Caring as sustainable coaching in elite athletics: benefits and challenges

ABSTRACT

Coaches in elite sport must ensure a balance between performance, high pressure and well-being. A caring approach, based on a coach’s commitment to caring for athletes, has the potential to create such a balance and sustainability. The aim of this study was to identify coaches’ caring and problematise their ethics of care in relation to sustainability. We draw on and integrate the theoretical concept of caring into a conception of (un-) sustainable sport. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven Swedish elite athletics coaches. Results show that coaches’ ethics of care is important for creating sustainable elite athletics practices, but that caring also conflicts with sustainability thinking if coaches do not base their actions on practical wisdom and moral and ethical dilemmas.

KEYWORDS:

• Caring
• sustainability
• coaching
• practical wisdom
• athletics

Introduction

Coaching athletes at a high-performance level demands a myriad of skills. Coaches must understand the technical, tactical and physical demands of their sport (Bompa, 2009) and be capable of ensuring a balance between performance, high pressure and well-being (Côté & Gilbert, 2009; Côté, Young, North, & Duffy, 2007; Hardman & Jones, 2011; Martindale, Collins, & Daubney, 2005). An additional coaching skill which, in recent years, has received scientific attention is caring. The caring approach to coaching that scholars have developed is based on a commitment to care for athletes, rather than only care about athletes, which involves being there to help athletes by taking time to interact and using dialogue to build and maintain a relationship (Jones, 2009). Purdy and colleagues (2016), drawing on Noddings (2012) theoretical concept of the “ethics of care”, state that caring for athletes entails “creating a pedagogical climate where coaches can best meet individual needs, impart knowledge, and encourage the development of moral people” (Purdy et al., 2016, p. 220). Jones (2015) uses the concept of care(ful) actions to talk about caring as a coaching practice and describes caring as virtuous acts that require a moral sense, based on personal character and experience, which the author regards as “practical wisdom”.

If coaches can achieve ethics of care, Purdy et al. (2016) regard coaches as being able to meet the athletes’ idiosyncratic needs for well-being, health and performance. In other practice fields, such as health research, scholars defined health-related well-being as a sense of feeling physically and mentally well (Tengland, 2007). Indeed, scholars argue that coaches’ caring is about recognising the athletes’ individual needs and engaging in moral issues by creating opportunities for athletes to reflect on their behaviours (Jones, 2009; Lindgren & Barker-Ruchti, 2017). By including caring about ethical principles such as strategies of listening to the athletes’ voices, taking time to interact and showing sympathy for the individual, coaches create an environment that meets the athletes’ needs both as human beings and as athletes (e.g. holistic needs), which enables coaches to support athletic development and performance over time (Jones, 2009; Purdy et al., 2016). This is similar to Wals and Jickling’ s (2002) concept of sustainability, as the concept is defined in procedural terms, rather than particular outcomes, and is developed in the specific context, shaped by democratic and participatory processes over time.

Caring is a recognised coaching characteristic that has the potential to help athletes grow in desirable ways. However, at the elite level, the commodity orientation prioritises continuous performance results. In this context, the athlete’s vision may not include long-term development and may compromise sustainability criteria (e.g. long-term careers). In such situations, coaches may draw on practical wisdom and virtuous acts in order to influence the athlete. Such moral interference through practical wisdom is based on coaches’ acceptance of their role as both moral educator and developer of sports performance skills. This role requires coaches in social and moral issues, whenever they arise, to take responsibility for long-term individual development, thereby protecting athletes from commodity pressures that could harm them (e.g. overtraining, injuries, illness).

Recent research has examined how coaches practice caring. Fisher, Bejar, Larsen, Fynes, and Gearity (2017) asked 18 female and male coaches how they define and implement care and found that caring coaching entails socially-just values such as the belief that each athlete deserves a chance to be cared for and to flourish in the environment, and that the coaches respond to human needs. Lindgren and Barker-Ruchti (2017) examined caring practice in more detail by exploring and reflecting on how elite-level female football coaches use a caring approach in a context of result-based expectations. The coaches in this study engaged with their players by creating a relationship that met the athletes’ expressed needs, but also focused on health and well-being (Lindgren & Barker-Ruchti, 2017). Barker-Ruchti and colleagues (2014) examined the actions of one high-performance athletics coach, demonstrating that caring practices may be characterised by an athlete-centred approach that shows concern for the athletes’ well-being, but also by actions that reflect techno-rational knowledge, coach control and instrumentality (for similar findings, see Annerstedt and Lindgren (2014). These results show that a caring approach is important in developing an athlete’s performance, since the complexity of elite sport requires coaches to “take care” of the whole person, i.e. consider cultural, emotional and social aspects as well as the athlete’s performance (Jones & Turner, 2006). Scholars who have researched coaching in Swedish elite sport argue that the coaching actions they found in these contexts, such as engaging in dialogue, empowering athletes and focusing on athletes’ well-being, have the potential to create sustainable sport, despite high-performance environments being characterised by performance and selection pressures, as well as training overload (Barker-Ruchti et al., 2014; Lindgren & Barker-Ruchti, 2017).

