"Good Athletes Have Fun": a Foucauldian reading of university coaches' uses of fun
Fun is deeply ingrained in the ways we talk about and understand sport: Having fun is what makes sport positive and healthy. Drawing on a Foucauldian perspective, we problematize how fun, a psychological construct, informs coaches` practices. Interviews with 10 varsity coaches from a Canadian university indicated that the coaches used fun to overcome the `grind` of physical skill training. In addition, fun was used to develop and naturalize a need for athletes` positive psychological traits and skills. In their training contexts, thus, the coaches clearly employed fun to reinforce their use of a number of dominant disciplinary training practices. As a result, instead of operating as a positive force for athlete engagement, the incorporation of fun further legitimized and perpetuated coaches` `normal` training practices.
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| Subjects: | |
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| Notations: | academic training and research |
| Published in: | Sports Coaching Review |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2019
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1080/21640629.2017.1400757 |
| Volume: | 8 |
| Issue: | 1 |
| Pages: | 43-61 |
| Document types: | article |
| Level: | advanced |