The ethos, practice, parallels, and intersubjectivity of elite and community sport coaching: how coaches define personal meaning, motivation, and validation

Abstract

There is a significant literature base relating to behaviors, motivations, and the principles and practices of coaches in the elite performance context, and a growing body of work related to the dispositions and practice of community coaches. However, despite acknowledgments of similarities between performance and community coaching in terms of fundamental postulates (i.e. managing groups/developing relationships), there is a dearth of research specifically exploring any deeper interface between elite-level coaching and community coaching. Given this, the present research focuses on understanding the intersectionality between both contexts as observed and disclosed by coaches with significant experience in both environments (elite-community). Semi-structured interviews with nine such coaches were undertaken, with the findings outlining the inter-related aspects of elite and community coaching, including increasing participants’ altruistic behaviors, facilitating their personal agency, and notably how the coaches saw the development of their participants as a critical part of their own motivation and self-validation