ABSTRACT
Facilitating a critical appreciation of the concepts associated with sport coaching is key to the purpose of this book. This chapter identifies a set of conceptual principles about sport coaching and configures these into a framework that allows us to address more effectively basic questions such as: what is the purpose of coaching? Is there a coherent terminology and language about coaching? And can we claim that a ‘theory of coaching’ has been established? We will conclude that the subtlety of conceptual distinctions about sport coaching is often lost in the academic literature. Despite appearing to be a little detached from the everyday concerns of the practitioner, we stress that conceptual analysis of what is a social entity is a necessary step to a complete exploration and understanding of sport coaching.
