Disability sports coaching: towards a critical understanding

Abstract

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From the Athletes’ Perspective: A Social-Relational Understanding of How Coaches Shape the Disability Sport Experience

“…To date, the body of literature focused on disability sport coaches is primarily descriptive and "coach-centric" (Townsend, Smith, & Cushion, 2016). The learning experiences of coaches in disability sport have been explored extensively and in isolation from their athletes (e.g., Cregan, Bloom, & Reid, 2007;Duarte & Culver, 2014;McMaster, Culver, & Werthner, 2012), despite the complex interactions and relational processes that shape the experiences of both coach and athlete.…”

“…Limited knowledge of and experience with disability may hinder coaches' ability to understand, reflect, and empathize with athletes. Among the few resources available for disability sport coach development, impairment-specific knowledge and skills are often emphasized (i.e., the focus is on coaching to improve sport performance against the limitations of impairment; Townsend et al, 2016). In other words, the medical model of disability -in which impairment is viewed as a personal tragedy and a problem to be solved (Smith & Perrier, 2014;Thomas, 2004) -frequently underpins coach education and discourse in disability sport.…”

Inclusion and SEN coaching: how accelerated learning and ‘workplace’ immersion can help develop core sport coaching skills

“…All the student‐coaches in this study emphasised that they felt they had improved their able‐bodied coaching practice by working with people with SEN and disabilities. While there is minimal literature devoted to this specific area (DePauw and Gavron, ; Townsend et al ., ), what is known is that sustained, focused, and appropriate practice is critical in the developmental learning pathway that coaches undertake (Lyle, ; Martens, ; North, ; Navin, ). Consistent with almost all previous coach learning literature centred on the basic coaching skills (Coaching Review Panel, ; Jones, ; Cushion et al ., ), the coaches in this study suggested that a focus on adaptability, instinct, and communication within the SEN and disability sessions was extremely important and transferred well to able‐bodied coaching.…”

“…While there are still question marks over the extent to which coaches feel they are prepared for coaching people with SEN and disabilities in the UK (Townsend, Smith, and Cushion, ) and abroad (Kozub and Porretta, ; Flores, Beyer, and Vargas, ), it is probably fair to say that we do have a reasonable understanding of how, at a basic level, coaches can work in special educational needs (SEN) and disability sport (Robbins, Houston, and Dummer, ; Tawse, Bloom, Sabiston, and Reid, ; Schliermann, Stolz, and Anneken, ).…”

“…Certainly, in the case of supporting emerging coaches who operate more within the participation context. Nonetheless, there is an existing body of work related to disability coaching within the areas of performance sport (White and Duda, , Townsend et al ., ), carers (Melville, Hamilton, Miller, Boyle, Robinson, Pert, and Hankey, ) and teachers (Belley‐Ranger, Carbonneau, Roult, Brunet, Duquette, and Nauroy, ). Broadly then, whilst it is possible to define coaching and SEN and disability sports coaching, there is a gap in the literature and practice pertaining to how we can develop emerging sports coaches through the context of SEN and disability participation sport.…”