ABSTRACT
The purpose of the study was to examine elite women’s rugby sevens athletes’ perceptions of caring coaching practice. Using Consensual Qualitative Research (CQR), ten elite sevens women’s rugby athletes participated in semi-structured interviews focusing on perceptions of caring coaching practice. Six domains were constructed: (I) Elite women’s rugby sevens athletes’ perceptions of how they learned what caring coaching practice was; (II) Elite women’s rugby sevens athletes’ definition of caring coaching practice; (III) Elite women’s rugby sevens athletes’ description of the demonstration of caring coaching practice; (IV) Elite women’s rugby sevens athletes’ definition of a lack of caring coaching practice; (V) Elite women’s rugby sevens athletes’ description of the relationship between caring coaching practice and athletic performance; and (VI) additional influences. Some unique findings included players’ desire for coaches to pay attention to player safety and implement an injury protocol as well as for them to create more meaningful training environments.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).