Two Sides of a Tale: A Narrative Exploration of Post-Injury Fear in a Gymnast-Coach Dyad

Gymnastics is a sport with a high risk of injury creating many opportunities for a gymnast to experience injury-related fear. Little is known about how gymnasts experience fear and how coaches perceive gymnasts' fear. The present study was aimed at exploring the experiences of post-injury fear in a gymnast-coach dyad. Two male participants (a gymnast and his coach) were involved in narrative-type interviews about their experiences of the same incident of the gymnast’s fear. The holistic form-structural analysis revealed three narratives: a hero’s journey narrative (coach) and a chaos narrative followed by a redemption narrative (gymnast). The stories had different foci. The coach took a career perspective focusing on the fear incident as a part of the athlete’s personal development. The gymnast focused more on injuries, fear experiences, and how he coped. The findings illuminate how two collaborating people can experience the same incident of fear differently and how those different views complement each other.