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Aims: The concept of psychological safety has received growing interest within a sport context in recent years. Despite a small but growing body of literature, there is still a lack of conceptual clarity, and thus research is needed to gain a better understanding of how psychological safety manifests in sport. Existing literature suggests psychological safety may allow for positive outcomes in various sport settings. As this may be of interest to many coaches and sporting organisations, a deeper evidence base will prove beneficial for further support to this claim. The aim of the current study was to garner conceptual clarity by gathering coach and athlete perceptions of psychological safety in high-performance pathway sport environments. Methods: Qualitative findings of six focus groups with coaches (two focus groups) and athletes (four focus groups) were comprised of four sports (association football, boxing, field hockey, and swimming). A total of 25 participants included 18 athletes (M _age = 19.6 years; M _experience = 10.6 years) and seven coaches (M _age = 45 years; M _experience = 19.6 years) who discussed psychological safety within their high-performance pathway sport environment. Focus groups lasted from 36 to 78 minutes (M _length = 56 min). Qualitative content analysis was utilised to categorise themes identified from the focus groups. Findings: Findings offer a conceptualisation of the defining attributes (e.g., freedom to speak freely and raise issues), antecedents (e.g., positional competition, selection, and deselection), and outcomes (e.g., positive climate and enjoyment of sport) of psychological safety in sport settings. One of the key takeaways within the findings suggests that psychological safety in a sport context may manifest in a dual process, namely on-field (e.g., the freedom to take risks) and off-field (e.g., the freedom to speak freely and raise issues).

Competitive youth sport coaches who aim to foster inclusive and safer sport often face challenges from their peers, their organisations, and the sociocultural systems in their contexts. A personal learning coach may support coaches’ critical awareness, reflection, and readiness for working towards changing their youth sport contexts. This study details a 15-month collaboration, as Sara acted as a personal learning coach to support Sophie’s critical praxis as they reflected on social issues and experienced shifts in their coaching towards creating more inclusive and safer sport. Grounded in a narrative inquiry methodology, two virtual interviews and 11 virtual meetings occurred. Sara and Sophie also shared reflections through messages and voice notes and one in-person meeting during one of Sophie’s training sessions. Through time-hopping snapshot vignettes, Sophie’s learning journey is presented as they attempt to figure out what to fight for, grow through discomforts and unknowns, and experience progress. Sophie believed that their “mind shifted” towards becoming a “better coach” throughout the collaboration, developing their critical consciousness to change oppressive social conditions in sport. By sharing insights from the collaboration, the study provides vivid examples of the steps coaches and sport stakeholders can take to become more confident in enacting positive change in sport.

Sport can at once promote social justice and reinforce systemic inequities. Considering the influence coaches have on athlete development, research related to coaches’ perspectives on social justice issues is warranted. The purpose of the study was to explore Canadian high school sport coaches’ attitudes towards social justice. An online survey saw 392 coaches respond to six open-ended questions on perceived challenges (three questions; n = 989 responses) and recommendations (three questions; n = 724 responses) related to social justice within their teams, schools, and school boards. A content analysis led to coaches’ responses being classified into three groups: (a) high school sport faces social justice issues (57.38%), (b) no social justice challenges and/or recommendations to share (39.34%), and (c) urgency regarding social justice issues is overblown (3.28%). A reflexive thematic analysis, guided by the critical positive youth development framework, was used to develop several overarching themes, highlighting persistent inequities, a lack of involvement from school boards, missed/ignored social justice issues, and a small group of antisocial justice coaches within the Canadian high school sport system. Considerations for coach education programmes and future research are discussed.

Most research on coaching adopts a Western, predominantly Anglo-Saxon, vantage point. This study sought to fill the gap in the literature by providing an Eastern European perspective on transition to high-performance coaching. Ten Polish Olympic coaches were interviewed to glean insights into their career pathways, cumulatively spanning the last three decades. First, using abductive analysis, three patterns of nonlinear career pathways were identified: teacher-track, club-coach track and athlete fast-track. Next, contextual and reflective thematic analyses were employed to examine the environmental constraints affecting role transitions. Consequently, drawing on Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model, the Ecological Model for Coach Development was proposed to offer an alternative perspective on career transitions. The findings provide evidence for the situated and relational nature of career transitions as processes occurring in nested environmental contexts. We claim that advancing knowledge on transitions requires not only zooming into coaches’ lived experiences of transitioning in/out of coaching roles, but also zooming out on macrolevel societal transformation processes, historically rooted values and belief systems, as well as mesolevel institutional constraints that steer career pathways and shape experiences. The study’s ecological orientation has the potential to enhance coaching education and practice by accounting for contextual complexity and temporality.

The purpose of this study was to explore interpretations and implications of head coaches’ use of humour in three national Paralympic teams from the perspective of athletes and integrated support staff. We conducted six focus groups with 19 Paralympic athletes and individual interviews with 10 support staff members across the teams. Our reflexive thematic analysis resulted in two overarching themes that helped us understand how humour influenced feelings of psychological safety in the team environment, as well as considerations or challenges with using humour as a coaching strategy, including miscommunication or misunderstanding. Relational awareness, emotional intelligence, and effective communication were identified as important coaching competencies to consider when implementing humour as a leadership behaviour, particularly in an environment where power differentials of status and disability were present. The study was among the first to explore interpretations and implications of humour as a coaching strategy from athletes and staff in the high-performance parasport context. Coaches who implement humour within their environments are encouraged to reflect on the receivers of the interaction and how to maximise the facilitative rather than debilitative functions of humour as a “double-edged sword” to ultimately promote team satisfaction, well-being, and success.

The coach is identified as a key actor in the development of a high-performing culture in sport, in this case, tennis. Using mixed-methods research design, we investigated the views of the participating high-performance tennis coaches on the International Tennis Federation/Olympic Solidarity coach education and certification programme conducted in Spain, and how they felt their involvement made an impact within their national organisations, by enabling them to develop and implement a coach-created high-performing environment. We collected data using both interview and survey procedures. Our findings from the survey indicated that the participating coaches found the programme to be very helpful to their practice, especially to their long-term tennis development, the structure and organisation of effective tennis programmes, and the implementation of appropriate training methods for their players. Content analysis of the interviews revealed three main themes related to creating a high-performing tennis culture: (a) high-performing environment, (b) deliberate focus on growth and development, and (c) obstacles to creating a tennis culture. We discuss the challenges associated with transferring a successful sports development programme to a different cultural environment and conclude with some key points for effective implementation.