The coach-athlete relationship within a cross-boundary team of experts: a conceptual analysis

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ABSTRACT The coach-athlete relationship phenomenon two and a half decades ago was thought of as an uncharted territory, though today the coach-athlete relationship has a body of knowledge that grows by the day. Conceptual and empirical advancements have helped coaches and athletes to work with each other more intelligently within their sport teams, groups and organisations. While acknowledging that the coach and the athlete as a unit relationship is pivotal, this significant relationship especially in high-performance sport often operates within a complex web of other interpersonal relationships. These relationships include individuals of diverse disciplines (e.g. physiologists, psychologists, nutritionists, physiotherapists, physicians, performance analysts) and take place in various locations (i.e. within and outside an athlete’s and a coach’s organisation). The article aims to address: (a) the quality of the coach-athlete relationship and its role in athletes’ and coaches’ performance and wellbeing and (b) the diverse expertise and perspective coaches and athletes within their unit relationships leverage to accomplish challenging performance goals while ensuring positive wellbeing. The objective of this article is to open a dialogue around cross-boundary discipline performance teams and provide an impetus for concerted conceptual and empirical research activities that have significant practical impact in high-performance sport.