To explore basketball player's perceptions of empowerment within the coach-athlete relationship

Abstract

Despite an increase in the amount of research undertaken regarding coaching science and empowerment in particular, there has yet been an in-depth study into how it is implemented and the elements it effects (Gilbert and Trudel, 2001; Jones and Standage, 2006). The aim of this study was to explore basketball player’s perceptions of empowerment within the coach-athlete relationship. This study used ten participants, all of whom played basketball at various levels and had a range of experiences within the sport. In order to gather information, the participants took part in semi-structured interviews, which involved open questions and probes, to accumulate vast information on the topics. Once the interviews had been concluded, they were transcribed and then a deductive content analysis technique was used to analysis the data. The categories, which were chosen through a review of literature, consisted of Benefits of Empowerment, Limitations of Empowerment, Team Cohesion, Respect and Coach-Athlete Relationship. The findings of the study highlighted that empowerment had positive effects on the coach-athlete relationship when utilised effectively. The main practical implication derived from this research is that coaching education should adapt and change to adopt new approaches, such as empowerment. Key Words: Empowerment, Coach-athlete Relationship, Respect, Team Cohesion, Qualitative