Dilemmas, Maintaining “Face,” and Paranoia

The purpose of this article is to tell a different, perhaps a “truer,” story about coaches and coaching through presenting an autoethnography of the author as a dysfluent coach. The author’s tale, which depicts a typical pregame scenario, explores issues associated with maintaining “face” and others’ respect in a context characterized by uncertainty, ambiguity, and power. In addition, within the endnotes, the applicability of the storied genre to coaching research is discussed, with Goffman’s works on stigma, interaction, and impression management offered as theoretical signposts to help readers better interpret the author’s account.