The Sociology of Sports Coaching

To be forthcoming of my biases and perspective, please allow me to begin by situating myself for the context of this review. I worked as a strength and conditioning coach at the University of Tennessee while completing my master’s (2003) and doctoral degrees (2009). Early in graduate school I was introduced to longstanding and commonly used Sport Psychology texts (Williams, 2001). For me, much of this content was new and applicable to my coaching practice. However, when I read the emerging and burgeoning work of Cushion, Denison, Jones and Potrac regarding the sociology of sports coaching, a spark was lit. What could this growing field offer me as a coach, and a budding researcher? As a practitioner I paradoxically appreciated how this work offered new insights and discourses while also leaving issues unsettled or “problematized.” With a background in physical education and exercise science, and working in a field (strength and conditioning) dominated by physiology, I became the social scientist sine qua non of the weight room.