A Coach’s Way: A Life-Affirming Organic Model Created in Sport
in Women in Sport and Physical Activity JournalThis article explores a women’s way of coaching and being in sport that existed prior to Title IX. It considers a shift from an organic to a mechanistic coaching approach. An alternative model based on the concept of organicism and underlying principles of relational power, life-affirming actions, and inclusiveness of all beings is presented. This model emerged from three sources: (a) personal experience; (b) dissertation research interviews with former athletes of Eleanor Snell, who coached at Ursinus College from 1931 to 1972; and (c) the literatures of systems theory, systemic thinking, and Chinese philosophy. The life-affirming organic model re-visions sport, where sport is an important site for transformation not only of our individual selves but also of our human cultures.
Robin G. Cash Department of Sociology Kenyon College Gambier, Ohio 43022. Email: cashr@kenyon.edu
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