Applied Coaching Research Journal Research Journal Volume 3 | Page 37

APPLIED COACHING RESEARCH JOURNAL 2019, Vol. 3
Theme 1: Culture and care
The care experienced by participants was influenced
by the social context of their football club and the
aspiration to become an ‘elite’ professional. For
instance, participants felt that the ‘elite’ context
required coaches to care by balancing nurturing
support and advocacy, with ‘challenge’:
He could put his arm around your shoulder, but he
also knew when to absolutely go berserk at you…
looking back it was right to get the best out of me.
He went out of his way to help me…he’d give me a
kick up the arse and tell me how I am too good to
stop playing…some might need a kick up the arse but
some might just need confidence or encouragement.
In a football context in which professional career
opportunities are scarce, individuals may need
both support and challenge to achieve. Knust and
Fisher (2015) report similar results that caring for
players does not always mean being ‘nice’ to them.
Rather it should focus on helping athletes achieve
what they want to achieve, by stretching them and
helping them grow outside of their ‘comfort zone,’
and allow them to realise what they are capable of
(Knust and Fisher, 2015). Thus, challenging athletes
is not necessarily poor care, because it can be done
with attention, consent and in the best interests of
individuals. Unfortunately, however, the participants
in this study also noted that coaches did not
always provide care and were perhaps neglectful,
ambivalent or selfish:
He (the coach) didn’t want me to be there. He was
just bothered about getting in a better player as my
replacement. We were just like a tick box, numbers
1–20.
She (the coach) treated everybody like a player,
rather than like an actual person… she was only
arsed about her reputation and who’d fit in the team
at that exact time.
These quotes suggest that at times, the coaches of
participants in the study did not pay attention to
or serve their athletes’ needs either by challenging
or supporting them. Rather, these coaches
appeared ambivalent to the individuals they were
coaching, and this may have been influenced by a
preoccupation with results within a performance
culture:
These findings were similar to Gearity’s (2012)
research, which used data from 16 interviews with
athletes. In that study, athletes described coaches as
uncaring, when coaches put their own needs before
the athletes and displayed unsupportive and selfish
behaviours. Thus, similar to results from this study,
good care can be both supportive or challenging but
must involve paying attention to, and serving, the
needs of the athletes at hand.
Theme 2: Dialogue was both an enabler of good
care, but also a means of disseminating uncaring
attitudes
When examining instances of good and preferred
care in this study, participants emphasised how
dialogue is key to a caring relationship. For instance:
They (the coach) actually like care about how we
feel. They even text us after training if we seem a
bit off…if you’re actually motivated, it makes you
feel like the coaches actually care about you and
would go to any length possible to make you into a
better player.
In this instance, dialogue (eg via text), is the means
that a coach used to exhibit that they cared for a
player. Moreover, the player credits this with an
improvement in motivation and performance. In
contrast, coaches who did not often communicate
with athletes were conceived as uncaring:
Normally I would be ok if I wasn’t playing if I was
getting help off the manager about what I needed
to improve…but, there was absolutely none of that.
He acted like he’d rather me not be there because it
would save him the headache of coming up with a
shit excuse not to play me.
It is important to note that communication and
in particular dialogue is not always positive. The
nature of the dialogue and indeed the relationship
between players is also key to establishing caring,
yet respectful relationships.
It’s not (communication) like every night or every
session or anything. That would be looked upon as
weird or excessive. It’s just in a caring way every
once in a while.
Thus, regular and yet appropriate dialogue appears
key to demonstrating that coaches are paying
attention to and serving the needs of athletes.
He was literally just bothered about winning each
week and that was it. If I am being really honest it
was quite a draining and demoralising thing to be a
part of.
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