Despite the above-mentioned research, current examples of caring coaching practice are limited by number and scope, and knowledge of how caring can be a sustainable practice is only just emerging. To add to this emerging knowledge, we intended to explore how seven Swedish elite athletics coaches talked about their day-to-day individual coaching actions. We addressed this research gap by focusing on caring in the elite coaches’ statements about their practice. Specifically, we aimed to answer the following questions: Is caring as defined by the ethics of care always positive? Or are there occasions when such caring is problematic in elite sport? If so, why and how might coaches need to dispense with ethics of care? We aimed to (a) identify the caring actions coaches described using in their coaching; and (b) problematise the caring actions in relation to sustainable coaching practice. To meet these aims, we applied a qualitative methodology of interpretive description (Thorne, Kirkham, & O’Flynn-Magee, 2004), which is a perspective that acknowledges the constructed and contextual nature of human experience and allows for shared realities (Thorne, 2008). In order to achieve this, we used ethics of care (Noddings, 1986) and practical wisdom (Flyvbjerg, 2004; Standal & Hemmestad, 2011) to reflect on coaches’ caring as a sustainable practice in high-performance sport.

Conceptual theoretical framework

To understand how caring can create sustainable coaching, we first draw on and integrate Noddings (1986) theoretical concept of caring into Barker-Ruchti and colleagues’ (2014) conception of (un-)sustainable sport and then relate this integrated framework to practical wisdom (Jones, 2015). In the following, we first outline the sustainability perspective and then present how care (Noddings, 1986) and practical wisdom (Flyvbjerg, 2001) reflect sustainability.

Sustainability perspective

The sustainability perspective we adopt was originally created to debate the two orientations of commodity and community in education and were presented as a heuristic “Juxtaposing Two Stereotypical Conceptualizations of Science in the Context of Higher Education” (Peters & Wals, 2013, p.87). Wals and Jickling (2002) described sustainability as a concept that only achieves desired outcomes if it relates to the needs of a specific context and incorporates relevant stakeholders. Development, enhancement and understanding of the potential of sustainability need to be created from within the community, shaped in democratic processes and their given conditions (Wals & Jickling, 2002). Community members should be aware that sustainable growth does not have an endpoint, but that it is “as complex as life itself” (Wals & Jickling, 2002, p. 127). Regarding this complexity, Wals and Jickling (2002, p. 127) state that “the concept of sustainability is related to the social, economic, cultural, ethical and spiritual domain of our existence” … and “it differs over time and space and it can be discussed at different levels of aggregation and viewed through different windows”. Thus, sustainability thinking requires community-based actions, which include process orientation, critical reflection and creativity (Wals & Jickling, 2002). It represents a “bottom-up” perspective with ideas of authenticity and emancipation, compared to a “top-down” commodity-based perspective, with characteristics such as efficiency and instrumentality.

To understand sustainability (and unsustainability) in elite sport, Barker-Ruchti and colleagues (2014) have drawn on Peters and Wals (2013, p. 87) stereotypical conceptualisations of science. As presented in Table 1 (see below), Barker-Ruchti et al. (2014) adapted the two conceptual orientations to “Sport as commodity”, which promotes coaching strategies that are authoritarian and “Sport as community”, which enables actions that are negotiated together with athletes. As for “sports as community”, its actions relate to community-based sustainability and working ethics in which uncertainty and unpredictability are a given. For coaches, community-based sustainability requires them to abandon the assumption of “one philosophy fits all” and think beyond scientific biomechanical and physiological technical knowledge. Instead, it requires coaches to focus on practical wisdom and moral and ethical challenges,¹ where each individual should be treated based on their own individual needs. Hence, to act rightfully in moral and ethical terms, elite sport coaches should have a genuine concern for the athlete and focus on intrinsic rather than commodity-based goals (Jones, 2015). This involves decisions in which the social and cultural environments indirectly shape coaches’ decisions based on the coaches’ intellectual, emotional, and physical dimensions (Light, Harvey, & Mouchet, 2014). Such actions reflect ethics of care (Noddings, 1986) (see Table 1).

Table 1. The integration of caring into the Hegemonic and marginal conceptualisations of sport.

	Sport as commodity	Sports as community	Caring
Purpose of sport	Sport for market Emphasis on international medals; outcome orientation reflects a “market” and “marketability”	Sport for impact Process-orientation; emphasis on social relevance; positive feedback from those that benefit from sport	Caring coaching practice Creating a pedagogical climate; emphasise the well-being and ethical development of athletes
View of athletes	Efficiency Athletes are seen in mechanistic terms; body-as-machine and economic resource; tight timeframes; cause-effect relationship between training and performance gain	Authenticity Athletes are accepted as intelligent and capable citizens who have a desire to engage in meaningful learning and overall development; involvement is intrinsically motivated	Cared-for Athletes as the individuals cared for and the learners.
Coach-athlete relationship	Instrumentality Coaching as transfer of predetermined and fixed goals; one coach authority; coach is knower – athlete is learner	Emancipation Athlete-centred coaching; high degrees of self-determination and transformation; room for co-creation and emergent objectives	Engrossment Coach establishes caring relationship Motivational displacement Athlete-centred coaching. Prioritizes the care process over results Confirmation Affirming and encouraging the best in others Dialogue Talking, sharing, listening and responding
Purpose of training	Focus on continuous growth Purpose of training is athletic progress and normative targets; all aspects of life are planned in the pursuit of performance enhancement	Focus on dynamic qualities Sporting institutions invest in athletes’ athletic/physical and personal growth and communal relations	Focusing on ethical ideal’ Modelling Demonstration of caring, Coaching the whole person Practice Athletes experience caring practice
Epistemological orientation	Empirical rationalism Scientific knowledge represents truth; biomedical knowledge is key; control and elimination of “distractions” is important	Socio-constructivism Co-creation of knowledge, pluralist community and working ethics; uncertainty and unpredictability is a given	Social-constructivism Co-creation of knowledge Feminism – ethics Educating role
	Scientific and technical knowledge Used to predict, control and intervene in athletic training; trust in science; particular technical knowledge overrides other ways of knowing and doing.	Phronesis Ethically practical knowledge; context-specific value judgments; no “one-fits-all” philosophy	Ethics of care Relationship-based theory; the ethical of care act is situated, context-specific and determined in the unique relationship.

