Trust and distrust in coaching: Better understanding sporting relationships

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Aim and research questions The purpose of this study is to explore the nature of trust within sports coaching. This overarching aim will be addressed through five related research questions; 1. What can be defined as trust between and among coaches and athletes?2. By what means do athletes and coaches develop trusting relationships, and what do these look like in practice?3. How does trust/distrust manifest itself between coaches, athletes and context?4. How do individuals prove themselves to be trustworthy?5. How is the work of repair undertaken when trust is perceived to be broken?Significance of projectDuring the past decade, coaching has been increasingly depicted as situationally constructed, comprising negotiated interactions between a myriad of social actors in context (e.g., Santos, Jones & Mesquita, 2013). An aspect not yet engaged with as a part of this relational agenda, however, has been that of trust; that is, the trust (or distrust) that exists within coaching contexts which enables or inhibits the activity from working. This would appear an unwarranted neglect seeing that trust is deemed a vital function in the development of constructive relations (Purdy, Potrac & Nelson, 2013). Similarly, considering that trust forms the bedrock of all strong relationships (Reina & Reina, 2006; Hardin, 2002), an understanding of how notions related to trust and distrust, such as commitment, exchange, unpredictability, competence, trustworthiness and willingness, apply in coaching practice would appear to hold sizeable worth.The principal significance of the project lies in better grasping the temporal relational interplay between coaches, athletes and context, particularly in relation to notions of trust (Rompf, 2015). In this respect, moving beyond questions of 'what is trust?' toward 'which trust, how and when?' holds considerable value in progressing our understanding of trust as related to coaches' practice. A further value of the study, for coaches and coach educators alike, lies in deciphering aspects of the 'culture change' often desired and claimed by practitioners. Despite its prevalence, such a notion lacks a critical authenticity beyond rhetoric. Consequently, an exploration of trust per se, holds the potential to shed light on how such culture change or creation can be realistically embarked upon, developed and maintained within a given time frame.MethodologyQualitative methods within a case-study framework will be used to address the identified research questions. The case-study will comprise a team sports club being investigated over the course of a full season (circa 9-10 months), where the focus will be upon observing, interpreting and questioning coaching practice during both training and competition. The case study club will comprise at least 3-4 coaches, in addition to various support staff. The participant club will be selected using purposive sampling techniques on the basis that it meets pre-defined criteria, thus being regarded as 'information-rich' (Patton, 2002). More specifically, course of action analysis (Theureau, 1992) will be used as a means to better engage with the complexity of the non-linear phenomenon in question (i.e., the nature and development of trust in coaching relationships). Such a method can do so, as it seeks to describe and analyse the actions of agents from their point of view in relation to the characteristics of the situation. In this respect, course of action analysis is a perspective that increases the focus of analysis to include more than just the individual actor(s) or the environment, to the interaction that occurs between these elements over time. Hence, it enables the examination of the seemingly intuitive, unplanned actions of coaches and those they work with. In turn, the collected data will be transcribed, organised and analysed as soon as they have been collected, thus allowing an on-going process of interpretation and sense making.