![Sample our Education journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5932/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Education.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
In this paper, I explore male youth sport coaches’ use of humour in relation to the reconstruction of masculinities, contributing to an emergent body of literature on the role of humour in coaching. Three creative non-fiction stories developed from my own coaching experiences in a competitive youth football (soccer) academy are used to examine: (1) coaches’ reconstruction of hegemonic/esteemed masculinities; (2) coaches’ use of humour to encourage re-alignment with hegemonic masculinities, and; (3) coaches’ use of (counter-)humour to disrupt hegemonic representations of masculinities. The stories offer sport coaches and educators with a resource to reflect on masculinities, gender relations, and the everyday use of humour within their own contexts.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 See methodology for an explanation of the ‘football academy’ study context.
2 See Adams and Carr (Citation2017) and Adams and Kavanagh (Citation2018) for further methodological discussion related to this project: for example, in relation to balancing roles as a coach at West-Side and subsequently as a social researcher in the same setting, and also my naturalistic exit from West-Side, taking up a new coaching role at another club.
3 This is when boys are offered to sign a formal agreement or registration ‘contract’, typically for up to 2-years between U13 and U15.
4 Incidently, to contrast the coaches certainty about ‘what is required’, the boy being described by this coach did not ‘make it’ to the professional levels.