Source: adapted from Peters and Wals (2013), p. 87 and Barker-Ruchti et al. (2014), p 55.

Ethics of care and practical wisdom

Ethics of care is based on relationality, is dependent on interactions between the carer and the individual being cared for (Noddings, 1986) and is a genuine, basic attitude that characterises relationships of care and trust (Noddings, 2012). According to Noddings (2002), three elements define a caring relationship. Based on a coach-athlete relationship, the three elements are: the coach as carer, the athlete as recipient of the care and the recognition that the athlete is being cared for. Coaches’ ethics of care mean that the coach shares and responds to ideas and feelings in dialogue with the individual being cared for in order to understand and appreciate their needs, which Purdy et al. (2016) suggest implies a deeper level of involvement and engagement in an athlete’s welfare and development. Noddings (2002) defines such actions as “engrossment”. Coaches’ ethics of care also means that coaches set aside their own interests when they focus on the needs and interests of the individual being cared for. Noddings (2002) defines such actions as “motivational displacement”.

In order to achieve a pedagogical climate based on caring relationships, ethics of care aim to influence people to engage in caring relationships. Noddings (1992, 2002) therefore proposes four keys to achieving such a pedagogical climate: modelling, confirmation, practice and dialogue (see Table 1). Modelling is the carer’s actions and demonstration of care to others. If the coaches want their athletes to show respect for the ideas and feelings of others, the coaches not only need to do so for the athletes (no matter how upset they are) but also for others. Confirmation refers to encouraging the best in others and acts of affirmation in order to create trustful relationships. Noddings (1992) believes that this only works effectively when the carer knows who he/she is caring for well enough and when allowing the cared for to decide what is important for them (Noddings, 1992). Practice refers to the environment in which attitudes are shaped. This means that coaches need to find instances and experiences to care for athletes as much as possible, although they must ensure that the conditions for practice are right so the athletes are truly able to model caring. Dialogue refers to talking, sharing, genuinely listening and responding in order to understand and focus on the needs of the individual being cared for. A dialogue is cyclical; it will build increasingly stronger relationships and help the athlete arrive at better-informed decisions (Noddings, 2002).

Research on caring in elite sport has described a conflict between the need to care for athletes and the need to win and perform (Fisher et al., 2017; Knust & Fisher, 2015). The athletes’ will and expressed needs can be harmful to their health if they train and compete with injuries or without recovering properly, i.e. although an athlete’s interests may be driven by short-term results, in certain situations, training too hard might not actually be in the athlete’s best interests because, for example, continued training may seriously jeopardise the athlete’s health and possibly their long-term participation. A sustainable act in such a situation would be for the coach to decide against the (short-term) need expressed by the athlete, in order to avoid injury and not jeopardise their health, well-being and career. The performance expectations that coaches may face and their responsibility for ensuring an athlete’s health, can be seen as a moral/ethical dilemma for coaches, as their act of care may be to disregard the athlete’s expressed needs. Hence, coaches not only need to care for athletes. The caring act should focus on practical wisdom (Jones, 2015). Practical wisdom constitutes “good actions” that may be necessary in order to manage problematic situations for the good of all (Flyvbjerg, 2001, 2004), or rather, as the cultivation of a good or virtuous character. Such virtues include honesty, fairness and patience (Cooke & Carr, 2014). Coaching using practical wisdom entails sensitivity to moral obligations which, in elite sport, are not only defined as entailing performance results, but also an athlete’s safety, health and well-being, as well as ensuring a good life after a career in elite sport (Hardman, Jones, & Jones, 2010). Practical wisdom entails acting conscientiously which, in elite sport, means that a coach cannot follow predetermined, universal rules of “correct” actions. Instead, coaches who use practical wisdom approach situations by balancing universal (performance and competition) principles and situational characteristics such as health and welfare (Standal & Hemmestad, 2011). A coach who uses practical wisdom has the ability to think and act in relation to values and to deliberate about doing the “right thing, at the right time, in the right way with the right feeling” (Jones, 2015, p. 8).

Table 1 visualises the integration of caring into the hegemonic and marginal conceptualisations of sport. Scholars have shown that coaches who care for athletes’ needs and holistic development could create sustainable sport for athletes (Annerstedt & Lindgren, 2014; Barker-Ruchti et al., 2014; Lindgren, Annerstedt, & Dohlsten, 2017). Caring becomes a sustainable act when coaches manage problematic situations using practical wisdom. The moral and ethical dilemmas in coaches’ practice must be handled in such a way as to ensure long-term well-being based on the individual athlete, rather than a focus on fixed results. Coaches using practical wisdom have the means to balance the expectations and consequences of elite sport (Standal & Hemmestad, 2011), which can be comparable to the different characteristics between commodity- and community-based sport (Barker-Ruchti et al., 2014). Caring as a sustainable practice in elite sport has to have an ends and a means to caring, with deliberate caring decisions and actions that focus on the virtues of care for athletes rather than commodity-based outcomes. Before we present the methodology and research design, we will end this section by presenting the context and conditions of the practices of Swedish elite coaches.

