Critical Reflective Practices of a Strength and Conditioning Coach

Abstract

Reflective practice is a process of learning from which coaches construct knowledge by actively problematising and solving coaching problems. However, uncritical approaches to reflection may reinforce existing coaching practices that contribute to re-occurring problems, limit creativity to solve problems, and reduce the complexities of coaching. Through an autoethnographic case study of a strength and conditioning coach’s (i.e., first author, Gearity) reflective to refractive journey, this chapter reveals the complexities, multiplicities, and possibilities of becoming critical. Covering several strength and conditioning positions and many experiences over more than a decade, Gearity’s storytelling provides practical coaching knowledge that addresses messy, complex realities by reflecting with different social theorists (e.g., Foucault, Goffman), across disciplines (e.g., natural sciences, social sciences), and paradigms (e.g., positivism, interpretivism, poststructuralism). The chapter provides examples of how to produce an intricate repertoire of knowledge used to solve multiple, ongoing, complex, and contextualised coaching problems by playing with constructive (i.e., assuming knowledge is socially constructed and can be fallible), critical (i.e., seeing consequences with knowledge, but not dismissive of knowledge), and creative (i.e., creating new knowledge to solve problems) post-structural refractive processes.