Gender and Performance in Sports Coaching: Exploring an Intangible Cultural Heritage by Jenna Eady & Jodie Neville

Article Information

Published: 2023
Type: brief communication (2,000 – 5,000 words)
Author(s): Jenna Eady & Jodie Neville
ISSN: 2977-3954
DOI: https://doi.org/10.60844/0y0t-0v18
Download: Full Article

Abstract

The dominance of men in sports coaching roles is widely reported and discussed (LaVoi, 2018; Norman, 2021). Contemporary sporting literature, however, has not explored how performative methodologies can contribute to an understanding of this gender disparity in sports coaching. By using one postgraduate researcher’s knowledge of performative methods and the other’s in sports coaching history, as well as their shared interest in gender studies, original insights on the interplay between traditional coaching gestures and gender stereotypes can be made. Coaching is a good example of a social practice that can be regarded as an intangible cultural heritage (ICH) which has been shaped and preserved by dominant male groups within British sporting contexts. For example, coaches will have their own forms of folk speech, depending on what sport or country they are in. Coaches also have their own rituals and customs that they adopt and encourage in others, such as group huddles or taking the knee. A fist bump, shaking hands, applauding, cheering, badge pointing, or waving can all be observed as traditional gestures or postures used by coaches. Performing these gestures and postures will allow an assessment to be made on how this research contributes to three main areas. Firstly, it will exemplify the social practice ICH features of coaching. Secondly, it will indicate the repertoires of inclusion and exclusion embedded in these features of sports coaching. Finally, by using gender as an organising principle, it will produce reflections on the experience of performing a coaching role from different perspectives. This article is an extended version of an award winning presentation script delivered at the 10th Annual Postgraduate Arts and Humanities Centre Symposium at Manchester Metropolitan University. It is an exploration of not only what is communicated in the academy, but the ways in which it is communicated.

Keywords

Sports Coaching; History; Gender; Curatorial; Performance; Gestures

Biography

Jenna Eady – MA Contemporary Curating, Department of Arts and Humanities. As a Curator/Researcher in Manchester, UK, my passions include contemporary performance art, video art, and photography. I am interested in discursive frameworks, the performative methodology of curating, public platforms of display and how these tools can facilitate critical enquiry into my chosen themes. My socially engaged practice is currently undertaking research regarding representations of cultural “otherness” within the UK.

Jodie Neville is a PhD researcher on an Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded Collaborative Doctoral Project. The project seeks to understand how societal constraints on female participation in sports coaching manifested themselves during the twentieth century, how women negotiated these constraints, and what the implications are for aspiring female sports coaches today. The project centres on a collaboration between Manchester Metropolitan University (Manchester Met) and the National Football Museum (NFM) in Manchester. Jodie is jointly based within Manchester Met’s History Research Centre and the NFM, where she has been integrated into the museum’s curatorial team. The NFM provides mentorship and support by providing access to specialised training, internal documents, and curatorial and audience expertise. Having only started this project in October 2022 Jodie has already written a blog post for the Manchester Centre for Public History and Heritage which introduced the project and its aims as well as two articles on the first female golf professionals for the online magazine Playing Pasts. Jodie has ambitions to co-author a paper for The International Journal of the History of Sport in the coming months on women’s contributions to sports coaching at the end of the long nineteenth century.