Re-visiting a critical analysis of ‘coaching philosophy’: deconstruction to reconstruction

This paper revisits the concept of ‘coaching philosophy’ a decade after its initial critical review, acknowledging persistent issues regarding its definition, articulation, and implementation. Despite the ongoing recognition of its importance in guiding coaching practice, the literature remains confused, with unclear and inconsistent terminology. Research over the past decade has still frequently conflated ideology with philosophy, resulting in a failure to provide clear, actionable philosophical support for coaches and coach education. We suggest moving away from ‘coaching philosophy’ and focusing on what actually underpins coaches’ behaviours and practices and, importantly, where those underpinnings have come from. We propose that researchers, coaches, and coach developers consider philosophical and sociological reasoning linked to coaching behaviours and practices. This will help coaches, with clarity, implement what they value and believe to be the most appropriate coach behaviours and practices for their athletes and environment. We want to encourage coaches then to think more critically about their coaching via (1) engaging in a philosophy for coaching, specifically around coach behaviours and practices and (2) encourage sociological reasoning that prompts coaches to reflexively consider how past experiences, context and power relations shape their articulations of coaching and their action(s) in practice.