Our study aims to analyse the perception of elite handball players, belonging to generations with different levels of success, on: i) how they characterize their most important club and national team coach; ii) how they characterize their preferential coach in the different stages of their sports career (Bloom, 1985).Fourteen athletes were interviewed based on the interview protocol of Gould, Dieffenbach and Moffett (2002). In the specialization years, the most successful athletes reported that they had one coach in the club, and at the same time a national team coach, that permanently marked their sports career and their personality.All athletes reported that detailed knowledge about the sport was the most important characteristic of their most important club and national team coaches, throughout the specialization years in addition to a strong insistence on perfection. According to the perception of the most successful athletes, their reference coaches taught directly and indirectly (caring, paying attention, shaping the personality) and also emphasized expectations, hard work, discipline and the attitude that hard work pays off. In addition, both club and national team coaches devoted their time to the planning of individualized training programs, particularly in the specializations years. Our study aims to analyse the perception of elite handball players, belonging to generations with different levels of success, on: i) how they characterize their most important club and national team coach; ii) how they characterize their preferential coach in the different stages of their sports career (Bloom, 1985).Fourteen athletes were interviewed based on the interview protocol of Gould, Dieffenbach and Moffett (2002). In the specialization years, the most successful athletes reported that they had one coach in the club, and at the same time a national team coach, that permanently marked their sports career and their personality.All athletes reported that detailed knowledge about the sport was the most important characteristic of their most important club and national team coaches, throughout the specialization years in addition to a strong insistence on perfection. According to the perception of the most successful athletes, their reference coaches taught directly and indirectly (caring, paying attention, shaping the personality) and also emphasized expectations, hard work, discipline and the attitude that hard work pays off. In addition, both club and national team coaches devoted their time to the planning of individualized training programs, particularly in the specializations years.

Regular exercise helps to mitigate psychological issues during stressful conditions, such as the COVID-19 lockdown. Since the mental health impact depends on the duration of social isolation, we aimed to characterize exercise routines and mental health after the first and second Portuguese COVID-19 lockdowns. A total of 27 Portuguese amateur athletes (AA, n = 11) and fitness enthusiasts (FE, n = 16) participated in a semi-structured interview. The results showed that both FE and AA experienced negative symptoms (stress, anxiety, depression, frustration, fatigue and saudade) during the first lockdown, which were reported as both barriers to and motivators for physical activity. Both groups managed to adapt to changes in daily schedules, the closure of sports facilities and a lack of social support by modifying their exercise routines. Strategies such as using music and social media networks were employed to enhance motivation and self-perception. We can conclude that mental health issues served both as barriers to and motivators for physical activity, and exercise was a valuable tool for overcoming the psychological consequences of the two lockdowns.

Social justice has become the panacea for all types of concerns and issues—providing a sense that all concerns are worthwhile, comprehensive, and matter for today’s world. Thus, developing alternative concepts, ideas, and imaginaries can potentially provide solid grounds for scholars to advance beyond conventional understandings about social justice. Therefore, this manuscript aims to experiment with ethics of care as a conceptual device to disrupt Trumpism, as well as propose alternative worlds where sport, youth/athlete development, and social justice can connect otherwise. Specifically, efforts will be deployed to advance notions concerning sport–social justice in ways beyond our contemporary understandings. The work of feminist theorist and scholar Maria Puig de la Bellacasa (and many other human, non-human and more-than-human entities) is used to situate care as a relational doing. Moving forward, alternative worlds with alternative caring responsibilities matter if youth sport is to continuously thrive for justice. The conventional game of sport–social justice inquiry may have consequences and implications for caring that may be deemed unsustainable and continued sources of oppression. Therefore, caring becomes much more than a fact, a concern, or a concept. It becomes an ontological compromise, an ideal, and an ontological project for scholarly work, which implies a willingness to navigate towards the unknown and unprecedented—potentially our main caring responsibility as scholars.