Trust Within a High Performance Sport: A Performance Analyst’s Perspective

This study aims to capture and explore my personal experiences of trust whilst working as a performance analyst. I began working as a PhD research student and a high performance Paralympic sport performance analyst in April 2014. To critically analyse my role within the team as the sole sports performance analyst, an autoethnographic approach was adopted. Following ethical approval, I maintained a self-reflective diary drawing on my thoughts, opinions and experiences during a fifteen-month period between April 2014 and June 2015. I conducted an inductive thematic content analysis on the recorded reflections whereby the phenomenon of trust emerged as a key theme. To explore the importance of trust, I engage with key theoretical concepts (Hoy and Tschannen-Moran, 1999, Journal of School Leadership, 9, 184-208; Day, 2009, Journal of Educational Administration, 47 (6), 719-730; Sztompka, 2000, Trust: A sociological theory, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press; Hardin, 2002, Trust and Trustworthiness, New York: Russell Sage Foundation) and draw upon the key personality traits and characteristics identified for effective sport science practitioner to excel within their respected discipline (Partington and Orlick, 1987, The Sport Psychologist, 1, 309-317; Lubker et al., 2008, Journal of Sport Behaviour, 31 (2), 147-165). Four essential components for establishing trust between myself, and the athletes and staff were identified: appearance and visibility, confidence, honesty and integrity, and self-care. Stronger athlete-coach-analyst relationships were established once each team member articulated the four components. Athletes and coaches became attuned to the importance of performance analysis and a greater utilisation of the discipline was observed within the team’s practice. Trust therefore must be established by a performance analyst between athletes and coaches in order to advance the provision of performance analysis within a high performance sport system.