“We’re All Dads Here”: The Impact of Transitions on Coach-Athlete Relationships in British Ski Racing Academies

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine how transitions within British ski racing academies impact coach-athlete relationships. Due to snow conditions in the UK, British alpine athletes who aspire to compete at international level often train in British-run but European-based residential ski academies. British ski academies constitute a previously unstudied setting, and are unique in that coaches and athletes live together in the academy house, leaving little separation between the training and home environments. The term “transitions” in the context of this paper refers to both longitudinal transition of athletes through age and competitive stage, and lateral transition between the training and home environments in the residential academies: the 2 transitions noted here were the initial focuses of this research.  This study conducted semi-structured interviews with 7 professional coaches drawn from 2 British-run ski academies who operate European-based residential programmes. The research findings identified 2 additional transitions as significant: these were athletes’ longitudinal transition from UK training to full-time residential academy; and the lateral transition between training and race settings. The key findings within these transitions were the coaches’ role in facilitating athletes’ initial integration into academy; the significant impact that lateral transitions (between training and home/training and race) have on the coach-athlete relationship; and the role of gender in the coach-athlete relationship specifically in the transition from training to race settings. There were novel results from this research which reveal the scale of coaches’ pastoral role in a talent development environment where coaches and athletes live together. This study has implications for coaching education provision in British ski racing and has resulted in consultation with Snowsport Scotland on ways in which to improve coaches’ education and wellbeing, and enhance gender equity in coaching pathways.