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Experiential learning in professional Rugby Union

The aim of this thesis was to understand the role played by experiential learning in professional Rugby Union. Furthermore, to understand how performance information is utilised by coaches and athletes in every day practice. The thesis employed an ethnographic research method, utilising extensive participant observation, interviews, and document analysis. The thesis draws significantly on the theoretical tools of Scho??n, Bourdieu and Foucault. The key results and findings were that coaches used performance related information as a technology of self , and inculcated a hegemonic ideology. Furthermore, power relations were found and manifested inside the coach / athlete relation that reinforced the coaches spatial and temporal dominance. These dominant power relations were legitimised through the omnipresent ideology, and thus reproduced by the players and coaches. While evidence of experiential learning was documented, particularly with the academy players, the social location of practice marginalised the value of experiential learning in the coaching process. This was because performance information and the use of video based reflection were consistently used as tools of coaching authority, discipline and symbolic violence.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:617841
Date January 2013
CreatorsLloyd, Sam
PublisherLoughborough University
Source SetsEthos UK
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
Sourcehttps://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/14982

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