AN AUTO-ETHNOGRAPHICAL STUDY TO EXAMINE THE TRANSITION FROM A TRADITIONAL COACHING ENVIRONMENT TO AN EMPOWERING COACHING ENVIRONMENT

Abstract

This study investigated the transition from a traditional coaching environment to an empowering coaching environment. It centres on the efforts of a coach to establish an empowering atmosphere using team meetings incorporating shared leadership, and game sense coaching. Immersion within a rugby union squad for a period of three months granted the researcher access to the field. Data was collected during this period, and reflection forms the foundations to the research. The resistance and compliance to the proposed empowering strategies are discussed and unearth some thoughts regarding empowerment in practice. The research concluded that each methodology was effective tools to empower players; however empowerment was accepted on a deeper level by those players who embraced the pedagogy. Additionally, reflexive practice was adopted to understand the actions of the coach on constructing empowerment. Research findings are reported auto-ethnographically from the coach’s perspective, and portray two critical incidents which took place throughout the research.