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Sports coaches as ‘dangerous individuals’ - practice as governmentality
Taylor, Bill Piper, Heather Garratt, Dean
Taylor, Bill
Piper, Heather
Garratt, Dean
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EPub Date
Publication Date
2014-03-31
Submitted Date
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Abstract
Recent concern surrounding sports coaches’ interaction with young people has reflected a
fundamental change in the way coaches and others regard the role of sports. In this paper, we
consider the identification and definition of the contemporary sports coach (whether acting in a
professional or volunteer capacity) as, in Foucault’s term, a ‘dangerous individual’. We suggest
that the mainstream discourse of child protection and safeguarding, variously interpreted and
applied, has contributed to a culture of fear in sports coaching practice. Drawing on data from a
recently completed Economic and Social Research Council-funded research project, we argue that
contradictions in policy and practice, which serve to privilege a particular discourse, have cast the
coach as both predator and protector of young sports performers. This has undermined the role of
the coach, led to intergenerational fear, created doubt about coaches’ intentions and promoted
their adoption of defensive and protective practices. Utilising the concept of governmentality, we argue that, as a consequence, fundamental trust-based relationships, necessary in healthy athlete−coach engagement, have been displaced by a discourse embodied in sterile delivery and procedure governed by regulation and suspicion.
Citation
Taylor, B., Piper, H., & Garratt, D. (2014). Sports coaches as ‘dangerous individuals’ - practice as governmentality. Sport, Education and Society, 21(2), 183-199. DOI: 10.1080/13573322.2014.899492
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Journal
Sport, Education and Society
Research Unit
DOI
10.1080/13573322.2014.899492
PubMed ID
PubMed Central ID
Type
Article
Language
en
Description
This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Sport, Education and Society on 31/03/2014, available online: doi: 10.1080/13573322.2014.899492
Series/Report no.
ISSN
1357-3322
EISSN
1470-1243