CHAPTER 1.-OVERVIEW AND KEY CONCEPTS

Introduction

In the modern world sports are ever present. We participate in them sometimes willingly and sometimes not so willingly. We attend contests in person. We watch them from the comfort of our homes. We read about them in the mass media. The world of sport impinges on our consciousness from cradle to grave. Sports affect the values we learn, the feelings of identity with the "team," the desire to express joy, sorrow, or aggression. People learn to want to participate in physical activity, to compete, to gamble, or to get high from "doing." Some individuals may simply wish to dabble, others to become professionals, eventually emulating one of the "greats" either as an athlete or a coach. Some may wish to avoid sports altogether. Each of these effects of sports participation are topics which capture the attention of students of sport.

Relatively little discussion is found on the social world of the coach despite a growing body of literature on entry into sport by athletes and participants, on the study of kinds of social learning they experience, and on the types of roles that athletes play in the world of sport. Much of what sport sociologists know of the coaching profession rests on the experiences of football, basketball, baseball, and hockey coaches; the social world of major sports marked by high media visibility and money-making enterprises (Massengale 1974; Sabock 1973; Sage 1974; 1975b; and 1980). The social world of the coach in low visibility sports and non-money-making sports usually receives little attention.

The social world of the college swim coach has been by-passed as a topic of study. This book moves to compensate for this oversight. Various aspects of learning the roles of the swim coach are examined as an individual moves through the progression from volunteer coach, to assistant coach, and finally, to head coach. The stages of learning in coaching, an "apprenticeship" occupation, are also identified. Issues involved in the hiring of a coach are discussed. The major role clusters of organization and communication are reviewed. Finally, particular attention is paid to how the coach relates to key people in the athletic department, sports community, and college and university as well as others outside the world of sport.

Coaching as a career

Entry and stages of socialization.- Coaching is a job. It involves a bundle of activities for which the individual receives remuneration (Hughes 1951). It also is a career in that the individual participates in the labor force for an identifiable period of time. The career is bounded by entry and retirement. A career has a shape--path, line or trajectory--in which performance usually is assumed to be at least in part a function of age (Glasser and Strauss 1971). Excellence in performance of job activities is rewarded not only through pay but also through esteem from fellow workers and prestige from outsiders. Generally as one ages, one gains more skills, expertise, and status.

Entry into coaching usually follows one of two major avenues: (1) individuals move from a role of primary involvement in sport as swimmer into coaching, a direct production role; or (2) move from a role of consumer, either direct or indirect into coaching. (See Loy, McPherson, and Kenyon 1978: 17-20.) Regardless of which path an individual takes in moving into coaching, once having entered the position, learning how to coach begins.

There are four stages of learning in developing a career as coach.

1. Anticipatory socialization.-This stage of learning involves the development of understandings from afar of what coaches do--how do they behave, what values are espoused, and what skills are required? For instance, does the coach convey the impression of confidence and knowledgeability of sport; use the rhetoric of the sport properly; impress one as a good manager; and present a public image as articulate and a good representative of the institution? Often these understandings are stereotypical, mythical creations of media representatives from the institution, or misperceptions based on observations made as an outsider. In some cases, these perceptions are derived while one participates in the sport.

2. Apprenticeship.-The assistant coach during an apprenticeship learns a variety of role responsibilities. These lessons serve as the basis for gaining credentials, experience, and a reputation for eventually being hired or appointed as a head coach. The neophyte must be led before becoming a leader. An individual must serve as a trainee in order to pick up the lore, myths, and skills that comprise the world of competitive swimming before becoming a head coach. Serving as an apprentice means the individual is involved in on-the-job training. Apprenticeship involves learning the basic understandings that govern practical ways of doing things in the day-to-day routine of the job. Classrooms may teach the principles underpinning activities, (physiology, principles of motor behavior, nutrition, psychology of coaching, and management theory) but becoming a successful practitioner is obtained through actual experience.

3. Institutional socialization.-Stevenson (1976b: 65-76) hypothesized that people believe that participation in college and university sports leads to the acquisition of moral values, character traits, and skills that transfer to non-sport settings. Further, he hypothesized that people believe that participation in sports facilitates getting jobs outside of sport. These products of learning through sports participation are examples of institutional socialization. Stevenson (1976a: 1-8) found that people endorsed the belief that sport is an arena in which moral training occurs, but did not see participation in sport as helpful in obtaining a job in medicine, law, or business. Stevenson (1976b: 65-76) in passing suggested that the transferability of values and skills probably is more readily accomplished in moves between like situations (sport to sport settings). After all, analogues are more apt to be recognized in circumstances where past experiences are repeated rather than in new and strange settings.

