Barefoot Flying

This book is the story of a female coach’s journey into the male dominated world of coaching rugby. The journey provides a parallel between the author’s personal and spiritual growth and her realization that coaching sport in the modern world conflicts with any awakening and development of the human spirit.The author’s personal journey of “getting to spirit” begins with a realization that ordinary men and women have been living and operating in fear and judgment for most of their lives. In the parallel world of coaching and sports, we have been operating under this same fear and judgment. There is a realization that our society has projected the ego driven “need to win” from a verb to a noun. Society has translated losing in sport to being losers in life. If the participants of sport accept this translation, they are unwittingly accepting a self-belief that encompasses much more than their ability to run, jump, kick, catch, throw, or play. The self-belief of being a loser aligns easily with the ego’s natural criticism of our entire selves.The delivery and coaching of team sport have taken the “I” out of team. Many participants have given up their own intuitive identities for acceptance into the culture of the team or group. In an overriding dedication to a sport, and to winning, athletes and coaches have accepted the world’s version of who they are as opposed to their own.The author believes that the motivation to run and play comes from our own sense of joy of participating in an activity. Unfortunately, in the course of time the emphasis has shifted from the performance to needing an outcome. We have lost why we perform in the first place: Because it gives us joy.The author describes her journey of learning by relating many stories of her experiences and how they relate to a global picture of coaching sport. The personal anecdotes and stories involve her experiences of becoming trapped in “ego,” and how to distinguish between that which is ego and that which is spirit.The book argues that if we do not change the existing culture of coaching and playing sport in our society, we will lose the opportunity to enhance people’s lives.