Sport Coaching and an Ethic for Overcoming the Violence: The Re lation with Player as the Other

Abstract

This paper aims to show the ethical relationship between coach and player which respects the otherness of player and to explain exchanges between them required to overcome the violence in the relationship. This paper approaches the above objective in the following manner. First, based on the ideas of Levinas, this paper draws out the general framework of the ethical relationship between coach and player. Second, this paper examines what the roots of the violence in sport coaching are, and then searches for the situation that is requested to form the ethical relationship between coach and player. Finally, to realize an ethical relationship that does not result in the violence, this paper identifies what exchanges should be taking place between coach and player concretely. From the above, the following points are clarified: (1) An ethical relationship between coach and player is the relationship that coach desires the otherness of the player, not one in which the coach subsumes the otherness under his/her own comprehension. (2) This ethical relationship should be requested in the situation when the ego-ideal possessed by the coach is facing a crisis. (3) The ethic for overcoming violence is realized by the exchanges that player as a person speaks to coach, then coach puts the ego-ideal in question and seeks to a new path on sport coaching from receiving the language spoken by player. Therefore, according to this paper, what is called for overcoming the violence is the establishment of a relationship in which coach desires the language of player as the other, in the situation when coach’s ego-ideal is facing a crisis.