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Professional Coaches’ Perspectives on the Return to Sport Following Serious Injury

2007; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 19; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/10413200701188951

1533-1571

Leslie Podlog, Robert C. Eklund,

Spinal Cord Injury Research

Research examining the role of coach assistance among athletes in injury rehabilitation (e.g., Bianco, 2001 Bianco, T. 2001. Social support and recovery from sport injury: Elite skiers share their experiences. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 72: 376–388. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Johnston & Carroll, 1998 Johnston, L. H. and Carroll, D. 1998. The provision of social support to injured athletes: A qualitative analysis. Journal of Sport Rehabilitation, 7: 267–284. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) indicates that coaches can play a significant role in the recovery of athletes with injuries. Little is known, however, about coaches' roles in assisting athletes in the post-injury recovery time period when the athlete is returning to competition. The purpose of this study was to examine professional coaches' perspectives of the return-to-sport transition, their role in decisions to return athletes to training and competition, and their role in assisting athletes through this adjustment period. The 14 professional coaches from Western Australia and New Zealand appeared to possess a good understanding of the stressors of returning to sport and recognized the importance of assisting athletes with this transition. The findings are discussed with regard to the extant stress and social support literature on the psychology of athletic injury.