Corey Twine on performance team boundaries

Corey Twine pointed Wednesday to a problem that performance staffs know well: interdisciplinary teams can become less effective when practitioners protect access instead of moving an athlete to the right expert. His post cited 2026 work by Annika Steinmann, David Jaitner and Swen Koerner on how role boundaries operate inside elite-sport support teams. The underlying research does not center on mental-performance consultants specifically; it studies coaches and physiotherapists in German elite sport. But its core finding is broader: collaboration improves when professionals understand and respect one another’s distinct responsibilities. ### Which study is Twine pointing people toward? Annika Steinmann, David Jaitner and Swen Koerner published at least two closely linked 2026 papers on this topic. A March 9 paper in the *European Journal for Sport and Society* examined “intersystem conflicts” between coaches and physiotherapists in elite sport support teams. The German Sport University Cologne record says the study used expert interviews with 45 people across 28 Olympic disciplines in Germany. (fis.dshs-koeln.de) A second paper, published August 19 in *Frontiers in Sociology*, analyzed the “intersystem sensitivity” of coaches and physiotherapists in German elite sport support teams. The authors again said the work was based on 45 expert interviews and focused on conflict potentials and ways to optimize interaction between professions. ### What do the authors mean by boundaries? The March paper says elite sport creates social conflict partly because coaches and physiotherapists work from different “interpretative frameworks” and “functional expectations.” The authors wrote that these differences shape collaborative practice and can produce friction unless each profession can identify, moderate and resolve conflicts around its role. (fis.dshs-koeln.de) (frontiersin.org) The August paper makes the same point in more direct operational terms. Steinmann, Jaitner and Koerner wrote that effective collaboration depends “substantially” on the ability to understand and respect the professional logics and goals of other team members. They argued that promoting “intersystem sensitivity” and targeted professionalization is necessary to reduce professional conflict and improve joint athlete care. (fis.dshs-koeln.de) ### How does that connect to hand-offs inside performance teams? Corey Twine’s framing turns the papers into a practical rule for integrated performance work: the job is not to keep the athlete inside one silo, but to move that athlete to the right person at the right time. That reading fits the studies’ emphasis on distinct professional roles and on reducing conflict by recognizing where one remit ends and another begins. (frontiersin.org) A mental-performance coach, for example, may spot that an athlete’s issue is better handled by strength and conditioning, physiotherapy, medicine or coaching. The studies do not give that exact example, but they do argue that collaboration improves when staff respect other professions’ goals rather than collapsing them into a single all-purpose role. ### Why does role clarity matter for athlete care? (frontiersin.org) The August paper says collaborative relationships between coaches and physiotherapists matter for both sporting success and athlete health. The March paper similarly presents conflict resolution and clearer role understanding as part of more effective joint care. In both papers, the athlete sits at the point where competing professional priorities meet. (frontiersin.org) That makes boundaries less about turf and more about service delivery. If one practitioner delays a referral to preserve influence, the athlete can end up with slower care, mixed messages or duplicated work. The authors’ language about intersystem sensitivity suggests the opposite model: know your function, recognize another expert’s function, and coordinate accordingly. That is an inference from the studies’ findings, not a direct quote. (frontiersin.org) ### What is the cleanest takeaway for practitioners? The clearest takeaway from Steinmann, Jaitner and Koerner’s 2026 work is that integrated support does not erase professional boundaries; it depends on them. Their research on coaches and physiotherapists in German elite sport argues that teams work better when roles are explicit, conflicts are recognized early and professionals are sensitive to the logic of adjacent disciplines. (frontiersin.org) The most recent paper in that line was published on August 19, 2026 in *Frontiers in Sociology*, and the earlier *European Journal for Sport and Society* article appeared on March 9, 2026. Twine’s September 2 post brought that research back into the practitioner conversation by applying it to day-to-day hand-offs in human performance settings. (frontiersin.org)