Skip to main content

The Sports Monograph

By
  I have been lucky enough to be able to collaborate in the writing of a chapter in this book, due for publication on the 31st July and available for order on Amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0956627064/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE.

My chapter is entitled 'Understanding parental influence on child athletes : from fanatical to disinterested parents'.  The chapter considers the relative power relationship of the coach, athlete and parent, and how it can affect the athlete's development.  It draws on some examples from gymnastics, both in Russia and America, as well as from other sports, and considers some of the guidelines developed by sports governing bodies to try to encourage best practice.

My co-authors (Butler, Hedge and Cunliffe) are all students on the sports management programme at the University of Central Lancashire, and the book is edited by Dr Clive Palmer.  Regular readers of this blog will recognise him as the author of the PhD thesis on gymnastics judging.  It is an eclectic collection of work that will be of interest to students of sports studies, management and coaching,  and anyone with an interest in sport.

Clive's description is as follows:

'With over 120 contributors across 60 chapters, their ages ranging from 6 months to 60 years, the Sports Monograph represents a compendium of voices; telling experiences and rich perspectives, all stimulated by personal involvement in sport, Physical Education and sports culture. Consequently, the volume has a broad remit but a common theme. This has permitted a refreshing degree of freedom for people across a wide spectrum of education to register their thoughts and feelings about physical culture as they may have experienced it. Chapters are generally of two styles; first, academic essays of sporting interest with critical and factual discussion, and second, creative stories, poems and other biographical reflections which bring to the fore the realities of sport and PE. The latter conspicuously holding up a mirror to those theorised experiences, revealing quite vividly the primacy, sensuality and emotional importance of being physically educated, but through the medium of literature.'

'
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review of Russian WAG at the 2014 World Championships

By
The Russians during a team talk in training for the World Championships.  Courtesy RGF Bronze all the way for Russia then.  Beyond the euphoria and surprise of this morning's competition there doesn't really seem to be much to write home about. I am delighted for Aliya personally that the efforts she has made to help the team have provided her with some tangible result, but the principal feeling at the end of the competition is that of relief.  As Vaitsekhovskaya said in her article last week, there were no moments of shock and awe from the Russians, and that's what will be needed if they are to compete for gold medals in Rio (translation available here ). Let's consider a timeline of the competition : before, during and after. BEFORE The promise of a return to the Worlds stage by Viktoria Komova gave Russia a feeling of optimism pre-Russia Cup.  However, Viktoria's performance at this important competition gave little reason for celebra...
43 comments
Read more

Aliya Mustafina - I competed as best I could

By
Picture credit RGF Aliya speaks in Sports Express http://news.sport-express.ru/2014-05-18/699607 I am very pleased with my performance today, I don't know what the judges didn't like about my bars, but I didn't ask them ... I did my routine fairly well without serious error. On beam I didn't have the start value but I received the highest execution score.  We will try to fix that before the World Championships. Considering the problems I had with my ankle, I think I performed to the optimum at the moment.  I did everything I could. I'm not  the least bit sorry that I performed here -  Very glad that I could help the team. I think my presence made things easier for the girls.   It is very difficult to compete at such serious senior competitions for the first time.  Of course they were very worried.   But I'm sure that with time they will learn to cope easily with their nerves (smiles). 
38 comments
Read more

Sport, friendship and the Olympics - reflections on McLaren report implications for Russian gymnastics

By
BREAKING - President Putin on the McLaren report -  http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/52537 What is happening today, is perhaps the end of an era.  The end of an era when sport was truly playful, and international.  Will we ever see our athletes in the same way again? The findings of the McLaren report are devastating to me.  They made me think about the value and meaning of the Olympics.  People have written whole books and volumes of books about the history of the Olympics. I am not going to try to unravel all the different strands of the history of the Olympic movement from the Ancient Greeks to the present day.  I'll just reflect here on the current values of Olympism; you can see below an extract from the new Olympic Charter , which was published in 2015. I certainly am inspired by the values of Olympism; I have followed the Olympics all my life.  But unfortunately it seems that they have been under attack, not just in Russia b...
24 comments
Read more

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more