This book was shortlisted for the Lord Aberdare Prize 2013.
While the relationship between amateurism and sport is well documented, the impact of this ethos on the professional coaches and trainers who directed and supported elite sporting performance has been entirely overlooked. This book explores the foundations of coaching and training practices and chronicles how traditional approaches to performance preparation evolved during the nineteenth century. Drawing on primary material to uncover the life courses of coaches and their families, the author argues that approaches to...