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Description: Background: By adopting a motivational interaction style, human and health service professionals are better able to support their clients’ and patients’ motivation and goal pursuit. Evidence shows that such motivational interaction techniques can be learned but that skill acquisition is far from optimal. This may depend on a variety of perceived barriers. The earlier motivational interaction style is learned, the better are the results. We investigated pre-service physical education (PE) teachers’ experiences in using motivational interaction techniques during and after completing a university course on motivational techniques. Methods: Two university courses for students of PE teachers aimed to improve the use of motivational interaction techniques in PE teaching. A subsample of participants was interviewed (course 1, n=8; course 2, n=11). Narrative analysis was used. Results: The participants generally mentioned that motivational interaction techniques were beneficial for fostering motivation and engagement. However, the experiences formed two different storylines: Growth narrative in which the participants experienced that the positive professional growth and transformation occurred through learning the techniques, and Challenge narrative in which the participants feared that some of the techniques might contrast with the traditional PE teacher expert status, undermine the teaching structure and lead to chaos. The growth narrative appeared to be more common than the challenge narrative. Specific merits (e.g. reducing conflicts, developing good relationships, opening new doors and increasing motivation) and concerns (e.g. difficulty to allocate time and feedback equally, fear of awkward interaction or losing control and authority) associate with the use of the individual techniques. Conclusions: To successfully take up motivational techniques, teachers may have to adopt a new conceptualization of the teacher role and relationships with the students. The findings can be used to improve effectiveness and acceptability of training courses on motivational interaction and to facilitate adoption of motivational interaction techniques among professionals.