THE ROLE OF BEING A SUCCESSFUL SPORTS COACH
INTRODUCTION
The role of the coach is one that enables the athlete to achieve levels of performance to a degree that may not have been possible if left to his/her own endeavors. In a website dedicated primarily for the profession of coaching, it quoted Dyson speaking to the 19th session of the International Olympic Academy, Greece 1979, stated that the wise coach develops not only the fullest physical potential in his charges, but also those capacities and habits of mind and body which will enrich and ennoble their later years. (www.drianmac.demon.co.uk) The role of the coach could be fairly intimidating since the above implies what could be construed as quite overwhelming responsibility. The role of the coach is to create the right environment for learning to happen and to find methods of encouraging the athletes. Most athletes are highly motivated and therefore the task is to maintain that motivation and to generate excitement and enthusiasm. The roles that one will find one undertake as a coach will be many and varied and will consequently find at some stage in a coaching career that one will be an instructor, assessor, friend, mentor, facilitator, chauffeur, demonstrator, advisor, supporter, fact finder, motivator, counselor, organizer, planner and the Fountain of all Knowledge.
Moreover, the roles of the coach and athlete in determining training requirements will change over the time an athlete is with a coach. (www.drianmac.demon.co.uk) Similarly, when an athlete first starts in a sport/event the coach’s role is to direct the athlete in all aspects of training (autocratic role). As the athlete develops and demonstrates a sound technical understanding of the sport/event then gradually the coach’s role changes to one where the coach and athlete discuss and agree appropriate training requirements (democratic role). Concurringly, as the athlete matures and demonstrates a sound understanding of training principals then the athlete will determine the training requirements. The coach’s role becomes one of a mentor providing advice and support as and when required.
LITERATURE REVIEW
The coaching profession could be defined as both art and science. (www.drianmac.demon.co.uk) As a science, sport coaching intends to support the coach there is a wealth of scientific information based on research conducted with athletes. Information is available to support the coach and athlete in all areas of training and development including nutrition, biomechanics, psychology, physiology & medicine. There are a number of scientific methods to measure and analyze the athlete’s performance. On the other hand, coaching becomes an art when the coach has to analyze the scientific data and convert it into coaching and training programs to help develop the athlete. This analysis process relies heavily on the coach’s experience and knowledge of the event/sport and the athlete concerned.
This section of the study will discuss the literature relating to the profession of sport coaching as an art and as science. In a study made by Vealey and his colleagues (1998), it tackled several discussions on how the athletes’ perceptions of a coach’s behavior and communication style relate to levels of burnout and anxiety experienced by athletes was studied. In this study, a modified version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory was used to measure burnout in coaches, and the Eades Athletic Burnout Inventory was used to measure six components of athlete burnout. It should be noted that this study only investigated relationships and not causes. Thus, if significant relationships exist in the findings, it should not be concluded that one set of variable causes another. The study found out that coach burnout was significantly related to perceived coaching styles/behavior. The burnout factors of depersonalization, emotional exhaustion, and autocratic style were related to coaching behaviors that emphasized negative reactions and emphases and an emphasis on winning. On the other hand, a coach’s personal accomplishment was related to athletes’ perceptions of communication ability, use of praise, and relating to athletes. This implies that coaches who emphasize good communications, use more praise than reproof, and relate to athletes’ feelings, goals, needs, and areas of interest, are likely to experience personal satisfaction with their coaching role. If these behaviors are predominant in a coach’s style, then both the coach and athletes will likely enjoy each other. However, increased use of negative behaviors (reproof, correction) and an emphasis on winning, as opposed to individual athletes’ achievements, are indicative behaviors of coach burnout. The study also found out that coaching styles/behaviors were predictive of athlete burnout. Athletes with burnout perceived coaches to have reduced empathy, an autocratic style, and an increase in negative behaviors. This assertion implicates that when handling athletes with burnout, coaches should emphasize an increase in empathy, positive reactions, and a cooperative or consultative coaching style. Generally, the study sought to invoke that both coach and athlete burnout states influence the other person’s behaviors and attitudes at training. When either party is fatigued or burned-out, a coach should focus on improving empathy, increasing positive interactions, and involving athletes in training program content decision-making.
