Balancing performance-based expectations with a holistic perspective on coaching : a qualitative study of Swedish women's national football team coaches' practice experiences

• Purpose: 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.

Subject headings

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap -- Idrottsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Sport and Fitness Sciences (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap -- Tvärvetenskapliga studier inom samhällsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences -- Social Sciences Interdisciplinary (hsv//eng)

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Caring

coaching

football

holistic perspective

national team

women

athlete

athletic performance

attitude

competitive behavior

empathy

female

human

mentoring

qualitative research

questionnaire

soccer

social environment

Sweden

teaching

Athletes

Humans

Surveys and Questionnaires

Caring

coaching

holistic perspective

football

national team

women

elite sport

phronesis

care

Public

Environmental & Occupational Health

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)