Coach-athlete dyad: Perception of psychosocial and environmental factors in the relationship - A case study

Abstract

In this study, we intended to identify psychosocial and environmental factors common to both, coach and athlete, in a situation of relational dyad, perceived by themselves, in a context of individual sport. In the same way, to perceive which factors were considered most preponderant in the sports performance by the two elements of the dyad. Two interviews were conducted individually, to both coach and athlete, and identified the variables present in this dyad by the coding of the interviews. In the analysis of the collected data, the method used was qualitative. Ten common factors were identified: environment, confidence, empathy, mental exigency, motivation, objectives, perfectionism, resilience, overcoming and values. However, there were significant differences in the relative frequencies of each of these factors, depending on whether they came from the coach or the athlete. It was concluded that, despite the existence of factors common to both subjects, the perception of their significance for the relationship, is not the same. The results also suggest that coaches have a significant focus on the variables of competence. On the other hand, the athletes, in addition to the competence variables, also focus on bond factors such as confidence, or self-knowledge factors such as overcoming.