On another study made by Rushall (1991), which sought to provide a complete description of imagery concepts, uses, and programs to improve athletes’ performances. His study highlights the latest techniques, practices, and research involving imagery in sports. Step-by-step directions of what to do, say, and imagine are provided. This information is essential for the effective use of imagery for learning skills and tactics and for improving competitive performances. It features: (i) Learning Imagery — the features, steps, and use of imagery that are appropriate for learning sporting and movement skills; (ii) Performance Enhancement Imagery — the features, steps, and use of imagery that are appropriate for the enhancement of competitive performances; and (iii) Research — the synthesis and interpretation of the latest research and practical applications of imagery in sporting environments and movement activities.
Furthermore, a study made by Horn (1985) regarding the influence of coaches on a child’s physical competence evaluated five coaches and female players of junior high school softball. A variety of measures of game and practice behaviors were analyzed. Three major findings resulted. First, the players’ perceptions of physical and cognitive abilities were related to coaches’ evaluative feedback at practice. Game feedback was not related. Secondly, the players’ perceptions of competence were related to players’ attained skill ability; and coaches’ practice-time evaluative feedback. And lastly, punishment was negatively correlated with self-perception. This study implies that an athlete will eventually come to believe what a coach says about his/her standard of performance at practice. If a coach does not respond positively then the athlete’s self-perception of his/her competency in the sport will eventually be degraded.
On a similar study regarding the behavior of coaches, the study of Gardner et al (1996) sought to gauge the effects of the actions of the coach with its team’s cohesion. The study showed the relationship between perceived leadership behaviors and team cohesion in high school and junior college baseball and softball teams was researched. It required athletes representing 23 teams, responded to the Leadership Scale for Sports (LSS) and the Group Environment Questionnaire (GEQ). Correlation and multivariate analyses indicated significant relationships between perceived leader behaviors and team cohesion. According to the study, coaches who were perceived as high in training and instruction, democratic behavior, social support, and positive feedback, and low in autocratic behavior, had teams that were more cohesive. There were significant differences between genders and athletes at the two school levels in their perceptions of coaching behaviors and team cohesion, though these demographic variables did not significantly moderate the leadership-cohesion relationship. This implies that the way a group of athlete functions together is related to coaching behaviors. To promote team spirit and cohesion the several coaching behaviors such as the conduct training sessions, which are viewed as important and high in productive training time, emphasis on skill instruction for all athletes in the group, stress positive feedback, and the involvement of athletes in decision-making, opinion casting, and responsibilities, are deemed important.
In another study, Allen and Howe (1998) investigated the effects of the attitude of coaches in the perceived competence and satisfaction of female athletes. The study examined the relationship between athlete ability and coach feedback with perceived competence and satisfaction among female adolescent athletes. The field hockey players reported their perceptions of coaches’ use of feedback, their own playing competence, and satisfaction with the coach and team involvement. Coaches’ ratings of athlete ability were obtained. The study found out that the higher a player’s ability and the more frequent coach feedback, the greater the relationship with perceived competence and player satisfaction. High levels of perceived competence were related to higher ability, more frequent praise and information, and less encouragement and corrective information. Frequent corrective coaching behaviors of skill errors were related to lower perceptions of competence. Encouragement most likely was interpreted as helping behaviors, and more of it indicated lower levels of perceived competence and ability. This result of the study implies that coaches should minimize negative feedback (corrective) behaviors and avoid encouragement of a helping nature when working with adolescent females. Positive feedback behaviors are likely to be more effective and create better perceptions of confidence.