The context and current conditions of Swedish elite athletics

The Swedish sports movement is part of the welfare system, which is characterised by a focus on mass sport, peripheral governance and a voluntary workforce (e.g. officials, coaches) (Barker-Ruchti et al., 2017; Fahlström, Gerrevall, Glemme, & Linnér, 2015; Ronglan, 2014).

Financial support (from both national and local athletics federations) for elite athletes and coaches is primarily based on recent performance and results. Another issue regarding Swedish elite athletics is the high injury rate. Research has demonstrated that nearly 70% of all Swedish athletes reported injuries that lasted more than three weeks during a training season (Jacobsson, 2013). Even though injuries and pressure seem inevitable in elite athletics, research into the Swedish elite athletics population has shown that more than 95% of injuries were caused by overtraining (Jacobsson, 2013). Findings have shown that the vicious cycle of injuries and negative pressure is primarily caused by stress factors both inside and outside sport such as previous injuries, performance anxiety, work-related stress and turbulence in everyday life (Johnson, 2011).

At the time of our study, an action research project was carried out in a collaboration between the Gothenburg Athletics Federation (GAF) and the University of Gothenburg. The action research project focused on the knowledge, experience and development of elite coaches regarding sustainable coaching and athlete health. The data included in this paper are derived from interviews conducted at the start of the action research.

Methodology

We designed the research presented in this article as an explorative study that follows a qualitative methodology of interpretive description (Thorne et al., 2004). Specifically, data were processed using qualitative content analysis (Graneheim, Lindgren, & Lundman, 2017; Krippendorff, 2013) using a conventional approach to the qualitative content analysis in order to explore and describe the subject phenomena (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005). The study gained the ethical approval of the Regional Ethics Review Board, Gothenburg, Sweden (Dnr. 875–15).

Sample and recruitment

The criterion for participating in the AR was that coaches should be at the highest level of coaching. This was determined by qualification for financial elite coaching support in Gothenburg. In order to recruit from this sample (N = 27), we provided the coaches with information about the project, ethical safeguards and participation requirements. The included coaches represent four coach population categories ranging from coaches who coach athletes who take part in the European Championships (level 1) to coaches with athletes who rank in the top 4–6 at Swedish Championship level (Level 4). 17 coaches agreed at the time to participate in the action research project and signed consent forms. All 17 coaches participated in a semi-structured interview. However, the final data presented in this study were derived a purposive sampling (Oliver, 2016) of seven coaches who had experience of international championships and who participated in a total of two interviews each. All coaches were male, with an average age of 41.8 years, representing all four athletics disciplines. For ethical reasons, pseudonyms are used in interview quotes.

Data production

The data production method we employed comprised semi-structured interviews. These interviews were based on questions about the participants’ coaching philosophy, coaching methods and approach, the challenges of elite coaching, what has been important for their coaching and their experience of creating training environments for athletes. The interviews lasted between 90 and 120 minutes with an average duration of approximately 108 minutes. During the reading of the transcripts, the first and last author began recognising that the coaches spoke of their negotiation of the elite athletes’ goals, while also being concerned about the health and well-being of the elite athlete. The coaches’ comments reflected an emerging body of research that presents evidence of caring, holistic and athlete-centred coaching in Sweden (Annerstedt & Lindgren, 2014; Barker-Ruchti et al., 2014; Grahn, 2014; Lindgren & Barker-Ruchti, 2017). In order to investigate further, we chose to conduct a second interview with the coaches who had international championship experience. The second interview focused solely on sustainability processes and explicitly asked questions about the concept of sustainability in sport (Barker-Ruchti et al., 2014). The following key questions were included in the interview guide: How do you support athletes in their personal development? How do you promote the physical/mental health of athletes? How do you support the athletes in promoting the best possible conditions for their development?, How do you meet the athletes’ needs? What do you do in your practice to help athletes perform over time at the highest possible level? The second interviews took between 30 and 40 minutes each. Both interviews with the seven coaches were conducted separately in order to create a safe environment chosen by the coaches, with no bias from the presence of others (Gratton & Jones, 2010). All interviews were audio-recorded, professionally transcribed and checked for accuracy by the first author. This resulted in 167 single-spaced pages that were used for the analysis in this study. Member-checking of the transcripts was not performed as it cannot ensure validity or trustworthiness (Smith & McGannon, 2017). However, the first author offered to share the transcript with the respondents.

Data analysis

As the study was explorative, the theory was not used at the outset of the analysis. Instead, the approach was abductive, which allowed us to engage in a dialectic process of considering data and drawing on theory (Graneheim et al., 2017). With experience from the body of literature on sustainability (Annerstedt & Lindgren, 2014; Barker-Ruchti et al., 2014; Grahn, 2014), we responded to the need to use a theoretical framework by adopting the concepts of ethics of care and practical wisdom, as the data indicated sustainability coaching processes.

