Care in Sport Coaching: Pedagogical Cases (Routledge Research in Sports Coaching)

While it is accepted that sport coaches should safeguard participants, Care in Sport Coaching: Pedagogical Cases argues that coaches have a duty of care that moves beyond protection and involves the development of caring relationships with athletes. Recent high-profile incidents of abuse in sport highlight the need to reposition coaching as a caring activity and to embed care within coach education and coaching policy.

Based around extended case studies, this book provides grounded accounts of how coaches care in their everyday practice. These case studies are analysed using multidisciplinary theoretical perspectives to illustrate and problematise how coaches care. Conclusions are provided, based on these analyses, that will help coach educators, researchers and policy makers establish care as a key facet of everyday sport coaching activities. Additionally, the book offers guidelines that will aid practitioners to enact care in their practice.

This is important reading for coaches, researchers, lecturers and students who are concerned with the role of coaches and the development of coaching practice.

Colum Cronin is Senior Lecturer in Physical Education and Sport Coaching at Liverpool John Moores University, UK. Colum’s research concerns youth sport coaching, coach education and coaching in community contexts. Colum’s doctorate, which is the genesis of this book, focused on the lives of sport coaches. He has supported national governing bodies of sport to evaluate their coaching and has experience in both youth and adult basketball coaching in the UK. Indeed, as a practitioner, he has experience coaching in the voluntary, public and private sectors, whilst working as a coach educator.

Kathleen Armour is Pro-Vice Chancellor (education) at the University of Birmingham, UK; Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences; and International Fellow of the National Academy of Kinesiology. Kathleen’s research focuses on career-long professional development for physical education teachers and sport coaches, and she is particularly interested in bridging the gaps between theory/research and practice. Kathleen has received over £2.5 million of research funding from research councils, charities and industries. In her most recent books, Kathleen has developed a new translational mechanism – ‘pedagogical cases’ – to support practitioner learning and influence research agendas.