we will argue that coaching with greater consideration for athletes’ unique qualities and developmental differences needs to entail coaching in a less disciplinary way and with an awareness and appreciation of the many unseen effects that disciplinary power can have on coaches’ practices and athletes’ bodies.

Discipline and punish in the weight room

Building on the work of scholars in sport and physical cultural studies, coach educators have recently demonstrated the usefulness of Foucaults theorising to critique dominant coaching practices. However, to date, no research has applied Foucaults concepts to strength and conditioning coaching. Much of the strength and conditioning research is void of its historical and socio-cultural context, and lacks the complexity involved in the coaching act. The purpose of this personal narrative is to demonstrate how power operates (with knowledge) upon the social body to produce ‘unintended effects’ of dominant coaching practices. A creative non-fiction story was created by drawing upon my (the first authors) collegiate strength and conditioning coaching experiences and Foucaults Discipline and Punish. In particular, the tale examines the effects of exercising power-knowledge within the context of docile bodies, underperformance, injury, poor exercise technique, and the coach–athlete relationship.

Planning for distance running: coaching with Foucault

Coaching and sport scholars working from a Foucauldian perspective (e.g. Barker-Ruchti & Tinning, 2010; Denison, 2007; Heikkala, 1993; Johns & Johns, 2000) have demonstrated how overly controlling and disciplining training practices can objectify athletes’ bodies and, as a result, limit and constrain their development. In this paper, we draw on Michel Foucaults (1995) analysis of anatomo-political power, or disciplinary power, to illustrate how distance running coaches could begin to problematize the effects that the use of various disciplinary techniques and instruments can have on athletes’ bodies through their everyday planning practices.

The cyclical relationship between physiology and discipline: one endurance running coach’s experiences problematizing disciplinary practices

ABSTRACT There have been numerous calls by coaching researchers for Foucauldian-informed coach developers to help coaches change their practices to be less reliant on discipline’s techniques and instruments. In this paper, we explored what it might mean for a Foucauldian-informed coach developer to work collaboratively with a male university endurance running coach as he learned how to problematize the use of discipline. More specifically, we examined some of the barriers, challenges, and opportunities that the coach experienced as he attempted to learn, in collaboration with the first author, how to question the unintended consequences of discipline’s techniques and instruments and rethink the “total effects” of his coaching practices. The results revealed that the coach was able to show a degree of problematization, however, in the field the deep-rooted connection between endurance running, physiology, and discipline made coaching for him in a less disciplinary way a challenge. To conclude, Foucauldian-informed coach developers working in sports where physiology is the predominant sport science could use specific pedagogical strategies that work with and explicitly complicate the strong cyclical relationship between discipline and physiology to help coaches implement practices that are less dominated by, not absent of, physiology.

Sports coaching research: context, consequences, and consciousness

China (Chapter 13), one learns that Olympic protocol has been overshadowed by the spectacular cultural performances of the host, which is reflected in the relative lack of attention generally paid to Olympism and sport values by the broadcasters – a missed opportunity for intercultural understanding through the shared values of sport, promoted as part of the Olympic movement. Following the main editor’s final personal wish (Chapter 25), this collective study project urges us to develop common interest to create a cross-cultural approach between east and west in the contemporary communication context, to explore an effective method to decode the relationship betweenmedia and the construction of social value, especially from the perspective of the image of a nation in the globalized and new media communication context. In sum, if we all agree that the Olympic ideal is to promote cosmopolitanism, emphasizing the role of the sporting spirit and mutual understanding in triumphing over hostilities and conflicts, overcoming the limits of borders, race and culture (see Chapter 20), it is also important for us to search a few more practical approaches to guide new media (apart frombusiness and entertainment purpose). One emphasis in this regardmight bemore sustained promotion of cross-cultural understanding, and enhancing the educative role/ mission of the media so that more people will enjoy not just watching sports through new media, but also enjoy the range of experiences that come with sport participation. Beyond just providing excellent physical andmoral contestsworthwatching, promoting the epitome of corporeal achievement and maximizing opportunities for intercultural exchange, Qing andRicheri’swork essentially reminds us that newmedia (throughwebsites and onto digital platforms andmobile devices with interactive possibilities) can play amore dynamic role in our individual and collective human experiences.