"Swinging in the breeze" : division 1 athletes' experience of a coaching transition

The purpose of this study was to achieve a rich description of Division I athletes' experience of a coaching transition. To obtain a meaningful description of this phenomenon, an existential-phenomenological dialogue was utilized. The existentialphenomenological dialogue, as Pollio, Henley, and Thompson (1997) noted, is a method or path that seems natural to attain a proper description of the human experience. This dialogue, a second person interaction between the researcher and the co-researcher (i.e. the participant), is critical. The investigator, assumed a respectful position to the real expert, the co-researcher (Pollio, et al. 1997). The phenomenological interview utilizes a single original question directing the participant to describe his or her experience. All questions henceforth flowed from the dialogue generated by this question in an openended and unstructured manner. Eight athletes were interviewed with each of the interviews lasting an average of 60 minutes. Upon completion and transcription of the interviews, an analysis of the data occurred using three hermeneutic approaches (i.e., group interpretation, idiographic interpretation, and nomothetic interpretation). Utilizing a Gestalt ground/figure perspective, five major themes emerged (1) Change, (2) Expectations, (3) Bonding, (4) Acclimation or Transitional Alienation, and (5) Growth to form the figure of the thematic structure. These themes were set against the ground of performance. In addition, an existential core emerged from these dialogues. This core, the athlete-coach relationship, represented the situation or world through which the experience of a coaching transition for these individuals was lived. Follow-up interviews confirmed these themes.