COACHES‘ COMMUNICATION: DEVELOPING LIFE SKILLS IN SPECIAL ATHLETES

Abstract

Research has shown how involvement in sports can lead to the development of a variety of life skills in an individual. The purpose of this study was to examine the techniques used by Special Olympics Pakistan coaches during the interpersonal communication with the athletes and their subsequent effects on the life skill development in special athletes. A constructivist approach was employed using Merriam‘s (2002) basic interpretative qualitative method. Twelve participants were selected for the study, four of whom were Special Olympics Pakistan (SOP) athletes, and the rest were their respective coaches and caregivers, one for each. The data was collected using semi-structured interviews. Albert Bandura‘s (1995) social cognitive theory was used for the analysis of the gathered data, which is consistent with the constructivist paradigm used as a basis for the research. Braun and Clark‘s (2006) six phases helped in carrying out the thematic analysis of the coded data. The analysis led to the division of coaching strategies into four deductive themes: motivation, perception, comprehension and memory; driven by another factor inductively themed as coaching philosophy; while the psychosocial impact and the development of life skills was deductively divided according to the three Cs from four Cs of positive youth development: character, connection and confidence. Each theme, other than the coaching philosophy, was inductively divided into subthemes to offer a more comprehensive image of the data. The results provide a broad detail of which coaching techniques are employed by the SOP coaches for their interpersonal interactions with the athletes and how these strategies produce positive and significant psychosocial influences in special athletes, leading to the development of life skills in those athletes. As one of the first studies of its kind in Pakistan, this study can prove to be a useful IV addition to the existing literature on communication strategies used by the coaches, impact of sports participation on people with intellectual disabilities and role of Special Olympics in Pakistan. The study also highlights the areas for further research to expand knowledge in this field.