Exploring stressors and coping among volunteer, part-time and full-time sports coaches

Abstract

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Hobby, career or vocation? Meanings in sports coaching and their implications for recruitment and retention of coaches

“…Indeed, organisations such as U.K. Sport have made substantial financial investments to develop coaches in the UK (Potts et al, 2019) where there are an estimated 3 million active coaches (Thompson & Mcilroy, 2017). North (2009) highlighted that part-time and voluntary coaches made up approximately 97% of the coaching workforce (25 and 72%, respectively) in 2009.…”

A Multi-Study Exploration of Factors That Optimize Hardiness in Sport Coaches and the Role of Reflective Practice in Facilitating Hardy Attitudes

“…Due to the exploratory nature of this study, a semi-structured interview approach was adopted (cf. Patton, 2015;Potts et al, 2018). Aligned to our philosophical position, and the notion that hardiness is situated within the context of adverse experiences (cf.…”

“…Given that the majority of the sport coaching workforce operate at sub-elite levels, researchers may wish to explore potential comparisons between elite and non-elite coach hardiness, as well as investigate whether RP profiles differ across coaches working at various levels of performance. Indeed, researchers have detailed how coaches operating at all levels experience considerable, yet varying demands (e.g., Potts et al, 2018). Such future research would, therefore, help to further understanding about how well coaches are prepared to function effectively at their respective level, and offer insights into how to better educate and support coaches to develop the attitudes associated with hardiness.…”

“…Sports coaching has become widely recognized as an inherently stressful profession in which individuals encounter a range of organizational, competitive, and personal stressors due to the complex multiplicity of their role (Thelwell et al, 2008;Potts et al, 2018;Cropley et al, 2020b). Couple this with (amongst many other factors) increasing internal and external pressures to perform (McNeill et al, 2018), long working hours (Knight et al, 2013), the volatile nature of the sport environment (Hill and Sotiriadou, 2016), increased scrutiny (Fletcher and Scott, 2010), and high levels of job insecurity (Carson et al, 2019), it is unsurprising that coaches may experience reduced performance effectiveness (cf.…”

“…Moreover, this ongoing process is moderated by a range of personal (e.g., trait anxiety) and situational (e.g., social support) characteristics (Fletcher and Scott, 2010;Olusoga et al, 2012). While a number of recent investigations have examined the stressors encountered by coaches (e.g., Potts et al, 2018), coaches' appraisals and coping (e.g., Didymus, 2017), and the implications of these on coaches' well-being (e.g., Norris et al, 2017), little attention has been devoted to understanding the role of the personal and situational characteristics that moderate the stress process (Knight et al, 2013). One such personal characteristic, which may distinguish between those who do and do not cope well in demanding situations, is hardiness (Fletcher and Scott, 2010;Mazerolle et al, 2018;Bartone and Homish, 2020).…”