Data analysis followed a qualitative content analysis (Graneheim & Lundman, 2004). An example from the analysis process is given in Table 2. Even though the description of the analytical process was linear, it was far more complex and we have engaged in both decontextualisation and contextualisation in order to create analytical depth.

Table 2. Examples of meaning units, codes, categories, and themes from the analytic procedure.

Mening units	Code	Category	Theme
I treat everyone equally, no matter how talented they are. Even though I have world class elite in the group, I see them as human beings	Treats everyone equal regardless of the result.	Building relationships with athletes	A holistic coaching approach
I do what they want. Then I’ll hang on, and sometimes you’ll be lucky. In the best of worlds there are three to four who say “I want to the Olympics” “ok, how are we doing then”. Then add a plan. But it cannot be “here we are, the next step is there”, I’ll wait until it comes from them.	Patience with results and plan based on the expressed needs of athletes	Adapting training to the athlete’s different level	Focusing on individual needs in athletics

Firstly, the first author listened to the audio recordings from the 14 interviews (two from each coach) and read the interview transcripts in order to gain a comprehensive impression of the coaches’ views on sustainable coaching. Secondly, the first and last author identified meaning units (sentences or segments of words) to address the aim of the study.

To provide an overview of the different meaning units, which allowed for comparison and contrasting and made the categorisation process transparent, these meaning units were incorporated in a table sheet. The meaning units were then condensed to make the content shorter and more concrete. Each unit was then coded inductively. Thirdly, the first and last author compared similarities and differences between the codes, which were sorted and compared to each other, and thereafter arranged into tentative categories. These tentative categories were then discussed and revised several times in order to help answer the research questions. Fourthly, the tentative categories were reviewed, discussed and arranged in order to finally construct nine categories and thus express the manifest content of the text (Graneheim & Lundman, 2004). Lastly, three themes that intersected with the nine categories were generated in order to describe the content on a latent level. This can be described as a unifying main thread running through the categories (Graneheim et al., 2017). Thus, the data analysis in this step first turned towards exploring the coaches’ statements relating to caring and is presented with quotes that were translated into English and adjusted for readability in the Findings section of this paper. The quotes are followed by parentheses to indicate interview one (I1) or interview two (I2). Then the analysis turns towards interpreting the findings in relation to practical wisdom and sustainable coaching, which are discussed in reflections on caring as a sustainable practice (see Table 2).

Findings

In the following section, we identify the caring actions coaches described using in their coaching. The first theme in the findings, “A holistic coaching approach”, contextualises the fact that coaches focus on the athletes’ personal development and have a long-term perspective. The coaches provide this support by building relationships with the athletes. The second theme, “Creating a developing and inclusive elite environment ”, shows how the coaches allow the athletes to influence training, being role models and building a sense of community, team spirit and positive attitudes. The third theme, “Focusing on individual needs in athletics”, includes the coaches creating well-planned training programmes, adapting training to the athlete’s different levels and using a network of experts.

A holistic coaching approach

This theme demonstrates that the coaches talked about how they supported the athletes’ personal development and building relationships with the athletes, because quality performance requires athletes to develop as persons.

Focus on the athletes’ personal development

The coaches stated that they needed to focus on developing the person and not just the athlete’s performance in order to create the opportunity for long-term results. The coaches appear to have a sincere interest in the athletes as whole persons, and not merely as athletes. Martin explained:

I feel that I have a responsibility for the development of the whole person and I also get a kind of satisfaction from what I do. Because it’s probably good for them as human beings, not just as high performers. Then I realise I’m doing it for their sustainability, for their long-term development as elite athletes. Then I’m back to what I said last time, that if they develop as human beings, they will develop as elite athletes (I2).

This statement reflects the coach’s sensitivity to the athletes, how they care for them and is similar to honest caring attentions of engrossments (Noddings, 2002). Hardman et al. (2010) point out that when coaches focus more on the athlete as a whole person, they create a more holistic value-based approach to coaching, which can be regarded as an athlete-centred approach. When Oscar discussed how he assessed the personal development of one of his athletes, he stated:

I had an athlete with low self-esteem socially, but not in the sport itself. I contacted [work] employers, booked interviews and attended meetings. To help the athlete get started, I looked up different courses and colleges. What I did was useful. I remember that the athlete had come home to my house and looked in our bookshelf and borrowed books from us in order to engage in something other than athletics 7 days a week, 365 days a year (I2).

Coaches who focus on the development of the whole person favour caring, as they elevate the athletes’ needs and set aside their own interests in favour of the athletes’ (Knust & Fisher, 2015).

When the coaches talked about developing athletes, they stated that very few athletes are able to make a living out of their sport. The coaches stated that the high demands and effort required in elite sport force the athletes to find a balance in life in order to be able to train regularly at a high level. Victor explained:

It’s ok to engage in social activities and meet friends outside sport but it’s important to plan in advance and adapt the activity based on training and competitions planning (I2).

Another example of engrossment is when the coaches adopted an approach that adjusted to the prerequisites of every athlete with a “one-fits-all” philosophy, which resembles care, as coaches’ caring requires an understanding of the person being cared for (Jones, 2009).

