Empathic accuracy in coach–athlete dyads who participate in team and individual sports

Objective: The purpose of the present study was to investigate the empathic accuracy of coach–athlete dyads participating in team and individual sports. Method: An adaptation of Ickes’s [2001. Measuring empathic accuracy. In J. A. Hall & F. J. Bernieri (Eds.), Interpersonal sensitivity (pp. 219–242). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates] unstructured dyadic interaction paradigm was used to assess the empathic accuracy of 40 coach–athlete dyads. Accordingly, each dyad was filmed during a training session. The dyad members viewed selected video footage that displayed discrete interactions that had naturally occurred during that session. Dyad members reported what they remembered thinking/feeling while making inferences about what their partner’s thought/felt at each point. Empathic accuracy was estimated by comparing self-reports and inferences. Results: The results indicted that accuracy for coaches in individual sports was higher than coaches in team sports. Shared cognitive focus also differed between team and individual sports, and fully mediated the effect of sport-type on coach empathic accuracy. Moreover, coaches whose training sessions were longer demonstrated increased empathic accuracy. No differences were found for athletes. Conclusions: The results suggest that the dynamics of the interaction between a coach and an athlete play a key role in how accurately they perceive each other. 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Coaches and athletes work closely together, they form close relationships, and have a high degree of interaction and reliance upon each other. This is manifested in interdependence of the coach’s and the athlete’s affect, cognition, and behaviors (Jowett, 2007), and in the athlete’s need to acquire knowledge and skill from the coach, the coach’s need to impart knowledge, experience, and expertise to the athlete, and for them both to translate this information into positive outcomes such as performance success (Antonini Philippe & Seiler, 2006). This highly complex and interdependent process primarily unfolds in the training environment or during periods of practicing the requisite skills, techniques, and strategies. The manner in which coaches and athletes interact can have a profound impact upon the effectiveness of their training sessions which, in turn, is possible that this may directly or indirectly influence such factors as satisfaction, enjoyment, motivation, and performance. The manner in which coaches and athletes interact can shape the quality of their dyadic athletic relationship and also determine the quality of coaching (Jowett & Poczwardowski, 2007). cise Sciences, Loughborough