People presume that a swimmer or a coach who is a participant in a particular program will acquire skills as well as some of the philosophy of the program. They assume that both technical and moral training occur in any program, but that certain programs are more meritorious than others as places for the apprentice to pick up new techniques and principles of organization, especially if the programs are successful. A survey of coaches asking them to identify which programs they would recommend to an apprentice no doubt would quickly reveal the pecking order among institutions.

People inside and outside of the world of sport--and especially the swimming community--take for granted that the apprentice will acquire a body of technical skills. More problematic is the presumption that a particular set of values has been learned. People inside of the world of sport and swimming when interacting with "alumni of particular programs" take these "learned values" as hypothetical traits to be quickly verified as present or absent. People are generally quicker to "read" a particular "attitude" as present or absent from the other person's character and slower to "reject" the other's claim of "expertise." Persons holding credentials or possessing a reputation are provided with an additional layer of protection from possible devaluation. After all, there is a professional organization of coaches that legitimizes the claim of the individual. After having served as an apprentice and having begun to build a reputation as a coach the individual seeks to become a head coach.

4. Professionalization.-In this stage the individual develops competency as a head coach with the ability to assume full responsibilities for organizing and administrating a program. Along with the position and its associated prestige go the risks of failure and loss of job. Those who have worked as a coach and experienced the pressures and frustration may be accepted by other members of the coaching community. Once having coached, accreditation may be applied for as a member of the American Swim Coaches Association (ASCA).

Certification and accountability.- Coaching, like many other occupations in which a greater part of the body of knowledge is accumulated through on-the-job experience and a lesser part through formal education and clinics, faces the problems of defining who is a professional, handling certification, and fixing accountability. Coaches claim a mastery over a body of knowledge that others do not necessarily have. They also claim expertise in the application of that knowledge and the teaching of certain skills. They expect that people both inside and outside of the swimming community accept their identity as "coach." Further, coaches expect their actions to be evaluated by peers and outsiders, accruing esteem from their peers and prestige from outsiders for honors earned and misfortunes suffered.

A classic strategy used by people in an occupation to gain professional identity is to set up a professional organization, institute a system of credentials, and require the membership to acquire certification. In 1984, U.S. Swimming directed that a certification program be outlined. It was developed in February 1985, approved by the ASCA in April 1985, accepted applications for membership and accreditation as of October 1985, and became officially installed as a system on January 1, 1986. All U.S. Swimming coaches will require membership and accreditation after January 1, 1988. After that date, anyone who holds a membership card is, from the stance of the ASCA, "licensed" to coach. (Should these credentials be tested and upheld in a court of law, all the trappings of a profession will have been acquired.)

According to ASCA, "The goal of the certification program is: to provide a nationally recognized method of identifying professionally prepared swimming coaches" (ASCA 1985: 1). By delineating standards for knowledge mastered and experience gained, principles of inclusion and exclusion are fixed for entry into a membership of professional coaches. Level of achievement, degree of knowledge, and extent of experience provide three ranking systems for assigning levels of professional esteem. In short, certification defines who is a coach, creates a structure for coaching, and provides a ladder for professional advancement (ASCA 1985: 2). Certification is also a standard by which performance may be judged and accountability assigned. (For a definition of accountability, see Betz 1981.) On the one hand, certification establishes standards for employment. Employers can identify the "type of coach" they want to hire. Employers can obtain employment records and a verification of credentials from the ASCA national office in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Coaches can use the ASCA employment service in looking for jobs. Credentials also may be used as evidence of career development and as a basis for arguing for pay raises (Anselmi 1986:25). On the other hand, certification may be taken as proof of expertise when assigning risks of insurability or proving negligence and incompetency in legal actions. For instance, after January 1988, coaches are expected to take the Red Cross Coaches Safety Training Program every 3 years and re-validate CPR training annually.

The ASCA credentials system evaluates three areas of behavior. First is achievement. The coaching record is judged by the performance of individual swimmers. Did any swimmers earn the position of High School All-American, Prep-School All-American, YMCA All-American, NCAA II or III All-American, Junior College All-American, NAIA All-American, U.S. Swimming Junior National Qualifier, U.S. Swimming Top 16 National Age Grouper, Senior US Swimming Qualifier or NCAA I Qualifier? Has the coach satisfied requirements for making the "international trip list?"

