Informing Coaches' Practices: Toward an Application of Foucault's Ethics

Progress and improvement in sport is often the result of some type of change. However, change for change sake is not always beneficial. Therefore, to be an effective 'change agent' a coach must be able to problematize his or her actions and assess why or why not a change might be needed. Accordingly, helping coaches become active problematizers is vital to the change process. Toward this end, we present in this paper our reflections as coach developers and coaches who considered how to apply Michel Foucault's understanding of ethics to make self-change a positive force for enhancing athletes' experiences. We then conclude by suggesting how coach developers might begin to incorporate Foucault's work into the development of coaches capable of producing change that matters.