ABSTRACT
During the course of a season various people make judgements of a coach. Athletes, parents, club members, employers, sponsors, owners of the club and supporters judge the coach based on issues such as enjoyment, safety, win/loss record, and cost. The decisions people make, in turn, form the basis of a judgement as to whether a coach is a good and/or effective coach. Contrary to popular belief these terms should not be used interchangeably since each term is based on quite different assumptions. In the past few decades the notion of the effective coach has been prevalent in the literature and rhetoric associated with sports coaching. The reason Lyle (2002) gave for this situation is that many coaches are pragmatists. However, pragmatism can be used as an excuse for maintaining the status quo, or at least maintaining the focus on the technical and practical issues. As we illustrate in this chapter, the notion of the effective coach is increasingly being challenged, not only in the literature (see Lyle 2002) but also by some successful (performanceorientated) coaches (see Jones et al. 2004).