Second is education. The coach's academic record is reviewed. Formal course work is evaluated by looking at the credit hours taken and the nature of degrees earned (sport-focused, sport-related, or general education). Clinics attended are judged for the calibre of instruction (the instructors' certifications and ASCA recognized expertise, the duration of each session, and whether the clinic is ASCA sanctioned).

Third is experience. The coach's on-the-job experience as an intern, assistant coach, and head coach is reviewed.

Certification reports two items: (1) level of achievement-ranked levels 1 through 5--lowest to highest; and (2) total units--which combines units awarded for education and for experience. The actual calculation of units for each of these areas of activity is far too complicated to present here. (See the finals 1985 for the details. Interestingly, the Canadians first used a certification process and a standardized examination to establish levels of competency.) The ASCA, upon completing the certification process, sends a certificate and identification card to each registered coach. The certificate can be mounted as a plaque and publicly displayed or filed depending on the whims of the coach. For those who display the plaque, it becomes a statement of progress as validated by one's peers, part of one's role identity. Certificates, awards, and photographs of dignitaries with inscriptions addressed to the coach that bedeck the coach's office walls confirm the individual's self image as "coach" and verify for any visitor that a larger audience of notables inside the social world of sport and among the public at large recognize the coach and his/her feats accomplished. As the number of mementos increase and more wall space is used, the coach's public image is expanded and enhanced. This practice is so ingrained among coaches that visitors and athletes expect the display of such trappings of office. If a coach chooses not to follow this custom, the visitors and athletes may assume something is amiss, wonder about his/her credentials and the amount of experience. Certificates and memorabilia may be collected in anticipation of one's later years after leaving the world of sport; collecting is important to the creation of a "post-self" (Schmitt and Leonard 1986).

Role identity.- A role identity is "the character ...that an individual devises ...as an occupant of a particular social position...." [It is the] ..." imaginative view of himself as he likes to think of himself being and acting as an occupant of that position" (McCall and Simmons 1978: 65). Thus, an individual who occupies the position of coach may see the job as work with all its trappings (source of money, prestige, worth to others, and meaning for being an individual) or as avocation seen as something other than work, separate, subordinate, pleasurable, and meaningful. Although the position may be seen as either work or avocation, elements of both may be important to the individual in shaping a role-identity. Where work elements predominate, the role identity will probably emphasize professionalism. Alternatively, where avocational elements hold sway, the role identity will probably stress leisure. For the assistant who views apprenticeship as a stepping stone to the position of head coach, the job probably is accepted as part of an emerging professional role-identity. For the volunteer who is coaching for fun or to escape from the pressures of work, the position probably enriches the role-identity of the "serious amateur"--the devotee (Stebbins 1979). In some instances, a professional identity may be forsaken due to job burn-out, failure, or perhaps personal crises such as divorce or loss of a loved one that cause one to re-think what a job means.

Post-self.- Some social psychologists suggest that athletes and, by extension, coaches see their acts, actions, or accomplishments as ways to create a "post-self...the concern of a person with the presentation of his or her self in history" (Schmitt and Leonard 1986: 1088). In everyday terms coaches want to "leave a mark," "want to be remembered," "want to gain a bit of immortality," or "go down in history," for a winning tradition, winning a championship, for coaching the Olympic team, making the Hall of Fame, or less dramatically, teaching skills or character to their athletes. Apparently, participation simply is not enough. One's present actions anticipate a future that will recall an important past. The coach as a historical figure becomes an identity against which future coaches judge themselves. Deeds become standards to emulate or surpass. For the coach creating this future identity, current deeds are recognized with prizes, trophies, and certifications. These are the memorabilia over which participants can reminisce and the standards to which neophytes can aspire. Coaches want to be viewed and recalled favorably as heroes and heroines, not goats. The image that they create is not only a product of their own actions, but the collective evaluation of the athletes and other key people in the sports community. The present generation of sports fans and personalities validates or vilifies the feat, records it, and enshrines it for future generations to worship or mock.

The formation and recognition of role identity--past, present or future--becomes a conscious issue only in those fleeting moments of reflection and recollection. Similarly, coaches do not currently appear to be overly concerned with the issue of credentials, since the system is just beginning. Credentials in effect are based on what the elite coaches have accomplished in their careers. Their accomplishments serve as the standards for others to follow. The longer the credentials system is in operation, the greater the number of coaches who will use certifications levels as another item in their resumes. Coaches will recognize on which of the three measures they are strong or weak, and no doubt will move to broaden their base of professional expertise.

