Introduction

Coaching is a social practice that cannot be understood adequately without reference to the culture and environment in which it is situated. Because they are culturally specific and constantly in flux, coaching heritages do not emerge from a single, unitary pattern of development, and many variants are created at different times and in different locations. This chapter provides an outline commentary on the development of coaching heritages in Western Europe and highlights that, while coaching in different countries was always influenced by indigenous societal and political norms, there were some commonalities in the way coaching systems developed and the means by which coaching knowledge was acquired and transmitted. The chapter considers the ways that the notion of coaches and coaching was interpreted, the primacy given to coach experience or to science, the influence of amateurism, the impact of exemplars from other cultures, in terms of both systems and the migration of individuals, and the marginalization of women coaches