Introduction

This book breaks new ground. It provides the first systematic study of sports coaching which has ethics at its core. The book does not simply discuss ethical issues that might surface in the practice of sports coaching, but uniquely, it examines the very nature of sports coaching using the academic discipline of ethics. It brings together the original thoughts of leading international scholars in the field of sports ethics and its parent discipline of the philosophy of sport. In addition to their recognized academic expertise, these contributors bring a depth of sport-specific experience and understanding to bear on their chosen topics. The result is a collection of theoretically informed essays on sports coaching ethics illustrated by a range of practitioner-based examples. For the first time, this book offers a concentrated analysis of coaching as an inherently ethical enterprise and interrogates a range of key moral issues implicated therein.