Becoming a Good Coach

This chapter is an updated version of our contribution from 2010. In the original version of the chapter, we explored phronesis as a virtuous character trait of good coaches. In other words, we understood “good” in the sense of what is morally right. Drawing on the available literature in the area at the time, we argued that coaching practice is a complex domain involving scientific knowledge, technological innovation, and human relationships. One way of handling the complexities in the coaching situation that we described is to break down the coaching process into manageable goals, performance targets, and work tasks for the athletes. Our aim in the original contribution was to conceptualise the ethically challenging aspects of coaches’ work by drawing on the Aristotelian notion of phronesis. The aim of this chapter is to provide a detailed analysis of the Aristotelian notion of phronesis as it is relevant to coaching practice. That part of the chapter is a slightly edited version of our previous chapter. While we did address the question of how phronesis can be learned or developed in the previous version, we realise that more needs to be said about this topic. Therefore, the last part of the chapter aims to bring new insights into that topic.