Robyn Jones
Cardiff Metropolitan University, Cardiff School of Sport, Faculty Member
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Research Interests: Psychology and Coaching
We know that coach education programmes continue to be criticized for their largely didactic methods of delivery and rather superficial engagement with the complex reality of practice and we understand that innovative approaches in coach... more
We know that coach education programmes continue to be criticized for their largely didactic methods of delivery and rather superficial engagement with the complex reality of practice and we understand that innovative approaches in coach education pedagogy means moving somewhat away from the competencies based approach and it has been increasingly argued that the aim of coach education should be to develop in practitioners a 'quality of mind' so that they are better equipped to deal with the problematic and dynamic nature of their work. The skills of coach educators in facilitating the learning of student coaches are crucial to the effectiveness of the pedagogies. Coach educators, therefore, must be committed to the approaches outlined in this article and invest the time and work necessary to learning new skills if they are to be successfully implemented. We found that teaching in this way resulted in a raised degree of responsibility on behalf of the tutors, not so much in ...
Research Interests: Psychology and Pedagogy
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Research Interests: Psychology and Coaching
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The significance of this article lies in examining how sports coaches construct and negotiate their professional sense making; what Goffman described as the practices engaged in to manage ‘ugly’ interpretations. Using the work of... more
The significance of this article lies in examining how sports coaches construct and negotiate their professional sense making; what Goffman described as the practices engaged in to manage ‘ugly’ interpretations. Using the work of Garfinkel and Goffman, the article pays attention to coaches’ ‘ethno-methods’; that is, the background knowledge and practical competency employed in forming and maintaining social order. In doing so, the explanatory accounts of Christian, a coach and author who supported the co-construction of this work, were collected via recorded interviews over the course of a 3-month period during a competitive season. The analysis explores the procedures used to ‘achieve coherence’ in what he did. The analysis employed Garfinkel’s description of ‘artful practices’ and related concepts of ‘self repair’ to demonstrate the fundamental interactional ‘work’ done by Christian, not only to understand why he did what he did, but also how he would ‘get things done’ in future. ...
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A principal purpose of this text was to provide an insight into the social nature of coaching, inclusive of such notions as power, interaction, structure and agency. A base point to highlight was that what we need to know about coaching... more
A principal purpose of this text was to provide an insight into the social nature of coaching, inclusive of such notions as power, interaction, structure and agency. A base point to highlight was that what we need to know about coaching is rich, complex and diverse. A second aim was to encourage a healthy suspicion of rather simplified a-theoretical explanations of coaching that do not take heed of such social complexity. Echoing Stones (1998a), the more one looks at the varied insights offered by thinkers such as Goffman, Foucault, Bourdieu and others, the more one realises that there is much to know about coaching that cannot be contained in sound bites and ‘chat-show’ logic. We should not (and in any real sense cannot) forcibly simplify the complexity: for example, by assuming functional relations exist (or should exist) among various groups or individuals (Guilianotti, 2005), or skipping over such notions as ‘social skills’ and ‘communication’ as if they are self-explanatory. Similarly, just developing a literal grasp of the theories presented is not enough. The point here is not to make ‘accuracy a virtue’ (Housman, 1937). That would be like ‘praising an architect for using wellseasoned timber or properly mixed concrete in his [sic] building. It is a necessary condition of his work, but not his essential function’ (Carr, 1961: 11). In coaching terms, such a perspective would privilege the precision of communicative behaviours over the quality of communicative interaction (Pineau, 1994). Alternatively, through this book, we advocate a critical understanding of coaching that challenges instrumental reasoning.
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Research Interests: Psychology and Coaching
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Research Interests: Psychology and Coaching
The primary purpose of this article was to investigate the use and manifestation of humour within sports coaching. This was particularly in light of the social significance of humour as a critical component in cultural creation and... more
The primary purpose of this article was to investigate the use and manifestation of humour within sports coaching. This was particularly in light of the social significance of humour as a critical component in cultural creation and negotiation. Data were gathered from a 10-month ethnographic study that tracked the players and coaches of Senghenydd City Football Club (a pseudonym) over the course of a full season. Precise methods of data collection included participant observation, reflective personal field notes, and ethnographic film. The results demonstrated the dominating presence of both ‘inclusionary putdowns’ and ‘disciplinary humour’, particularly in relation to how they contributed to the production and maintenance of the social order. Finally, a reflective conclusion discusses the temporal nature of the collective understanding evident among the group at Senghenydd, and its effect on the humour evident. In doing so, the work contributes to the body of knowledge regarding th...
