Professionalism and the adventure sports coach

This chapter concerns itself with professionalism and its impact on the adventure sports coach in a leadership, guiding or coaching role. As discussed earlier in the book, the adventure sports coach may fulfil several roles within a given organization. Therefore,with specific reference to the concept of professionalism we use the terms guide, instruct, leadership and coaching as interchangeable and that, for simplicity,we refer to the outdoor sector to cover all contexts and activities related to the adventure sports coach. This chapter seeks, not so much to provide answers, as we would suggest that there are few definitive ones to give, but rather to raise important points and ask pertinent questions about what it means to be an outdoor professional. In doing so, we hope to offer a current assessment of where we are as a sector in terms of imbedding professional practice into our delivery and also to indicate the level of confidence we may have with regard to claims to be professional.