Currently those individuals who are in the swimming community or are knowledgeable about it are able to identify coaches within their network who have reputations as good age group, YMCA, or collegiate coaches. Beyond the swimming community coaching visibility is quite limited. At best some people may be able to identify some of the elite coaches who have headed or served on an Olympic team, or won an NCAA championship, or are affiliated with the local school in the community. Whether evaluators are insiders to the swimming community or outsiders, they typically rely on the traditional criteria for a job: education, experience, and record to date. They also evaluate the kinds of experiences coaches have had, looking at the programs in which they trained or assumed major responsibilities as athlete or coach. (Incidentally, unless an athletic director, an insider to sport, has had experience in coaching swimming or has developed a feeling for the problems of coaches over the years, the athletic director [AD] probably will use these criteria in evaluating job applicants for the head coaching job or in deciding to keep the head coach as part of the coaching staff.)

Other concepts.- Professional legitimacy for a coach is based on formal and informal criteria. Formal criteria include educational experience and credentials. Informal criteria include the reputation of the coach and the program with which an individual served an apprenticeship as well as the individual's own reputation. Both sets of criteria come into play when the athletic director hires a new head coach or when the head coach adds volunteers or paid assistants to the coaching staff. The formal and informal criteria that usually appear in job descriptions are called job markers.

The coach occupies a social position. Attached to that position is a social script of how the coach is expected to behave or act. This script is called a role definition, the behavior as played out is the role performance.

Most positions have multiple roles. Combinations of skills, tasks, activities, and responsibilities that must be fulfilled by a job holder are called role clusters. Coaching is no different. One important role cluster for the coach is the organizational role which involves technical and managerial skills. Acting in a managerial capacity, the coach must administer personnel who are part of the program, must plan and organize the program's agenda, must handle the budget, and must oversee the clerical work. How the managerial responsibilities are organized and executed is dependent on the coach's technical knowledge and skills acquired through formal education and service as an apprentice. A second important role cluster is the communication role. Here the coach should be sensitive to styles of communication (recognizing that both verbal and non-verbal parts of the message influence the efficacy of one's performance) as well as the settings where coach and swimmer interact.

The head coach as organizer and communicator will effect a particular decision making style which ranges from autocratic--where the coach makes all the decisions, through delegative--where the coach assigns a decision to a subordinate and acts to implement that decision, to consultative--where the coach shares problems with swimmers and staff, seeking input, then making a decision and participative--where the coach talks to all parties collectively and individually and everyone votes. Which style is selected by a coach and how much control one wishes to exercise are important factors in structuring the program and shaping relationships between the coaching staff and athletes. The head coach's approach to the program will depend on the philosophy of management, whether it is product-oriented--trying to produce as many elite swimmers as possible or person-oriented--trying to produce a swimmer who is mechanically sound and seeks to develop the whole personality. How the head coach chooses to run a program is reflected in the process of recruiting. Ideally, recruiting should be sensitive to producing a group of individuals where there is compatibility between coach and athletes, or between coaching staff and athletes.

The coach's style of leadership also affects social relationships with other individuals inside and outside of the sport community. Within the sport community the coach's role definitions and performances are examined based on interacting with the individuals inside the athletic department and outside of it. Insiders include the AD, sports information representatives, team physician, the trainer, aquatics director, academic advisor, and secretarial and janitorial staff. Additional insiders are other coaches, adult and student boosters, other teams on campus, parents, and representatives from the conference, NCAA, and ASCA.

Since coaches move from one organizational setting to another and each setting involves a variety of possible social relationships, it is easy to imagine that an actor may occupy two or more positions whose role definitions, when juxtaposed make contradictory demands. When a coach is caught in a set of cross-pressures acting in the roles of coach and family person or coach and teacher/professor, this is role conflict. In some circumstances an actor feels increased pressure in fulfilling the expectations attached to a role. This is called role strain. For instance, a coach may face pressures from others (the faculty, administration, students, or athlete) to perform better; this is role strain.

Various strategies for handling role strain and role conflict often are employed to maintain a sense of balance in everyday life. These various concepts and issues will be addressed as the social world and roles of collegiate swim coach are explored in this book.

Summary

--Sports in the modern world are ubiquitous. Despite the coverage given to coaches in major sports, little is known of the social world and roles of the collegiate swim coach, as a mentor in a minor sport.

--Coaching is a career. Learning to become a coach involves four steps--anticipatory socialization, apprenticeship, institutional socialization, and professionalization.

--A coach's role identity is tied to a personal orientation toward the activity, viewed as either work or leisure. How the coach presents himself or herself to others depends on how one envisions a post-self.

