Peter Horton

Rhizomatic bodies, gendered waves: transitional femininities in Brazilian Surf

Surfing, practised along the whole Brazilian coast, was previously viewed as a mans sport; women are now taking to the waves and are among the best professional surfers in the world. This article focuses upon a group of women surfers using data gathered from semi-structured interviews with them. From the interviews it became apparent that at all times, in or out of the surf, the female surfers body is always a contested terrain, particularly in the economic context and when dealing with sponsors. In this context tensions emerge from the clash of traditional patriarchal mindsets regarding newly emergent femininities. Women in sport and their supporters reject the paradigm that considers them to be merely decorative and subservient to men, Brazilian female athletes are beginning to imagine and construct their bodies differently. As part of the first generation of professional Brazilian female surfers, this group represents a new site for the liberation of Brazilian women.

Sport coaches’ perceived role frames and philosophies

Philosophy underpins all aspects of coaching and by creating a formal philosophy coaches may improve their coaching effectiveness. The role that coaches fulfill is based on their experience, knowledge, values, opinions and beliefs, but how coaches frame their role and form their philosophy is still unclear. This study investigates these aspects by interviewing coaches at various stages of their coaching career. It concludes that as coaches gain both knowledge and experience their ability to articulate a coherent philosophy and, more importantly, contextualize it for subsequent use in a more holistic coaching practice is enhanced. As a key element of coach development, the inclusion of a coaching philosophy, values clarification, and consideration of the coachs responsibilities could improve their practice and better meet the needs of their charges.

Excellence in coaching: the art and skill of elite practitioners.

Abstract During this study, 10 expert coaches were interviewed to examine their views on aspects of their individual coaching practice. Four themes emerged from the interviews: (a) the long-term approach, (b) the authentic coaching environment, (c) creating a learning environment, and (d) the quality and quantity of training sessions. These coaches were consistent in their attempts to facilitate learning experiences for the athletes, while setting high standards in both training and competition. The studys findings show that expert coaches have to orchestrate a large number of variables when planning and executing a training session, and their success depends on their coaching knowledge and their skill at contextualizing the necessary components for specific situations.

The ‘East Asian’ Olympic Games: what of sustainable legacies?

Sport has proven to be an unstoppable globalising force. The Olympic Movement has come to epitomise modernisation and the extent to which Western sport has become globalised. The philosophy of Olympism, once resting upon just two pillars of Excellence in Sport and Culture has since 1994 been underpinned by a third, the Environment. All of the Olympic Games host cities now have to support a responsible concern for environmental issues and with that the very sustainability of ‘our’ culture, and sport itself. They must do so by bequeathing a holistic positive legacy from their Games. This paper will analyse the three ‘Asian’ Olympic Summer Olympic Games – Tokyo 1964, Seoul 1988 and Beijing 2008 – by looking at the cultural, sporting and environmental legacies each has left.  The discussion of the concept of sustainability as an element of culture will embrace Littig and Griessler’s idea that social sustainability is about the quality of societies expressed through the nature-society relationships and is not merely an economically based notion.1 In this paper we consider the three Asian Summer Olympic Games. Each has been related to a specific nodal point in the host countrys national history, as a means of illustrating, indeed emphasising, the always unique impacts of context on event and process. Yet we propose that, locked as they are in distinct epochs and differing cultural, political and economic contexts, they are nonetheless marked in common by an Asian discourse heavily reliant upon economic and nationalistic motivations.  The progressive analysis of each Games demonstrates that although each was unique, particularly in regards to the expectations stakeholders had of ‘their Olympics’, all three host nations represented themselves as ‘modern hybrids’ by simultaneously demonstrating their modernised characters and emphasising their ancient cultures. The analysis demonstrates the holistic impact of these events by reference to the wide range of economic, social, cultural and sporting changes that have emerged for each host from each festival. The evaluation of the nature and significance of these legacies reemphasises the impact of the Olympic Games as a vehicle for social change and illustrates the transformative power of sport at national and global levels.

