The coach-athlete communication interface at an Australian SKI racing club: Coaching styles and coach communication in ski racing

This chapter reports the communication interface between four Alpine ski racing coaches and 28 under-14 athletes (born between 2010–2011 at the time the research was conducted) they coached. All were members of an Australian Alpine ski racing club, with the athletes enrolled in either a part-time (35 days) or full-time (55 days) performance program. Data, as recorded “audio bites” of one-to-one coach/athlete feedback conversations were collected over two days from two different race training courses during winter 2023. Our purpose was to examine coaching styles adopted by the coaches, with focus given to the language used in the provision of feedback and how feedback was given. We were especially interested in the extent to which coaches’ language, particularly concerning technical feedback, creates the kinds of changes in performance the coaches intended. We found that verbal exchanges between the coaches and their athletes could be improved to promote athletic performance and identified opportunities for the coaches to modify their practice through 11 recommendations. Our suggestions for improvement were concerned with language frequency, sequencing, direction and content, as well as timing of co-constructed dialogue derived from the learners’ response to practice.