Practice and communication in elite track and field competitions: Investigation of real-world coach–athlete interaction

In recent years, there has been a push for applied research that explores the nuances and complexities of real-world sporting contexts. One such nuance involves sports like track and field and swimming, where coaches and athletes regularly communicate during intermittent breaks in performance. Although research has explored athlete and coach perspectives on communication previously, the extant literature has not typically included actual coach-athlete pairs, especially in authentic environments. Therefore, the aim of this paper was to investigate the purpose, delivery, and basis of communication by coaches and athletes in real-world competitive settings. This aim was achieved through a multiple-methods approach drawing upon both real-world, elite coach–athlete interactions (via in-competition recordings) and semi-structured interviews. Participants included five elite coach–athlete pairs with experience in major international athletics championships. Results indicated that coaches and athletes use communication contextually to convey important action and psycho-emotional information. The findings further indicated, however, that the basis of communication was often implicit and organic with limited guidance provided through coach education. Going forward, there appears scope for researchers to better account for the psycho-emotional aspects of communication and for governing bodies to consider communication provision within coaching pathways.

This dataset is held in the Edinburgh DataVault, directly accessible only to authorised University of Edinburgh staff. External users may request access to a copy of the data by contacting the Principal Investigator, Contact Person or Data Manager named on this page. Requests for access will not necessarily be granted due to elite sample of coaches and athletes participating in this research. University of Edinburgh users who wish to have direct access should consult the information about retrieving data from the DataVault at: https://www.ed.ac.uk/is/research-support/datavault.