Perceived and preferred coach communication behaviors of cross-country athletes according to gender

Graduation date: 2010This study sought to gain a better understanding of the communication behaviors between coaches and male and female athletes. Four focus groups (male coach and male athletes, male coach and female athlete, female coach and male athletes, and female coach and female athletes) were used to assess athletes' perceptions of their past coaches' communication behavior compared to their preferred coach communication behaviors. Coding of the focus groups revealed that although females prefer to talk to their coaches about topics related to running, they also wanted to talk about more personal topics. However, for females to talk about personal topics they needed to feel comfortable with their coaches, which was dependent on the coaches' characteristics. Conversely, males desired to talk to their coaches about more serious topics, such as their training and competition, as well as other professional runners' training and competition. Although males desired to more often talk about serious topics, they also recognized there were times when joking around and being less serious with their coaches was appropriate and necessary. In short, men preferred to talk 'shop' more than women did. Based on these results, suggestions for coaches are discussed