Coffee and golf : a Monday night ritual

This paper is concerned with the examination of the social elements of golf coaching: to study the relationship of coach and golfer(s) and the societies they form. Data was collected at a golf teaching facility during an 8-month-long ethnographical study. The group was made up of four beginning female golfers, one male golfer and a PGA Professional golf coach. The social perspective of sports participation is an area that has been largely under-valued in coaching literature. There are a number of studies around participation, but there is little on the coaching ‘experience’. Until recently, coaching theory and practice have largely been focused on the technical at the expense of the social: an emphasis on the what rather than the how. This study identified that the social relationships of the group were more important to the group than the activity itself, with issues of social support and community being central. This paper suggests that there is a need for the coach to understand the social needs of the participants as much as their technical needs. It calls for a better understanding of the importance of how one should teach as well as what one should teach among coaches in golf.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

m_rs

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

m_rs

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Birmingham

Year dc:date.issued

2009

Author dc:creator

• Wright, Jonathan Anthony

• GV Recreation Leisure
• LB Theory and practice of education

Repository record dc:identifier.uri

http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/307/2/Decl_IS_Wright09MRes.jpg

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:etheses.bham.ac.uk:307