This free online course examines the relationship between athletes and their coaches and how they can work together to achieve success.
The course has been developed by Professor Sophia Jowett, Professor of Psychology at Loughborough University, and a team of experts to show how to make relationships between coaches and athletes effective and successful.
This online educational programme for athletes is funded by the Olympic Studies Centre of the International Olympic Committee.
The main topics of the course are:
- The impact of quality coach-athlete relationships on performance and wellbeing.
- The place of conflict (disagreements, misunderstandings) for growth and development.
- The role of communication in developing and maintaining good quality coach-athlete relationships that are effective and successful.
This course will take approximately 90 minutes to complete. The course is split into three modules around coach-athlete relationships: relationship quality; conflict; and communication.
Each module has four sections:
- a video lecture from an academic
- three short insights (video clips from interviews) from experts
- an end of module quiz
- an activity to put the learning into practice
To complete the course learners need to complete everything and get 100% in all quizzes. There is also a digital library of interviews with experts in the field (athletes, coaches, sport psychologists and sport scientists).