To Örebro University

oru.seÖrebro University Publications
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
'Science Says': Swedish Sports Coaching and Science During the Twentieth Century
Malmö university, Malmö, Sweden.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-2914-4476
Örebro University, School of Health Sciences. (Social science in sport research group (SIS-RG))ORCID iD: 0000-0002-1983-6591
2021 (English)In: Sports Coaching in Europe: Cultural Histories / [ed] Dave Day, London: Routledge, 2021, p. 56-75Chapter in book (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

On 29 June 1958, Sweden played Brazil in the World Cup final in men’s football in Stockholm. Even though the Swedish team lost 5–2 the players were celebrated as heroes. However, the Swedish Football Association (SvFF) argued that players in Swedish clubs needed to train more and differently. What followed was a process of professionalization and scientization of Swedish coaching, a process that had begun a decade earlier in endurance sports. Soon, physiologists were involved with testing, evaluating and monitoring athletes, designing training setups, and even team selection. They used the latest scientific theories, technologies, and tests to make training and coaching less about experience and more about comparability and evidentiality. This ‘scientific turn’ in Swedish sports from the 1950s onwards was part of a larger rationalization of Swedish society in which science in general, particularly physiology, played a major role. It co-evolved with a growing participation by women and a reinterpretation of gender roles. We argue that, while traditionally based on experiential knowledge and personal experience, Swedish coaching went through a sportification process that made it more specialized, rationalized, and professionalized. In the end, it became an ideal to listen to what science says.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
London: Routledge, 2021. p. 56-75
Series
Routledge Research in Sports History
Keywords [en]
Sportification, Specialization, Sweden, Coaching, Sport Science
National Category
History Sport and Fitness Sciences
Research subject
History; Sports Science
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-96907DOI: 10.4324/9781003088448ISBN: 9780367542689 (print)ISBN: 9781003088448 (electronic)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:oru-96907DiVA, id: diva2:1633686
Available from: 2022-01-31 Created: 2022-01-31 Last updated: 2025-02-11Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Other links

Publisher's full text

Authority records

Svensson, Robert

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Svensson, DanielSvensson, Robert
By organisation
School of Health Sciences
HistorySport and Fitness Sciences

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

doi
isbn
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
isbn
urn-nbn
Total: 31 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf