‘It’s not about disability, I want to win as many medals as possible’: The social construction of disability in high-performance coaching

Sport coaches as policy actors: an investigation of the interpretation and enactment of disability and inclusion policy in swimming in Victoria Australia

“…Scholars primarily interested in disability coaching have overtly examined this within the context of disability policy (cf. Townsend, Cushion, & Smith, 2018;Townsend, Huntley, Cushion, & Fitzgerald, 2018). This literature has illustrated how discourses of ableism and elitism influence coaching practice but has not directed attention to the role of policy within this process.…”

Investigating Possible Effects from a One-Year Coach-Education Program

“…The current study did not find any effects of group on the goal and task dimension and the coach–athlete working alliance construct predicts that it is essential to define goals and effective tasks that help athletes toward goal attainment [ 64 ]. To become competitive, athletes need to develop their key sport-specific capacities [ 65 ] and a recent study showed that the task dimension had the strongest association with athletes’ perceived performance [ 47 ]. Athletes’ beliefs in their capabilities to complete task-specific demands are found to be the most predictive variable of performance in several studies [ 64 , 66 ].…”

Mind the gap: the presence of capital and power in the female athlete–male -coach relationship within elite rowing

“…In both works of these theorists, subjectivity is reproduced on a large-scale by the individuals practicing it and strengthened within the boundaries of established order through the modes of habitus and discipline (Schlosser, 2013). Within a sport coaching context, using Bourdieu can enhance our understanding of how the relationship between structures and the actors within it; in this case, the male coach and the female athlete, are constructed (Townsend, Huntley, Cushion, & Fitzgerald, 2018). This relationship between coach and athlete is not value-free nor objective (Townsend et al, 2018), and therefore, by combining Bourdieu with Foucault, we can interrogate with much more depth, the power that is at play that determines how coaches and athletes behave and interact with each other within the overarching structure of sport.…”

“…Within a sport coaching context, using Bourdieu can enhance our understanding of how the relationship between structures and the actors within it; in this case, the male coach and the female athlete, are constructed (Townsend, Huntley, Cushion, & Fitzgerald, 2018). This relationship between coach and athlete is not value-free nor objective (Townsend et al, 2018), and therefore, by combining Bourdieu with Foucault, we can interrogate with much more depth, the power that is at play that determines how coaches and athletes behave and interact with each other within the overarching structure of sport. In this context, a coach's continued engagement in a specific social context (a particular sport, for example, and its culture) prompts a particular way of practicing or way of physically being.…”