--Getting hired demands that a coach possess the appropriate credentials. Once hired the coach is administrator and teacher who must establish a viable set of social relationships with people inside and outside of the world of sport. These ties often involve role strain or role conflict with which the coach must learn to cope or eventually be forced to withdraw from the job.

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. What is a career? What are the stages of socialization into a career?

2. What is certification? What organization certifies the coach's credentials? What are the three areas of behavior evaluated? How does the organization assist a coach once certified?

3. What is meant by role identity? Do you see coaching as a professional activity or a leisure time activity?

4. What is meant by the term post-self? What kind of record or legacy do you want to leave for future generations?

NOTES

1. According to Loy et al. (1978: 17-20) primary involvement involves "actual participation in the game or sport as a player or contestant;" "secondary involvement refers to all other forms of participation." This latter category is subdivided into direct producers who "perform tasks that have direct consequences for the outcome of the game" and indirect producers "whose activities have no direct consequences for the outcome of a sport event." Consumers are differentiated as direct--attenders of the event, and indirect--viewers of media.

2. Unfortunately, to date there are no systematic studies of job mobility of swimming coaches. Various combinations of characteristics (which appear below) should be investigated in order to ascertain the backgrounds of college swimming coaches. There are a number of paths possible to follow in becoming a head coach. What the weights are among the other characteristics has yet to be ascertained. Possible background characteristics linked to entry into college coaching include:

Swimming background (in addition to competitive swimming, water polo, and synchronized swimming) 1. Yes as:

a. Age-grouper--YMCA and/or U.S. Swimming

b. High school or Prep school

c. Junior college

d. College/University

e. National/International

f. Masters

g. Professional, marathons

2. No

Formal education

1. Attended college, but did not finish

2. Bachelor's

3. Master's

4. Doctorate

Major

1. Physical education

2. Other

Assistant experience

1. Yes as:

a. Volunteer

b. Paid-part time

c. Paid-full time

2. No

Coaching experience

1. Works in categories 1a, 1b, or 1f

2. Split assignment--coach in sport other than swimming/and coach in swimming

3. Coach/teacher or professor

3. I suspect that stereotypes are developed while one occupies roles other than one of primary involvement. These stereotypes tend to be based on understandings of what coaches do in the money-making and high media visibility sports, like football, baseball, and basketball, rather than the actions of coaches in non-money-making, low visibility minor sports. Stereotypes are formed by watching the coaches actions while attending a contest, watching on television, or serving as an official. I assume that people assign a combination of traits to coaches which remains relatively constant regardless of the sport. These traits might include the ability to get along with people, to motivate, to maintain control, or to evaluate skill levels of athletes.

4. Interestingly, once an individual's expertise is questioned, there is a tendency to devalue other aspects of character. If important attitude traits are read as missing and these traits are taken as essential to the character of the individual, then others may actively challenge one's claims of expertise whether warranted or not. To prevent an individual from occupying an office, others simply need raise questions on the suitability of the attitudes espoused and/or alleged competency. Whether these queries are vaguely or sharply put, matters little. The fact they are raised at all, jeopardizes the acceptability of the individual for the job. Incidentally, character assassination becomes a device for wresting control from an individual in a position of authority. Once the moral character of the office holder has been devalued, that individual has no legitimate claim for remaining in office (See Goffman 1967).

5. Some commentators claim that evaluation is mandatory given the nature of competition in two-party settings. Dual meets are zero-sum games, one party wins, the other loses. Winning equals success, losing is failure. Success is lauded, failure gains ignominy.

6. One strategy of coping with stress is to substitute a leisure identity, using recreation, entertainment, or sport as a crutch to get through the crisis. Occasionally the leisure identity may get transformed into a new professional identity (Kelly 1983).

TITLE PAGE
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE
CHAPTER 1 OVERVIEW AND KEY CONCEPTS
CHAPTER 2 THE ASSISTANT COACHES
CHAPTER 3 HIRING THE HEAD COACH
CHAPTER 4 THE HEAD COACH'S ORGANIZATIONAL AND COMMUNICATION ROLES
CHAPTER 5 THE PROBLEM OF CONTROL AND TURNOVER
CHAPTER 6 RECRUITING: STEPS AND STRATEGIES
CHAPTER 7 HEAD COACH AND KEY PEOPLE AND ORGANIZATIONS INSIDE THE SPORTS COMMUNITY
CHAPTER 8 SPECIAL PROBLEMS OF THE SPLIT APPOINTMENT & CHAPTER 9 SUMMARY
REFERENCES
Academic Resume