Under the historiographical radar: women as sports coaches.

Coaching researchers from different academic disciplines have been occupied for years in exploring the constraints and barriers that women face when entering the coaching profession, not only at the level of individual agency but also at a structural and socio-cultural level. This paper reprises some of their findings and recognises that historians of coaching have made little contribution to the debate, apart from confirming the critical part played by networks, community, and experience in facilitating coaching careers. While the existing historiography has focused almost exclusively on male coaching practices and on a masculine orientated cultural heritage of coaching, attention is drawn here to the way in which the limited literature on women in coaching has been the result of adopting a very narrow definition of 'coach'. This introduction to the special issue of Sport in History highlights the range of terms historically used by women in coaching-related roles and the way in which women transcended social constraints to become coaches. Although the 'herstory' of sports coaching is only just being uncovered, these contributions represent an important stimulus to the further development of the topic and the paper concludes by highlighting how historians of women's coaching will be taking their research forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]