“I’m quite brutal sometimes, I think, but they like that honesty”: team-sport coaches’ and players’ experiences of their shared interactions

Objectives: Our aim for this study was to understand how coaches and players experience their interactions with each other and how these experiences differ and align across coach-player collectives.

Theoretical background: Research on coaching has consistently highlighted the important role that coaches play in shaping athletes’ sporting experiences (e.g., Carpentier & Mageau, 2016). Recent work has focussed on the relational dynamics between coaches and athletes (e.g., relationship quality; Jowett et al. 2017), with findings supporting a bidirectional relationship wherein athletes also shape coaches’ experiences and behaviours. The current study variously draws on the extant literature for theoretical guidance, including the interdependent nature of relationship (e.g., Jowett & Nezlek, 2012) and the collaboration principles from athlete-centred coaching (e.g., Bowles & O’Dwyer, 2020).

Methods: Five coach interviews and five focus groups (37 players) were conducted with teams competing in various team sports (e.g., basketball) and levels of play (e.g., academy). Transcripts were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2021), first within each team (i.e., coach-player collectives) and then across teams. This allowed for the identification of themes that reflect the unique dynamics and experiences within teams as well as elements that are shared across teams.

Results and discussion: Preliminary analysis showed commonality in experiences within certain teams, such as players mirroring their coach’s language (e.g., “cemented learning”) and reflecting on the reciprocal impact of their behaviours on others. Contrastingly, interaction experiences differed between collectives, most notably for communication, decision transparency, and the coach’s authority on decisions that affect players. While these findings are preliminary, there are several noteworthy implications to inform coaching practice, education, and research. This includes the relevance of the context for participants’ experience of interactions (e.g., competitive level) and the varied perspectives of players and coaches regarding these interactions. These implications will be further explored and discussed.