Archive: J Denison & J P. Mills, Planning for distance running: coaching with Foucault (2014)

Jim Denison & Joseph P. Mills (2014) Planning for distance running: coaching with Foucault, Sports Coaching Review, 3:1, 1-16,
DOI: 10.1080/21640629.2014.953005

Abstract
Coaching and sport scholars working from a Foucauldian perspective (e.g. Barker-Ruchti & Tinning, 2010; Denison, 2007; Heikkala, 1993; Johns & Johns, 2000) have demonstrated how overly controlling and disciplining training practices can objectify athletes’ bodies and, as a result, limit and constrain their development. In this paper, we draw on Michel Foucault’s (1995) analysis of anatomo-political power, or disciplinary power, to illustrate how distance running coaches could begin to problematize the effects that the use of various disciplinary techniques and instruments can have on athletes’ bodies through their everyday planning practices.

Keywords
coaching, planning, Foucault, discipline, docility