Building relationships with athletes

The coaches stated that they spend time getting to know the athletes by listening and paying attention to them. They stated that this has helped them get to know the athletes better and constantly develop their coach-athlete relationship, regardless of how long they had worked together. They also stated that trust is important in order to develop a relationship and that trust contributes to a better dialogue. In the coaches’ accounts, it appeared that the coaches and athletes engaged in regular dialogue about how to manage their lives as elite athletes and adapt the training plan to the individual athlete, which could develop the athletes’ understanding of elite training. The building relationship’s approach of the coaches when they listen, talk and respond to their athletes is an example of care, as caring and trustful relationships are based on dialogue (Noddings, 2012). Some of the coaches also stated that, in the process of building a relationship, they talk less and listen more attentively to the athletes. In this regard, Nick said:

They are better at presenting their ideas and thoughts and I’m also better off being a bit more responsive. Maybe I had another type of leadership style before, quite authoritarian and so on (I1).

Furthermore, the coaches stated that their relationship helps them develop a good dialogue about health risks. However, they also stated that the athletes are responsible for their own health and that they sometimes “gamble” with their health. Victor said:

In elite sport there is a health risk. It is the athletes who take the risks but we discuss it together (I1).

On the one hand, if the athletes have insufficient knowledge about how to prevent sports injuries or other issues, the coaches are risking their athletes’ health and well-being (Johnson, 2011). On the other hand, holding the athletes accountable can be regarded as caring because they need to learn how to take care of themselves and how to handle situations that affect them, which is in accordance with another study (Fisher et al., 2017). The coaches also talked about how they listened to their athletes’ own wishes to invest time and effort in elite sport. Because they coach many athletes on different levels, coaches talked about how they adapted to the athletes’ choices, allowing them to influence training and help them achieve their goals regardless of the differences in their ambitions. As Tom explained:

Then each individual [athlete] is the ultimate decision about himself. And I always say that “It’s you who decides, it’s your choice, but this is how I feel”. But if they choose to do something other than what I say it’s their choice and then I have to reconcile myself to that choice (I2).

Coaches paying attention and listening to the athletes’ own wishes is a virtue that ignores self-interest and can be interpreted as caring as motivational displacement (Noddings, 2012). Furthermore, some coaches stated that they also treat everyone equally regardless of their performance level, to acknowledge the individual rather than their performance. Adam stated the following:

I treat everyone equally, no matter how talented they are. Even though I have world class elite athletes in the group, I see them as human beings (I1).

However, there were also coaches who emphasised that they prioritise athletes at the highest elite level. They stated that they spend more time with athletes at the highest level of competition and therefore build stronger relationships with such athletes. Nick talked about coaching athletes on different levels:

On a few occasions I have skipped a competition in which one athlete was competing in order to be at another competition with other athletes. So far, I’ve followed the athlete at the highest level. It’s been quite easy so far because there have been major differences in the athletes’ levels (I2).

When coaches build relationships more intensely with high-performing athletes, they only care about some of their athletes (Purdy et al., 2016). This decision might contribute to the fact that coaches who choose between athletes may create unsustainable consequences for the athletic community as their decisions are outcome-oriented and only based on the results of athletes at the highest level (Barker-Ruchti et al., 2014). There is a tension between focusing on performance and results and taking care of the athletes’ well-being (Fisher et al., 2017). However, the coaches in this study demonstrated the importance of building relationships through paying attention to how the athletes feel both inside and outside of sport. Oscar explained:

I try to pay attention to how they feel in life, not just as athletes. It’s really important, of course. To perform well in sport, you must feel good (I2).

The coaches’ approach resembles caring actions as they take an interest in well-being, are concerned about their athletes’ feelings and get to know all the athletes in the group (Purdy et al., 2016). Coaches who accept that their role requires knowledge beyond just being a skill acquisition educator are more likely to create caring environments (Purdy et al., 2016). The coaches’ focus on the athletes’ health and well-being in relation to performance is also obvious in other studies (for similar findings, see Annerstedt & Lindgren, 2014; Lindgren & Barker-Ruchti, 2017).

Creating a developing and inclusive elite environment

This theme shows that the coaches create a developing, inclusive elite environment. In this environment they act as role models and build a sense of community, team spirit and positive attitudes.

Acting as a role model

An aspect of creating a developing and inclusive elite environment is when the coaches act as role models. They stated how their attitudes influence the athletes. Martin stated:

I am absolutely convinced that for people to continue their sporting activities, you must have a positive environment, with training partners and so on. Then I believe my commitment and way of showing it are important. I hope my commitment makes a difference. That I’m there, I’m committed and I’m passionate about it (I2).

The coaches mainly stated that they set an example to encourage, show engagement and act according to their ideals. The coaches’ responsibility to foster morale through their own actions can be interpreted as modelling (Noddings, 2012). The coaches talked about how acting as role models inspires the athletes to respect each other.

Building a sense of community, team spirit and positive attitudes

The coaches’ statements show that they build a sense of community and team spirit in order to create a developing environment for all athletes, even if the athletes compete with each other at different levels and are at different stages of their careers. They stated that an athletic community and team spirit is important because all athletes can help each other achieve their best. Oscar said:

You can trigger each other even if you are at different levels. If you have a group where everyone is motivated to develop and improve, then the environment is very positive (I2).

In addition, they stated that, besides performance, an important reason for an athlete to continue as an elite athlete is having social relationships in their sports club and/or in an athletic community. Nick said:

What athletes remember from their careers are the sense of community and the relationship with the friends, as well as their well-being. A part of coaching is creating this (I1).

