Shifting perspectives: Transitioning from coach centered to athlete centered

This paper outlines the voices of a practising coach and also athlete who reveal their experiences as they transitioned from the coach centred approach to the athlete centred approach within the Australian swimming culture. Using narrative accounts, their stories of experience are presented. While the benefits that the athlete centred approach to coaching can have for both athletes and coaches have been detailed in numerous research investigations, not as much has been done in relation to challenges faced by the coach and athlete as the transition occurs from coach centred to athlete centred. Inherent challenges in the transition phase from coach centred to athlete centred are important to understand in order to assist coaches and athletes when such a transition occurs. The athlete and coach in this study revealed a number of challenges. Firstly, the extent to which dominant cultural ideologies had permeated their thinking and doing was extensive even though both of them had self-­‐determined the transition. Other issues that arose included disciplinary power and a concern for the approach being untested in terms of competitive performance. From these findings, the authors make a number of suggestions to better support both athletes and coaches during the transition from coach to athlete centred