ABSTRACT
This chapter expresses that coaches' experiences in a high-performance sport are never pure or true but are instead shaped and informed through a range of power/knowledge relations that often privilege certain practices, pedagogies or perspectives, even if they are ineffective, while at the same time obscuring or marginalizing other approaches to coaching that in fact might be more beneficial. In this way, coaching can easily be conceptualized as unproblematic and made up of a sequence of fixed and supposedly known steps as opposed to being what it truly is: a dynamic, fluid and social process. Becoming an effective high-performance coach should not be seen as a stage of development or a point to reach after a set period of time, or following a number of specific experiences, even if those experiences include completing a formal coaching certificate or coaching degree or coaching an Olympic gold medallist or a world championship team.
