ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights measurement issues in the operationalisation of the coach-athlete relationship. It discusses critical issues and implications surrounding research, theory and practice. The chapter provides empirical evidence to demonstrate that it is the unique interrelating between the coach and the athlete that is likely to bring about positive benefits. It offers adequate breadth and depth that helps readers to build a better understanding about the nature of the coach-athlete relationship in competitive sports. The coach-athlete relationship is defined or conceptualised as a social situation that coaches and athletes create by the ways in which feelings, thoughts and behaviours are mutually and causally interdependent. While the 3Cs outline the social situation coaches and athletes create, the complex nature of this social situation and ultimately the quality of the relationship can be reflected in the degree of interdependence between the 3Cs. Co-orientation is the +1C of the coach-athlete relationship model, and captures the interdependence of the 3Cs.
