Coaching teamwork: Team sport athletes’ and coaches’ perceptions of how coaches facilitate teamwork

Abstract

To date, research on teamwork in sport has largely focused on defining the construct and examining its relationships to emergent states and outcomes. By comparison, little is known about the antecedents (e.g., leadership) that promote teamwork behaviors in team sports. The purpose of this study was to explore what specifically sport coaches can do to develop teamwork within their teams. Using a critical realist approach, we conducted 15 semi-structured interviews with participants who competed in interdependent team sports (n = 8 athletes, n = 7 coaches). The data were thematically analyzed whereby three higher-order themes (comprising nine subthemes) were generated. The themes included (1) Crafting a teamwork recipe, (2) Come together, stay together, and (3) Maximizing teamwork in action. Specifically, coaches can facilitate teamwork by: (re)structuring selection practices, carefully considering team compositions, and encouraging role commitment (Theme 1); emphasizing coach-athlete relationships, promoting meaningful connections between teammates, and managing perceptions of favoritism (Theme 2); and crafting team-focused tactics, promoting athlete-led teamwork, and managing healthy internal competition (Theme 3). In summary, coaches appear to play an important role in facilitating teamwork. Specifically, coaches could consider looking beyond individual talent and skill during the team selection process, promoting strong bonds with their players and amongst teammates, and focusing on team-first training and execution tactics. Recommendations for future research and additional implications for those working in the applied field (e.g., coaches, sport psychologists) are also discussed. Lay summary: This study explored how team sport coaches might facilitate teamwork within their teams. Based on interviews with eight coaches and seven athletes, we identified how coaches utilize the following factors to promote teamwork: team selection, roles, coach-athlete relationships, athlete-to-athlete support, favoritism, tactical systems, athlete leadership, and internal competition.