ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines why a coaching philosophy should be couched in terms of values and principles, and the need for a sports coach to be a principled leader. The perspective that philosophy should be a pursuit of everyone, with coaching philosophy as a means of monitoring professional practice, is presented. Some critique of the UK coach education system is aligned to some suggestion for self-determination and self-regulation conceptual frameworks. Discussion of cheating, Olympism and humanism includes biological manipulation and the spirit of sport. The parameters of the humanistic approach to coaching, storytelling and the reflective process build to a recent case study of a national rugby team coach who was found to evidence a coaching philosophy communicated through value statements, ideological objectives and pragmatic intentions. The chapter concludes by highlighting the need for a strong philosophical underpinning with moral purpose to guide coaching behaviour.
