The use of narrative in coach education: the effect on short- and long-term practice

Abstract

This paper reports on research exploring how narrative might challenge coaches ‘thinking’ and ‘doing.’ Narrative offers new ways of seeing the world by providing us with an opportunity to reflect on our experiences and, in doing so, observe new ways of being. Within this study, athletes' stories were presented to coaches to provide an alternate perspective to challenge coach practice, both in the present and long-term. The process provided coaches with a critical space to cast a ‘beam of consciousness’ over what they did and said to athletes. As a consequence, empathy and a more holistic approach to coaching were facilitated. It is contended that athletes' stories in the shape of narratives hold the potential to serve as effective means to challenge coaching practice, this developing more socially sensitive practice.

Keywords::

• coach education
• pedagogy
• narrative
• reflexive
• empathy
• holistic

Acknowledgements

I have argued that acknowledging and positioning swimmers' considerations and issues in the form of narratives holds considerable potential for coach education to move coaches beyond their current ways of ‘thinking’ and ‘doing’ towards more holistic, empathetic, and athlete centred way of practice. While the athlete stories presented in this project were limited to providing perspectives related to performance, perfection and discipline, the promise of narrative was somewhat realized. As such, narratives can, and perhaps should, be developed in other ways within coach education. For instance, parents' narratives could be presented and deconstructed, as could athletes' stories relating to peer pressure, and the effects of specific coaching gestures These are just a few of many possibilities that narratives could offer to coaches in the education process to effectively challenge unconsidered practice and its effects.

Notes

^1. A technocentric ideology is where ‘people are viewed as human resources where attention is focused on the development of an increasingly effective and efficient means for achieving goals.’ (Bain, 1990, p. 29)

^2. Performance practices relate to procedures where the body is trained, tested and manipulated for increased outputs. Perfection practices relate to procedures where the body is seen as being imperfect, in need of being changed with the intention of achieving optimal performance. Disciplinary practices relate to punishment enforced by coaches when the athlete did not comply with rules and expectations.

^3. The ‘slim to win’ ideology is based on the idea that a swimmer's body needs to be lean to achieve performance even though scientific research does not support the notion. It may involve excessive exercising between swimming sessions (i.e., running), low caloric intake, disordered eating and monitoring of bodies. As such, swimmers are constantly striving to achieve ‘slim to win’ where the ‘ideal’ lean swimmer body will bring success. The effects of this have found to be detrimental (McMahon et al., 2012).

^4. Stephanie Rice won three gold medals in swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.