This article draws on the theoretical concepts of Pierre Bourdieu to provide an explanatory account of how socialisation and the hidden curriculum within coaching practice contribute toward the formation of social identities and powerful schemes of internalised dispositions. Drawing on a 10 month ethnography within professional football, the research found that day-to-day practice was ideologically laden and served the production, reproduction and incorporation of socialised agents into the prevailing 'legitimate' culture. The legitimacies embodied included respect for authority, hierarchical awareness, control, obedience, collectivity, work ethic and winning.