“Should I stay or should I go?” Is there a use by date on coach-athlete relationships? Shifting, temporal and contextual notions of power-relations within track and field athletics

Consterdine, A ORCID: 0000-0002-8564-1960, Groom, R ORCID: 0000-0001-7633-3846, Oldfield, S ORCID: 0000-0002-7299-1785 and Gale, L ORCID: 0000-0001-9464-2992 (2026) “Should I stay or should I go?” Is there a use by date on coach-athlete relationships? Shifting, temporal and contextual notions of power-relations within track and field athletics. Sports Coaching Review. pp. 1-16. ISSN 2164-0629

Preview

Text Consterdine et al (2026) Should I stay or should I go.pdf - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (824kB) | Preview

Abstract

In high-performance sport, the coach–athlete relationship is often framed as central to athlete development and well-being. Yet, such relationships are dynamic, contested, and deeply embedded within broader sociocultural and institutional landscapes. This study critically reconsiders how athletes experience and interpret these relationships in UK high-performance track and field athletics. Drawing on poststructural and postmodern theory and sensibilities, this research explores how athletes navigate, resist, and engage with complex power relations. Semi-structured interviews with twelve high-performance athletes were analysed through a Neo-Foucauldian lens producing a paired extended vignette. Findings suggest that dominant model-based approaches to coach-athlete relationship research are both limited and limiting, and ignore complex social dynamics. Power is shown to be fluid, temporal, relational, and non-possessive, challenging traditional conceptualisations of power. This work contributes a theoretically rich and empirically grounded reconceptualisation of coach–athlete dynamics, offering new ways to understand how power operates in high-performance sport.

Item Type:	Article
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GV Recreation Leisure > GV561 Sports > GV711 Coaching G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GV Recreation Leisure > GV561 Sports
Divisions:	Sport and Exercise Sciences
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Date of acceptance:	31 August 2026
Date of first compliant Open Access:	10 September 2026
Date Deposited:	10 Sep 2026 10:06
Last Modified:	10 Sep 2026 10:06
DOI or ID number:	10.1080/21640629.2026.2729904
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/29362

View Item