Problems of adolescent girls swimming athletes and coaches and cope methods

The aim of this study is to define the problems of adolescent girl swimmers and their coaches and to reveal the methods of coping with the problems. For this purpose, the views of early girl swimmers on the problems they experience were tried to be conveyed from the perspective of psychosocial development. In addition, the study tried to evaluate the problems caused by the problems of adolescence between the athlete and the coach, and how both the athlete and the coach coped with the problems experienced was examined and evaluated within the framework of coping theory. The study was carried out with the phenomenology design, which is one of the qualitative research methods. 8 girl athletes who do swimming sports in the 15-17 age category and 7 coaches who coached these athletes participated in the study. Data were collected by interview method. An interview form developed by the researcher and consisting of semi-structured questions was used in the study. This form contains 11 questions for athletes and 12 questions for their coaches. The collected data were analyzed by content analysis method, using the qualitative research program MAXQDA 2022, first by creating common conceptual codes and then creating relevant themes. According to the findings of the study, the most basic problem of the athletes was balancing school life with sports activities, while the most basic problem experienced by the coaches was the problems caused by gender differences; it was seen that both groups mostly used the method of getting support as a method of coping with the problems. As a result, it was determined that the female swimming athletes experienced problems originating from the puberty period and that these problems were reflected in their relationships with their coaches and their sports performance. The study's findings provide important clues to understand the difficulties of adolescent female swimming athletes and their coaches and develop coping strategies.