NotesFAQContact Us
Collection
Advanced
Search Tips
Back to results
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Direct linkDirect link
ERIC Number: EJ1422648
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2024
Pages: 12
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1357-3322
EISSN: EISSN-1470-1243
On the Wisdom of "Not"-Knowing: Reflections of an Olympic Canoe Slalom Coach
Craig E. Morris; Keith Davids; Carl T. Woods
Sport, Education and Society, v29 n4 p385-396 2024
Never has the domain of sports coaching been so inundated with "secondary information." In high-performance contexts, for example, coaches are routinely presented with detailed reports specifying features about an athlete's or team's performance. Here, we question whether such detailed secondary information has led us to know "too much," obscuring what the world has to share "directly" with us. To over-rely on secondary information is to narrow in on certainty, on cause-effects that are oft-espoused through de-contextualised 'performance' tests and metrics. This indirect approach eschews opening up to uncertainty, to ongoing inquiry embedded in primary experience. For where certainty risks closures, uncertainty opens to the possibility of carrying on with and alongside others. We explore this thesis through the reflections of an Olympic Canoe Slalom coach, meandering through three sections: (i) on paying attention; (ii) on knowing better; (iii) on guidance without specification. In presenting this thesis, we hope to encourage others -- in sports coaching and beyond -- to embrace an ethos of "not"-knowing, opening up to the 'goings on' of what interests them, actively attending and directly responding with genuine care and curiosity. Indeed, while embracing an ethos of not-knowing can be unsettling, vulnerably exposing oneself to changing power relations in a world perpetually on the move, it can facilitate primary experience of the surrounding ecology. The accompanying growth of responsiveness to one's surroundings emerges from "listening" to what it has share, joining in conversation to find ways of carrying on. It is in this responsiveness, we contend, that a wisdom can be found; a "wisdom of not-knowing."
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A