‘Everything revolves around gymnastics’: athletes and parents make sense of elite youth sport

Froukje Smits,Frank Jacobs,Annelies Knoppers

doi:10.1080/17430437.2015.1124564

Abstract

The continuation of emotional abuse as a normalized practice in elite youth sport has received scholarly attention, often with the use of a Foucauldian framework. The use of sense-making, a theoretical framework that focuses on how meaning is created in ambiguous situations, may give additional insights into the continuation of emotionally abusive coaching practices. The purpose of this study was to apply the seven properties of sense-making to explore how athletes and parents made sense of coaching practices in elite women’s gymnastics. We interviewed 14 elite women gymnasts and their parents to examine how they made sense of what occurred during practices. The results show how the sense-making of athletes and parents was an ongoing activity that resulted in a code of silence and a normalization of abusive coaching practices.

Highlights

Participation in sport is generally perceived to contribute positively to youth development
We begin by describing the contextual frame in which the sense-making of athletes and their parents occurred
The athletes and parents described three techniques coaches used in their interactions with athletes to develop and reinforce their obedience: isolation, regulation and intimidation

Summary

Introduction

Participation in sport is generally perceived to contribute positively to youth development. This frequently results in an asymmetric coach–athlete dependency This dependency may be incongruent with pedagogical beliefs that children need to have room to develop their own identities and that athlete-centred approaches are more appropriate (Claringbould, Knoppers, and Jacobs 2015; McMahon and Zehntner 2014; Messner 2009). Brackenridge (2004) and Barker-Ruchti (2008) have argued that this dependency relationship increases the vulnerability of young athletes to various forms of exploitation that can lead to injuries, eating disorders and low self-esteem Such practices have been well documented in youth sport (see, for example, UNICEF et al 2010 for an overview), relatively little change seems to occur worldwide

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