Coaches are amongst the most visible figures in sport today but little is known about the history of their profession.
This book examines the history of coaching from the early nineteenth to the late twentieth century. It uses a number of sports as case studies that includes: cricket, swimming, rugby union, athletics, football and tennis. The focus is largely English but international examples are used to illuminate the British context.
A number of themes are explored. Initially, in the 1800s, the coach was like an artisan who learned his skills on the job and coaching was similar to a craft. Early coaches were professionals but from the late nineteenth century an amateur elite governed British sport, who inhibited and in some sports banned coaching. As the twentieth century progressed, though, different sports at different stages began to embrace coaching as international competition intensified. In addition, the nature of coaching changed as a more scientific and managerial approach was applied. Finally, in football, the export of early British coaches is examined in light of the migration of international athletes and also as a process of ‘knowledge transfer’.
This book was published as a special issue of Sport in History.
Introduction - Tony Collins 1. ‘An Excellent Means of Combining Fresh Air, Exercise and Society’ Females on the Fairways, 1890-1914 - Jane George 2. Still Going After All These Years: Text, Truth and the Racing Calendar - Joyce Kay 3. The Proto-globalisation of Horseracing 1730-1900: Anglo-American Interconnections - Mike Huggins 4. What Went Wrong with Counting? Thinking about Sport and Class in Britain and Ireland - Mike Cronin 5. Australian Sport History: From the Founding Years to Today - Daryl Adair 6. The Tyranny of Deference: Anglo-Australian Relations and Rugby Union before World War Two - Tony Collins 7. Boxers United: Trade Unionism in British Boxing in the 1930s - Matthew Taylor 8. Deeply Honoured: The Rise and Significance of the British Sporting Award, 1945-c.1970 - Dave Russell 9. ‘In a Yorkshire Like Way’: Cricket and the Construction of Regional Identity in Nineteenth Century Yorkshire - Rob Light 10. ‘Egg and Chips with the Connellys’: Remembering 1966 - Dilwyn Porter 11. Wray Vamplew: A Bibliography 1969-2008 - Richard W. Cox
Biography
Neil Carter is Senior Research Fellow at the International Centre of Sports History and Culture, De Montfort University, UK.
