OBJECTIVES: The aim of the present study was to explore the nature and development of the coach-athlete relationship from the perspective of both an athlete and a coach.
METHOD: Two coaches (1 female and 1 male; aged 42 and 48, respectively) and eight elite level swimmers (competing at international level; 4 females and 4 males; Mage18.6 years, SD = 3.1 years) from the Swiss National Swimming team were interviewed individually. Interviews ranged between 60 and 90 minutes and were audio-recorded. The athletes and their respective coaches had been working together for an average of 3.5 years.
RESULTS: Data analysis revealed that the coach-athlete relationship gradually evolved over time, and that three specific dimensions operated in the development of this relationship: (1) developing bonds; (2) developing co-operation; and, (3) power relation.
CONCLUSIONS: The coach-athlete relationship occurs naturally and evolves over time. This evolution in the relationship is beneficial to the athlete’s personal growth, mental strength, and athletic development. The study enhances knowledge and has theoretical and practical implications for the coach-athlete dyad

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study is to investigate if the concept of transference developed by the psychodynamic approach is relevant to understand the emotional aspects of the coach-athlete relationship.
METHOD: Participant is a 23 years old female professional tennis player. Four interviews were carried out and interpretation was made through a case study analysis.
RESULTS: The case study gives an insight into her personal history of past relationships and how transference was central in her relationships with coaches. An examination of her past relationships and her current relationships with coaches demonstrated that transference operated in repetition of unsuccessful relationships.
CONCLUSION: It is important to analyse in depth the origins of the quality and development of coach-athlete relationship. The tennis player’s stories illustrate the usefulness of taking a psychodynamic approach to understanding the lives of athletes.

Previous research has shown that a shared cognitive focus between coaches and athletes increases their empathic accuracy; their ability to accurately infer what each other are thinking and feeling. The aim of this study was to investigate the degree to which this association is mediated by an assumption of similarity; the awareness that a shared cognitive focus exists. 78 coach-athlete dyads viewed video footage that displayed discrete interactions that had naturally occurred during their own training sessions. They then reported what they remembered thinking and feeling while making inferences about what their partners’ thought and felt at each point. Empathic accuracy, shared cognitive focus, and assumed similarity were calculated by comparing the similarity of participants’ self-reports and inferences in a variety of combinations. The results indicated a significant association between shared cognitive focus and empathic accuracy for both coaches and athletes. This relationship was significantly mediated by assumed similarity. This suggests that a shared cognitive focus increases empathic accuracy and that this association is at least in part due to coaches and athletes recognizing this similarity and basing their empathic inferences upon this knowledge. These issues are discussed in relation to limitations, theory, and practical application.

This study investigated associations between the use of maintenance strategies and relationship quality within coach-athlete dyads. A total of 251 participants (146 athletes and 105 coaches) were administered the Coach-Athlete Relationship Maintenance Questionnaire (CARM-Q) to measure the use of conflict management, openness, motivational, preventative, assurance, support, and social network strategies and the Coach-Athlete Relationship Questionnaire (CART-Q) to measure closeness, commitment, and complementarity. The use of openness and social networks strategies were found to be associated with closeness. The use of motivational and support strategies were linked with commitment. Complementarity was associated with the use of the preventative strategy. Conflict management and assurance were found to play more significant roles for coaches than athletes. The implications of these findings are considered along with some suggestions for further research.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether Desirability for Control (DC) would influence young coaches’ discourse and same age athletes’ intrinsic motivation during peer tutoring interaction in a sport setting. Fifty-six participants were selected according to their high vs. low DC score. The following formula (mean ± 0.75* standard deviation) was used to match participants in similar or dissimilar DC same-sex dyads in which a coach was asked to teach a technical skill to a novice athlete. Coaches’ instructional style (support autonomy vs. control behaviors) was assessed through categorization of verbalizations and behaviors. Athletes’ intrinsic motivation and their perception of the coach’s intrinsic motivation were also assessed. Results of qualitative analyses showed that high DC coaches expressed higher scores on controlling style of instruction and demonstrations than low DC coaches. Controlling style of interactions was also higher for athletes who displayed a high DC. In addition high DC athletes were less exposed to coaches’ demonstrations and controlling verbalizations when they were paired with low DC coaches. Finally, high DC athlete - low DC coach dyads entailed the highest scores in the athletes’ intrinsic motivation and in their perceptions of the coach’s intrinsic motivation. The need to consider desire for control with regards to pairing young coaches and same-age athletes and supervising what they say and act is highlighted.

There is less knowledge about the relationship dynamics between peer leaders with their coaches and their teammates. This paper will examine the triadic peer leader-coach-athlete relationship. The 3Cs model and its accompanied CART-Questionnaire wereas employed to assess the coach-athlete, coach-peer leader, athlete-coach and athlete-peer leader relationships. The sample comprised 460 athletes and 59 coaches who participated in soccer and volleyball. Repeated measures MANOVA was were conducted to examine athletes’ and coaches’ perceptions of coach-athlete, coach-peer leader, athlete-coach and athlete-peer leader relationships. Independent sample t-tests were employed to reveal differences in perceptions between athletes and coaches. The results indicated that athletes and coaches exhibited interpersonal relationships to a different extent to coaches/athletes and peer leaders. Theoretical and practical issues of the results are discussed.

This study investigated some ideas of the reflected appraisal process (i.e., perception of how others see us) in a sport setting. The first purpose of this study was to evaluate if athletes differentiated the reflected appraisals of three significant others: coaches, parents and teammates. The second purpose of this study was to examine the relation between reflected appraisals of those three significant others and athletes’ self-perceptions in terms of competence and future progress. Participants were 368 young adult athletes (Mage = 21.13). Preliminary analyses indicated that reflected appraisals of coaches and teammates were strongly related, supporting the existence of a “generalized sport-other” (Amorose, 2003). Multiple regression analyses revealed that athletes’ self-perceptions of competence were positively predicted by reflected appraisals of sport-others and parents about competence. Moreover, athletes’ self-perceptions of future progress were positively predicted by reflected appraisals of sport-others and parents about future progress and by reflected appraisals of parents about competence, but negatively predicted by reflected appraisals of sport-others about competence. Results are discussed in terms of contributions to the understanding of how coaches, teammates and parents specifically shape athletes’ self-perceptions.

Drawing from the extant sport and social relationships literatures as well as self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985; Ryan & Deci, 2007), the purpose of this study was to examine the association of perceived coach-athlete and peer relationships with self-determined motivation for sport in young athletes. Basketball players (N = 211), aged from 12 to 15 years, completed survey measures of social relationships, including perceived quality of both the coach-athlete relationship and a best friendship on the team as well as peer acceptance. Players also completed measures of psychological needs including perceived autonomy, competence, and relatedness, and a measure tapping self-determined motivation. All three psychological needs partially mediated the association of the perceived coach-athlete relationship and self-determined motivation. Competence also partially mediated the association of perceived friendship quality and self-determined motivation. Social relationship constructs did not moderate one another in predicting psychological need perceptions. The results highlight the importance of both coaches and peers to motivation- related outcomes in youth sport and point to valuable future directions for sport-based social relationships research.