The inducers of an elite handball coach’s emotional experience during a season abroad. A longitudinal single scase study

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Oriane Petiot, Gilles Kermarrec and Jérôme Visioli

CREAD, University of West Brittany, Brest, France 5

Citation

Petiot, O., Kermarrec, G., Visioli, J. (2026). The inducers of an elite handball coach’s emotional experience during a season abroad. A longitudinal single scase study. International Journal of Sport Psychology, 57(2), 134-159. doi:10.7352/IJSP.2026.57.134

Abstract

Elite coaches undertake intense emotional labor to navigate their high-stakes professional environment. Yet, little is known about emotional inducers (i.e.: situational cues triggering emotions in the situation experienced). This research aimed to analyze the inducers of an elite handball coach’s emotional experience during a season abroad, which was suspended following the lockdown linked to the Covid-19 pandemic. From a situational psychological approach, we collected one weekly critical incident experienced by the coach. Interviews carried out after each period in the season allowed the coach to develop his explanation of the critical incidents experienced. Based on an inductive qualitative approach, six categories of positive inducers (e.g., relationship with the players) and four categories of negative inducers (e.g., relationship with managers) were highlighted through a validated data analysis process. Four stages in the coach’s experience came to light (congruence, compensation, transformation, and break). These results emphasize the importance of considering the broader contextual factors – particularly the social system surrounding the coach – when examining emotions in elite sport coaching.

Keywords: Emotional labor, Emotional inducers, Coaching, Elite sport; Criti- cal incident; Sport psychology

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