The importance of being in a context that makes the athlete feel good was also something that the coaches spoke about, which reinforces the idea of caring practices (Noddings, 2012). The coaches also stated that a positive attitude is important for the environment and that they try to foster a positive attitude in the athletes as this influences their sense of belonging.

They also stated that a good sense of community and team spirit helps individual athletes retain a positive attitude despite individual setbacks. Tom explained:

When someone gets injured, we take it seriously. However, we mustn’t only focus on the negative. In a positive environment, athletes learn to think positively even when things go wrong (I2).

This also refers to the required moral effort of value practices (Noddings, 2012) as the coaches create an environment in which the athletes commit themselves to being positive and supporting one another.

Focusing on individual needs in athletics

This theme shows that the coaches focus on individual needs in athletics through creating well-planned training programmes, adapting training to the athletes’ different levels and using networks with experts.

Creating well-planned training programmes

The coaches stated that they make an effort in planning their training programmes to allow for constant progression so athletes are able to balance training and rest. They talked about how well-planned training programmes become crucial to the athletes. Adam said:

The most important thing is to periodise the training programme properly. The most important thing is to move between recovery and training and ensure that training doesn’t become too tough for too long with too short intervals (I2).

Knowledge of constructing training programs and plans is stated as being important in considering both long-term health and performance. William said:

One thing I’ve learned from experience is that you have to count the total load, not just the load the athletes are subject to here [in the training ground]. If I know how they feel every day, I can plan their training according to their health and how their body feels (I2).

In the same way the coaches talked about training and health, they stated that it is important that the athletes follow the coaches’ planning, given that it’s a tool to reduce the injury rate and illness. Additionally, they particularly stressed that more than half the time spent on training planning is about identifying an athlete’s physical status in order to adjust to the daily work load. Well-planned training also includes caring, as the coaches adjust to athletes’ stress associated with social issues, work or school. This resembles engrossment (Noddings, 2002), as the coaches see, hear and feel the athlete’s needs. However, the coaches stated that training planning is based on performance outcomes, mainly focusing on athletic progress, in response to the athletes’ expressed needs. The coaches’ actions are both influenced by technical knowledge such as pre-determined exercise loads and ethical practical knowledge, which is similar to previous research on athletics coaching (Barker-Ruchti et al., 2014)

Adapting training to the athlete’s different levels

The coaches stated that they spend more time with athletes at higher levels as the athletes themselves make their own investment in time and different kinds of sacrifice, which requires more effort (e.g. training planning and travelling) from them as coaches. They also stated that, based on the athletes’ own goals and motivation to perform at the elite level, they strive to create the best training programmes possible. Adam said that the motivation of athletes is superior to their own will and ambitions:

I do what they want me to do. Then I’ll hang on, and sometimes I am be lucky. In the best of worlds, there are three or four people who say: “I want to get to the Olympics”. “OK, how are we doing then?” Then add a [training] program. But it cannot be “Here we are, the next step is here”. I’ll wait until it comes from them (I2).

Similar to the coaches talking about adjusting to the athletes’ ambitions, the coaches stated that they are there to help the athletes when the athletes feel that they are ready. They talk about how they are willing to support all athletes regardless of their own belief in an athlete’s potential, as long as it is the expressed will of the athlete. However, there might be a challenge in caring for when the assumed needs are different from the athlete’s expressed needs (Purdy et al., 2016). Similar to previous studies, the coaches’ statements confirm the fact that the environmental conditions impact the possibility of them establishing caring practices (Fisher et al., 2017; Lindgren & Barker-Ruchti, 2017).

As they make plans and programmes for athletes at all elite levels, they place greater demands on the very best athletes. William talks about coaching athletes at different levels, and he explained:

I place different demands on athletes, depending on their level. If they are aiming to compete in major championships, they cannot skip too many training sessions. They must plan in advance (I2).

The coaches also talked about how, in order to give the athletes the support they need, they place demands on the athletes to follow training programmes more accurately and schedule rehabilitation to fit their training and progress. Coaches adjusting to athletes’ needs relates to caring, as they focus on individual needs rather than just specific, normative progression (Purdy et al., 2016). However, coaches will be challenged in acting with care when the athletes’ needs become unsustainable desires.

Using networks of experts

The coaches talked about consulting an expert in order to provide a caring environment for athletes when they lack certain knowledge and experience as coaches. Most of the coaches were consulted by and worked with physiotherapists in order to be able to plan training according to the athletes’ physical status. Nick talked about his network as follows:

It is my personal contact with physiotherapists, doctors, chiropractors and massage therapists. So, if anyone has a problem I’ll make an appointment. It’s fine, because I’ll often get an appointment within one or two days (I2).

When using their network, some of the coaches consult with physiotherapists in order to prevent injuries, while other coaches contact their physiotherapist when injuries occur. Some of the coaches also receive help from sports psychologists and mental health counsellors when they feel that athletes may need this kind of support. The coaches’ statements are similar to previous studies, which confirm that support networks enable coaches to provide more care (Fisher et al., 2017). The coaches have built their own network of medical experts to help the athletes in any way possible and there is no joint team of medical personnel from either the clubs or the federation. The lack of a joint medical team appears to inhibit the opportunity to provide sustainable actions, as their networks are based on the coaches’ own potential contacts (Fisher et al., 2017). In other words, the conditions for coaches to establish a “climate of care” are inhibited by insufficient environmental conditions (Noddings, 2012).

