Abstract
ABSTRACTPurpose: The purpose of this study was to explore how an exclusive sample of women’s national football team coaches described how they implement careful coaching while facing social and organizational pressure to win medals. Method: To consider coaches’ negotiations, we drew on Noddings’ concept of caring. Using an interpretive research paradigm, we conducted in-depth interviews with five Swedish women’s national football team coaches. An abductive approach was used to simultaneously process the theoretical framework of “ethics of care” and the empirical data. Results: The coaches unanimously adopted a holistic perspective to coaching. The coaching strategies they described included promoting players’ development, well-being, and sustainable elite performance; listening to the players’ voices and engaging in dialogue; and creating a positive environment and promoting fair play. Conclusions: These findings demonstrate that the women coaches, despite performance pressure, adopt caring coaching in the form of Noddings’ pedagogical modelling, dialogue, and confirmation strategies, and provide an example of how coaches can adopt caring, holistic, and athlete-centred coaching while working at the highest level of competitive sport and achieving competitive success.
Highlights
Coaches at the upper echelons of sport are responsible for serving the interests of both the stakeholders they represent and the athletes they coach (e.g., Houlihan & Zheng, 2013; Sam, 2012)
These findings demonstrate that the women coaches, despite performance pressure, adopt caring coaching in the form of Noddings’ pedagogical modelling, dialogue, and confirmation strategies, and provide an example of how coaches can adopt caring, holistic, and athlete-centred coaching while working at the highest level of competitive sport and achieving competitive success
The design in this study is useful for our intention to understand how a sample of Swedish women’s national football coaches unanimously described how they carefully handle the challenges of producing competitive results while at the same time ensuring the holistic development of their athletes
Summary
Coaches at the upper echelons of sport are responsible for serving the interests of both the stakeholders they represent and the athletes they coach (e.g., Houlihan & Zheng, 2013; Sam, 2012). In most cases, this interest relates to performance enhancement, competitive results, and trophies. It is feasible to assume, for instance, that the relatively fixed demands placed on national team coaches to satisfy organizations and stakeholders influence them to adopt coaching methods that result in athletes pushing themselves beyond their physical and mental limits (Barker-Ruchti, Barker, Rynne, & Lee, 2016). Other “workplace” stressors, including public scrutiny through mainstream and social media, group dynamics, especially in team sports, and injuries, increase this athlete vulnerability (Hanton, Fletcher, & Coughlan, 2005; Johnson, 1997)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callMore From: International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
