Abstract
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Over the past decade, there has been a renewed call for increasing athlete independence
in coaching in sporting environments. Central to this are athlete-centred
approaches, which have been promoted as an innovative approach “enabling athletes
to succeed in and enjoy their sport participation” (Kidman & Lombardo, 2010,
p. 16). Advocates suggest an athlete-centred approach allows athletes to gain control
over their own athletic lives and take greater ownership and personal responsibility
for their decisions (Kidman & Lombardo, 2010). DeSouza and Oslin (2008) also
suggest an athlete-centred approach provides better opportunities for individual
growth in the physical, cognitive, social and affective aspects, leading to improved
decision-making, engagement, communication, competence and motivation. It
is postulated that this provision leads to improved athlete autonomy and allows
them a greater range of choices in relation to learning experiences used in sport
(Kidman & Lombardo, 2010). This is, in part, because an athlete-centred approach
should enable athletes to develop their own solutions to the many variations in play
via the pedagogical aspects used in the approach