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The purpose of the study was to compare the televised depictions and portrayals of male and female athletes who partook in the so-called ‘masculine’ events of the marathon, shot-put and discus at the 5th World Athletics Championships in... more
The purpose of the study was to compare the televised depictions and portrayals of male and female athletes who partook in the so-called ‘masculine’ events of the marathon, shot-put and discus at the 5th World Athletics Championships in 1995. Both commentary and modes of production were analyzed in order to ascertain if women were treated equally in terms of the above modes of presentation when participating in physically challenging events that defy traditional and stereotypical notions of femininity.Based upon the results, not only were the men’s events given greater air time, but the quality of the commentary and modes of production also favored the men’s events when compared with their female counterparts. Thus, commentators frequently framed the female athletes’ accomplishments in terms of traditional notions of femininity, through the use of negative, condescending and ambivalent descriptors and a gendered hierarchy of naming.
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This study investigates racial trends, in terms of participation and integration, in the highest levels of English professional basketball A longitudinal approach is utilized whereby the facial and international compositions of teams and... more
This study investigates racial trends, in terms of participation and integration, in the highest levels of English professional basketball A longitudinal approach is utilized whereby the facial and international compositions of teams and coaching staffs who comprised the First Division of the English National Basketball League during the period 1977-1994 are examined. The findings demonstrate that although a substantial increase in the number of Blacks, and more specifically black Britons, who played the game at the highest level in England took place during the set time period, no evidence of racial discrimination, as demonstrated through “stacking,” exists. It is hypothesized, however, that racism within English basketball is alternatively manifest through numerous social dynamics particular to the English context that are responsible for the predominance of black athletes within the sport. These developments, in turn, are interlinked with the wider global processes of commerciali...
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Within this article, the author presents a personal story, “Leaving,” which highlights the problematic experience of opposing established practice. The tale tells of the difficulty faced by creative agency when confronted by a... more
Within this article, the author presents a personal story, “Leaving,” which highlights the problematic experience of opposing established practice. The tale tells of the difficulty faced by creative agency when confronted by a constraining structural hegemony. Specifically, it draws attention to the professionalization of academic life through a cult of managerialism. Although the narrative is presented without extensive framing theory allowing multiple readings, the task is sociological as opposed to literary. Consequently, following the story, a discussion of its purpose, and a rationale for engaging in creative writing as a form of academic representation, two possible, though connected, theoretical sense-making lenses are offered: Foucault’s concept of the “discourse of right” through which power is both created and exercised, and Habermas’s cautionary note related to the power of systematic rationality to usurp the human “lifeworld.”
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Research Interests: Psychology and Routledge
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Research Interests: Psychology and Athletes
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Research Interests: Psychology and Coaching
Research Interests: Psychology and Athletes
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Erving Goffman was born on 11 June 1922 in Alberta, Canada. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Toronto in 1949 and his Ph.D. in 1953 from the University of Chicago, where he studied sociology and social anthropology.... more
Erving Goffman was born on 11 June 1922 in Alberta, Canada. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Toronto in 1949 and his Ph.D. in 1953 from the University of Chicago, where he studied sociology and social anthropology. During an academic career which took in positions at the University of Chicago, the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Pennsylvania, he pioneered the study of face-to-face interaction, or microsociology. Many consider his greatest contribution to be his formulation of symbolic interaction in his 1959 book The presentation of self in everyday life, although other influential and insightful texts include Stigma: Notes on the management of spoiled identity (1963), Strategic interaction (1969a) and Frame analysis: An essay on the organization of experience (1974). Through these and other works he developed an understanding of the way we convey social information through symbols and images, and how those images are incorporated into social expectations. He subsequently elaborated upon a ‘dramaturgical’ approach to human interaction in a detailed analysis of what he termed ‘the interaction order’. Indeed, interaction underpinned all of his work as, for Goffman, interactions were important rituals that worked to maintain moral as well as social order (Birrell & Donnelly, 2004). Consequently, his substantive contribution to social analysis (and, we would argue, sports coaching) lies in uncovering the everyday routine of social encounters, and how that impacts on personal identity (Smith, 2006). Erving Goffman died of cancer on 19 November 1982, aged sixty.
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Research Interests: Psychology and Routledge
Drawing on ideas from social psychology, in particular those associated with relational schemas and complexity theory, the purpose of this paper is to present an alternative perspective of coaching. Following the introduction, current... more
Drawing on ideas from social psychology, in particular those associated with relational schemas and complexity theory, the purpose of this paper is to present an alternative perspective of coaching. Following the introduction, current conceptualizations of coaching are critiqued as being inadequate. The case is then made that such work could alternatively profit from an examination of coaches’ agency within their structurally created relational schemas to better understand the nature of the activity. Recent empirical work on coaches is subsequently drawn upon to support the theoretical position proposed, which postulates practitioners as working near or on “the edge of chaos.” Finally, a conclusion draws together the main points made, particularly in relation to the value of the position taken for coach education.
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Page 1. THE SOCIOLOGY OF SPORTS COACHING EDITED BY ROBYN L. JONES, PAUL POTRAC, CHRIS CUSHION AND LARS TORE RONGLAN Page 2. The Sociology of Sports Coaching Sports coaching is a social activity. ...