Football, identity, place: The emergence of Rugby football in Brisbane

Today we accept that football in its various forms is the predominant winter sport in Brisbane; in fact, it is reasonable to state that this is true globally. This paper examines the construction of identity of Brisbane and its people through football in the colony of Queensland during the 1880s. It demonstrates the centrality of sport in this process. The struggle over the choice of football code illustrates how sport was a feature of contested social and cultural terrains and how support for a game was a source of the construction of the identity of initially Brisbane and later Queensland. The paper further illustrates the centrality of the role of sport in the cultural hegemony of British imperialism and of the predominance of the ideology of athleticism in the public schools of colonial Australia.

Shackling the lion: sport in independent Singapore

This essay focuses on the role sport has played in nation-building and social development in Singapore. It is indicated that the dominant political and cultural ideologies in Singapore have utilized sport, physical education, community fitness, and recreational activities towards these ends.

Rugby union football in Australian society: an unintended consequence of intended actions

The place of rugby union football in Australian society presents a rich context to play and display critical social issues, particularly, identity formations and contestations. This essay examines the development of elite rugby union in Australia from its inception to professionalization. In its amateur development, the processes of colonization and cultural impositions created its culture and legacy. With the overlapping of sporting and economic networks, rugby union entered the professional era. This essay argues that the development from amateurism to ‘shamateurism’ to professionalism was uneven and contested on various levels. Whilst the development of rugby union in Australia was both a reflection and manifestation of globalization it did not totally parallel the globalization of sport in general, indeed rugby union football remains a particularly ‘glocal’ game. The points of resistance and departure, this essay concludes, distinguish the identity of rugby union from other sporting institutions and their wider social contexts.

Sport as public diplomacy and public disquiet: Australia's ambivalent embrace of the Beijing Olympics.

The Beijing Olympics in 2008 will showcase Chinas increasingly open economy and demonstrate the extent of its readiness to be recognised in the same league as developed nations. The world economy is now dependent on Chinas participation and its engagement in the Asia-Pacific is critical. Australia is a major player in enabling China to host a successful Olympics and this support is intended to strengthen existing political and economic partnerships. In Australia, however, while anticipated advantages are well publicised, less publicised is the resistance to this political and economic pragmatism. The issues of human rights and the quality of Beijings atmosphere might have been diplomatically played down but these and others issues remain counter-hegemonic to Chinas regional hegemonic intentions. This study examines the development of the Sino-Australia sporting relationship with particular emphasis on the national implications of the Beijing Olympics and the paradoxes that emerge from Australias active support of Chinas Olympic effort.

Promoting Perseverance and Challenge in Physical Education: The Missing Ingredient for Improved Games Teaching.

This paper explores critical notions about how improved understandings of students learning experiences within practical learning environments could sensitise teachers to appreciate the complex influences more that affect how levels of challenge and perseverance are constructed by students. The authors, in furthering their critique, build on the model of constructivism developed by Ollis and Sproule. This model attempted in embryonic terms to recognise the specific situational factors that most influenced the minded ways in which students identified and responded to learning challenges. In refining these ideas further the authors specifically consider how teaching games for understanding (TGfU) methodologies could be enhanced by recognising the meta-cognitions of students when constructing rich task led learning episodes. In conclusion, it is posited that comprehending the complexity of learning theory holds considerable promise for the ongoing development of physical education as a valuable and integral part of the school learning experience.

Sport in Syonan (Singapore) 1942–1945: Centralisation and Nipponisation

When Singapore surrendered to the Japanese, it was ironic that they promoted the British culture of sport. Sport became centralised and the political priority placed on sport by the Japanese government provided it with greater resources to develop than other cultural institutions. The direction and form of its development became more and more dictated by the state. Political function became the predetermining social force compared with such functions as class orcultural distinction. The increase in bureaucracy and complexity in the organisation of the institution of sport widened the network of interdependencies between the state and its subjects but, more significantly, the Japanese government also demonstrated the emotional quality of sport in facilitating political aggrandisement. Paradoxically, during this period of oppression the Japanese embraced the affective quality of sport in nationalising disparate social groups in Singapore. This article, embracing an Eliasian approach, investigates this critical phase in the development of sport in Singapore and reflects upon the notion the shifts in the governmental view of sport, physical education and physical fitness that emerged during the Japanese occupation were major preconditions and influences in the later development of the more centralised control of sport that emerged in independent Singapore.