The Production of Coaching: A Critical Examination of Space in Coaching

Despite the substantial body of coaching literature that has illuminated the social and relational features of coaching, the spatial(-temporal) dimension of coaching has often been overlooked. Inspired by Henri Lefebvre’s writing of The Production of Space, this article critically explores and deconstructs the dominant sociospatial practices at Alvour Football Club (all names used are pseudonyms) and how they were co-produced and materialized by those involved in organizational life. Following an ethnographic design, the first author spent 7 months at a semiprofessional football club. The precise research methods included participant observation, informal conversation, semistructured interviews, and the use of visual methods (i.e., researcher-driven photography and auto-photography). The findings present three themes: the patterns of Alvour F.C., outlining the coaches’ vision (i.e., how the team would be expected to play), and describing the manipulations, actions, and consequences of trying to implement such ideas of how to play into practice. Taken together, the findings illuminate how the dialectical relation between spatiality and temporality in coaching was imagined and produced, which in turn demonstrated the unequal forms of power, control, and marginalization present in everyday coaching. It is hoped the study contributes to the theoretical breadth and critical analysis of the everyday practical realities of coaching, which might illuminate a spatial turn in coaching.