Stressors and Coping among Voluntary Sports Coaches

Background: Sports coaching has been identified as a naturally stressful occupation. Coaches must be able to competently and effectively manage stress that is inherent in competitive sport and perform under pressure. Yet, limited research exists that has explored coaches’ experiences of psychological stress. The research that does exist has mainly focused on full-time, elite coaches who represent just 3% of the coaching workforce in the United Kingdom (U.K.). Despite the voluntary coaching workforce contributing to 72% of the total U.K. coaching personnel, little is known about the stressors that volunteer coaches experience or the ways in which they cope with these stressors. Purpose: To explore the stressors that voluntary coaches experience and the coping strategies that they use. Methods: Following institutional ethical approval, four (Mage = 38.5±11.68 years) voluntary coaches were interviewed using a semi-structured interview guide. Each interview was conducted face-to-face and lasted between 56.44 and 84.25 minutes (Mduration= 66.95±12.19 minutes). Rich, in-depth data was collected during the interviews, which provided a thick description of knowledge. Thematic analysis was used to organise and analyse the data. To ensure the study has rigor and provides a significant contribution to the literature, self-reflexivity was used by the primary researcher throughout. Results: The coaches reported 28 different stressors, which were categorised into four higher-order themes: personal, athlete-related, organisational, and external/uncontrollable. Thirty nine different coping strategies were discussed, which were categorised into two higher-order themes: problem-focused and emotion-focused coping. Overall, the stressors and coping strategies reported by the voluntary coaches in this study were similar to those reported in previous literature by paid coaches. Conclusion: This research represents some of the first to explore voluntary coaches’ experiences of stressors and coping strategies. Further research is warranted to explore voluntary coaches’ motivation to continue their engagement, despite the stressors they experience. The findings of this study may be of interest to national governing bodies and coaches who are at the forefront of the coaching sector.

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