ABSTRACT
The focus in this chapter is to examine how high-performing (HP) sport systems have evolved from the traditional ‘athlete–coach’ relationship to an increasingly complex team of support staff ranging from sport performance specialists to administrators, mental health experts and wellness ‘coaches.’ The aim of this inquiry is to contribute to our understanding of the complexity of how HP systems work so that coach developers and others involved in this area can build and manage these systems more efficiently and effectively. The complex nature of HP sport has been largely under-explored and under-theorized (Sotiriadou & De Bosscher, 2018). The high-performance term is often used as a catch-all term. Clarifying the definition of high-performance is important and impacts all aspects of a high-performance sport system. Coach development in the field at the high-performance level is difficult to explain, and this illustrates the complex nature of high-performance sport. Case study examples from different high-performance sports provide useful context and perspective to highlight the evolving nature and boundaries of the athlete-centered approach to coaching and how to enable coaches to develop the necessary skills and behaviors. Finally, recommendations are provided for researchers to further advance our understanding of the value of the coach and the coach developer relationship in the high-performance system for the future.
