Caring for Coaches - Dr Colum Cronin (Pt2) - Meaningful Sport Series

Physical Activity Researcher

Care research in sport coaching has expanded in the last few years, but so far, most studies have explored care for athletes. However, also coaches face pressures in their work and benefit from caring relationships. Too often, coaches experience low levels of well-being, lack of work-life balance, lack of support, and disengage from coaching.

In this second part of our conversation, Dr Colum Cronin gives an update on a new research project he is conducting with his colleagues on care for coaches. While the project is on-going, we get to hear some initial findings as well as Colum's thoughts on what might be some avenues for supporting the development of caring relationships in the world of sport coaching.

Towards the end of the episode, we discuss the forthcoming Special Issue on care in coaching in Sport Coaching Review. Articles within the SI, published ahead of print, include Breaking through? Exploring care in the early life of elite Swedish athletes (Kjær et al. 2022) and “It looks like he cares, but he doesn’t.”: athletes’ experiences of “good” and “bad” care in women’s football (Lewis et al., 2022). Updates on the SI and the journal can be found on Twitter @SportsCoachingR

Dr Colum Cronin is Senior Lecturer in Sport Coaching and Physical Education at Liverpool John Moores University and serves as an associate editor for Sports Coaching Review. He is the co-editor of the book Care in Sport Coaching: Pedagogical Cases (together with Kathleen Armour).

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Found the episode interesting? Our previous conversation focused on care in coaching can be accessed here.