Coach behaviours and the lived experience of tournament coaching: A case study of a senior men's international futsal team

Research on coaching behaviour is dominated by football and is typically situated in training rather than competition. In contrast, futsal, and the tournament environment in particular, remain under-examined. This case study explored the behaviours employed by, and the experiences surrounding, the head coach and assistant coach of a senior men's international futsal team during the preliminary round of the 2028 FIFA Futsal World Cup European Qualifiers. A mixed methods design combined systematic observation of both coaches across three matches, one training session, and nine meetings with 10 semi-structured interviews involving seven participants, which were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Observationally, silence, instruction, and direct management, were prominent behaviours (frequency and duration) for both the head coach and assistant coach across all environments, with conferring with assistants also prevalent during matches. Where there was a recipient of coach behaviour, the primary recipient shifted from individuals during matches to the team during training and meetings. Five themes were developed from the interview data: (a) engineering the flow of information; (b) individualised, relationship-driven coaching; (c) collective emotional regulation within the tournament “bubble”; (d) the coach's negotiation between craft and instinct; and (e) building a performance culture across a generational divide. The results demonstrate that tournament coaching is an act of information management, relational work, and emotional labour that extends well beyond visible on-court instruction. Findings offer practical implications for coach education, staff coordination, and player support in compressed, high-stakes competition.