The Coach-Athlete Communication Process. towards a Better Human Resources Management in Sport

Interpersonal communication plays a key role in obtaining success in sports. Two important parties that communicate in sport are the coach and his athlete(s). The latter one(s) can be seen as the human resources a coach has to manage. These human resources are property of a sports club or team and. In order to improve his management, the coach has to communicate with the athlete(s), face to face interaction defining the nature of sport. The better the management and the interpersonal communication, the better the sporting results. The coach can obtain these improvements by transferring his knowledge to the athlete or even by changing knowledge with him/her, depending on the level of sport the two actors place themselves together. This paper presents how knowledge is communicated at the different levels of sport and which are the four anchors that coaches can use in their communication with the athlete in order to improve the human resources management in sport.