ABSTRACT
There is a care paradox in sport coaching. This paradox is characterised, on the one hand, by widespread media reports of uncaring, unethical and abusive practices. These instances of poor coaching are disappointingly regular and occur across sports and international boundaries. On the other hand, coaching is a pedagogical activity with an inherent ‘duty of care.’ Indeed, effective coaches work hard to build close, committed and caring relationships with athletes in order to support athlete development both as performers and as individuals. Yet, there is a curious absence of academic literature detailing how coaches develop these important caring relationships. This means that to be a coach is to have responsibility for care, yet coaches have few critical resources to inform their practice. As a result, inexperienced coaches may feel that care is something ‘extra’ to the main task of coaching, or understand it as a rather simplistic concept limited to safe practice or minimum standards of non-malevolence. In this book, however, care is presented as a complex interpersonal concept, which is situated in the dynamic environments in which coaches practice. Caring relationships are dialogical, consensual and service based. It is essential, therefore, that this multi-layered aspect of coaching is explained, illustrated and analysed. One practical way to do that is presented in this book. We offer coaches the opportunity to read contextualised accounts and analyses of care that can prompt them to reflect critically on their own caring coaching relationships. After all, coaching is primarily an activity that aims to help individuals to flourish, so thinking more about caring is surely important.
