Coaching redefined: an everyday pedagogical endeavour

Abstract

Following a brief introduction, in which the chosen format is discussed, this article comprises a dialogue between present-day coaching science (CS) and a critic, educational relationship (ER). ER disparages current conceptualisations of coaching as irrelevant and implores CS to redefine itself as an educational relationship between coach and athlete, paying particular attention to the micro-interactions that occur between them. Drawing on recent empirical work, ER makes the case that at the heart of coaching lies the everyday teaching and learning interface, and hence the activity should be considered a complex socio-pedagogical process. It is based on the premise that coaching, as opposed to being a knowable sequence, is problematic, multifaceted and fundamentally intertwined with teaching and learning at the micro-interactive level within given situational constraints. ER further suggests a number of pedagogical and sociological theories which can help CS better interpret its nature. Hence, it is argued that in going beyond the known to new theoretical horizons, more realistic analyses and understandings of what coaches actually do, whilst suggesting ways to do and teach it better, can be achieved.