Sport coaching is a complex phenomenon in need of greater conceptual and grounded understandings. Since Heidegger’s influential text; Being and Time (1927/2005), the phenomenological question of what it means to ‘be’ has aided understanding in areas such as nursing and teaching. It is logical then, that this thesis sought to identify what it means to ‘be’ a youth performance coach. The phenomenological tenet that those best placed to elucidate a phenomenon are those that experience it, guided the thesis to explore the lived experiences of four case study coaches. Findings revealed three constituent ‘essences’ of youth performance coaching; (i) care; (ii) a commitment to educate athletes authentically for corporeal challenges to come; (iii) working with others to achieve a specialised corporeal excellence. These findings redirect coaches, researchers and educators ‘back to the thing itself’. The thesis also includes further novel contributions: 1) Phenomenological philosophy and methodology are introduced to coaching research. 2) The essential constituents of youth performance coaching are humanised by describing the incidental experiences and lifeworld of four case study coaches. 3) Fresh concepts (e.g. forms of care), sources (e.g. Sartre, 1943/1984), and areas for future research (e.g. coaching imagination) extend extant sport coaching literature.