ABOUT DEAR COACH:
What do you wish you could have told your coach, but for whatever reason, never did?

When Dr. Sara Erdner, CMPC asked athletes this one question, she received an outpouring of letters that revealed the good and the not-so-good about athletes’ experiences in sport today. Research shows that a high-quality coach-athlete relationship improves performance both in sport and in all areas of life. Yet for all the discussion and research on the state of sports, one important perspective is often ignored: the athletes themselves.

In Dear Coach, Dr. Erdner shares thirty of these letters to reveal the power and potential of the coach-athlete relationship, beginning the much-needed conversation between coaches and athletes directly. Yet the communication problems in sport are not just personal, but systemic. Acknowledging that we all tend to learn by example, Dear Coach also gives coaches and administrators the opportunity to write their own Dear Coach letter, explore how their own coaches may have influenced their current practice, and create their own plan to improve communication on their teams.

Grounded in research and compassion for athletes and coaches alike, Dear Coach gives coaches practical tools to create higher-quality coach-athlete relationships that will not only achieve better performance outcomes, but optimal well-being for everyone involved, inside and outside sport.