Reflections on caring as a sustainable practice

The findings demonstrate that the coaches had a holistic approach to coaching as they focused on the athletes’ personal development, health and well-being. This approach to coaching can be regarded as an “ethics of care” (Noddings, 2012) and reflects aspects outlined within “sport as community”, which can contribute to a more sustainable elite sport (Barker-Ruchti et al., 2014). The findings also show “ethics of care” when the coaches respected and responded to the athletes’ needs and choices, as well as supported them, regardless of their goals. However, when the athletes’ goals did not include a long-term perspective and when the coaches didn’t interfere, caring appears to conflict with sustainability. Only when coaches care for ethical principles and are engage moral issues, can coaches create a potential for long-term athletic development (Jones, 2009; Lindgren & Barker-Ruchti, 2017; Purdy et al., 2016). The findings also demonstrate that the coaches know there is a crucial balance between the athletes’ focus on performance enhancement and the pressure to perform with health and well-being issues. However, not all of the coaches had clear strategies to support the athletes in this regard, although Swedish research has shown that it is possible for elite coaches to give such support (Annerstedt & Lindgren, 2014; Barker-Ruchti et al., 2014; Lindgren & Barker-Ruchti, 2017). Another holistic approach to coaching found in this study was the coaches’ strategies to build relationships through dialogue, which is also an “ethics of care’”, and responds to practical wisdom, because dialogue allows them to develop individualised philosophies (not a “one-fits-all” philosophy) (Barker-Ruchti et al., 2014). This approach to coaching can also be regarded as being athlete-centred, which gives scope for co-creation and emergent objectives, and this construction of participation and democratic way of coaching could develop sustainability (Barker-Ruchti et al., 2014).

The findings also reveal that the coaches created a developing and inclusive elite environment and worked with the athletes as a team-building community. However, our data also demonstrate that the conditions make them spend more time with a few, more high- performance athletes. This could benefit a few of the top athletes but put some of the upcoming athletes at a disadvantage, as well as not contribute to creating a developing and inclusive elite environment for all athletes in which they can develop under long-term conditions (Fahlström et al., 2015; Lindgren et al., 2017). Furthermore, when building this developing and inclusive elite environment, the coaches acted as role models (cf. Noddings, 2012) as they expected honesty and fairness from the individual athletes which is also a virtuous act (Jones, 2009; Lindgren & Barker-Ruchti, 2017).

Moreover, the findings demonstrate that the coaches focused on the individual needs of athletics, using context-specific knowledge to guide them in order to keep all athletes satisfied and appreciated. This can be regarded as an act towards sustainability, as scholars indicate that sustainable coaching includes focusing on responsibilities, respect and diversity alongside the athletes’ performance (Annerstedt & Lindgren, 2014; Barker-Ruchti et al., 2014). The coaches mainly confirmed that their experience and reflection taught them to know how and when to make the right decisions in the training progression, which is in accordance with previous research (Mallett, Rynne, & Billett, 2016). This relates to the importance of coaches’ practical wisdom (Jones, 2015), to act based on moral and ethical principles. Their experience and practical knowledge also helps to guide the coaches among experts (Jones, 2015), as the coaches indicated that they lack scientific knowledge and require expert help.

Finally, the findings demonstrate that some of the coaches abandoned the responsibility of healthy career choices because they chose to listen to the athlete’s desire for short-term career decisions that had not been considered, which could result in injuries, illness and other types of harm (see for example Johnson, 2011). When coaches ignore this responsibility, an implicit focus on commodity-based goals becomes the main focus and it contradicts practical wisdom, as they overlook the moral stance and risk their athletes’ health (Jones, 2015). This approach to coaching is also in contrast with holistic coaching, when and where the coaches decide, using insight, how to coach, in what fashion, to the benefit of those athletes being coached (Jones & Turner, 2006). The challenge for elite coaches appears to be their educational role, as results and performance are expressed as being priorities for athletes. Thus, it could be argued that with lack of guidelines and without developed knowledge, coaches are inhibited in their ability to facilitate sustainable elite sport.

Conclusion and future directions

The findings demonstrate that a caring coaching approach both supports and conflicts with sustainability in elite sport. Caring is expressed as a foundation upon which to build relationships and focus on individual needs. It appears to be of great importance to enable coaches to develop an athlete’s performance over time. However, when coaches practice care and don’t take responsibility for their athletes’ unhealthy and risky needs and choices, caring may reduce an athlete’s sustainability. The findings show that practical wisdom, i.e. responsibility for ethical and moral dilemmas, is of great importance to practicing care as a sustainable practice.

We suggest that athletics federations, clubs and coaches prioritise education for sustainability in elite sport. However, more importantly, there is a need for overarching structures and guidelines from federations as well as responsibility on the part of coaches to work with sustainable perspectives. We also suggest further research to explore how elite athletes express their views on sustainability and how athletes could influence sustainable elite practices.

Acknowledgments

We are very grateful for the Gothenburg Athletics Federation who supported the research. We especially wish to thank all the elite coaches who described their experiences in the interviews. We are also grateful to the two reviewers for their feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the this work was supported by the Gothenburg Athletics Federation.

Notes

1. Practical wisdom and morally rightful actions refer to the concept of phronesis (Barker-Ruchti et al., 2014).