In a study of Chase et al (1997), it coined the term Self-Efficacy. In this study, the term was defined as a judgment about one’s capability to successfully perform a task at given levels. The study investigated the relationship between coaches’ expectations for their teams, ratings of opponents’ ability, perceived control over outcome, perceived importance of success, and basketball performance. It also attempted to identify sources of coaches’ team efficacy. Efficacy expectations (not to be confused with outcome expectations) were compared with team performance outcomes. Four collegiate women’s basketball coaches completed questionnaires before to 10 games. The study uncovered that anxiety and concentration dependent performance (e.g., free-throws and turnovers), were significantly correlated with coaches’ efficacy expectations. Perhaps these types of behaviors are emphasized more at training than others. Sources of coaches’ efficacy revealed a relationship between coaches’ perceived level of control and their level of efficacy. The higher a coach’s level of control, the higher their efficacy level. The findings of the study imply that other aspects of performance (e.g., field goals, rebounds, steals, assists) should be emphasized in a similar manner to anxiety and concentration dependent behaviors at training. That would improve the relationship between coaches’ performance and efficacy outcomes. As coaches increase their levels of control, they become more confident about their effectiveness. However, such an increase in autocracy is often counterproductive as athletes’ responses decline in environments where that type of coaching is emphasized.
A similar study by Sinclair and Vealey (1989) measured the effects of coaches’ expectations and feedback on the self-perceptions of athletes. The study measured the female field hockey players from three Canadian provincial teams were assessed over a season of competition. Coaches’ expectations about athletes’ abilities, how those expectations affected the type of feedback provided, and the effects of those factors on athletes’ perceived competence, self-esteem, and self-confidence were measured. The findings of the study stated that high expectancy athletes received more specific and evaluative feedback and less prescriptive feedback than low expectancy athletes. Self-confidence was the only self-perception to change over the course of the season. Gains in self-confidence were associated with the amount of immediate positive feedback provided by coaches. Moreover, the expectancy theory, often termed self-fulfilling prophecy, is concerned with how coaches’ expectations affect their interactions with athletes and in turn how the process influences athletes’ behaviors. In sports a four-step model has been proposed. The study found out that coaches develop expectations regarding the skill potential of their athletes early in the year or season. Likewise, the expectations influence the quantity and quality of coaches’ interactions with athletes. Differences in feedback which athletes receive influence their self-perceptions, motivations, and opportunities to learn. Consequently after a period of time, athletes’ performance behaviors may conform to the coaches’ initial expectations. These finding entail that the manner how a coach habitually reacts toward an athlete will affect that athlete’s perception of him/herself. Thus, it is essential that coaches react primarily in a positive manner toward athletes if those athletes are to continue participating fully in a sport.
Another study by Cortolli, Robazza and Giabardo (1995) sought to analyze the perception of the athletes with regards to their coaches’ behavior. the researchers utilized two forms of a questionnaire, one assessing the athlete’s coach, the other assessing the athlete’s “ideal” coach, were administered to individual and sport team members of both genders aged 10 to 17 years. Each coach was evaluated by a minimum of five athletes. Generally, students would have liked to have a better coach than the one to which they were exposed. Younger athletes and athletes of team sports gave better evaluations of their real coach than older and individual-sport athletes did. This insinuates that teenage athletes generally wish for a better coach. An emphasis on improving coaching to generate a more positive coach-athlete relationship is warranted.
On the other hand, a study by Kenow and Williams (1999) sought to recognize the coach-athlete compatibility as associated with an athlete’s responsiveness to a coach program. The purpose of the study was to explore whether: (a) coach-athlete compatibility is significantly related to athletes’ perceptions and evaluations of coaching behaviors, (b) whether compatibility mediates the relationships of anxiety and self-confidence with athletes’ perceptions of coaching behaviors, and (c) compatibility, trait anxiety, state anxiety, and/or state self-confidence can significantly predict athletes’ perceptions of coaching behaviors. The researchers stated that the non-scholarship collegiate basketball players (N = 68) completed the Coach Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ). The CBQ consists of 28 items of which 20 yield important information. Anxiety was measured with the Sport Competition Anxiety Test and the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2. Compatibility was measured on a specially devised, scaled checklist. The researchers posited that trait anxiety, state cognitive and somatic anxiety, state self-confidence, and compatibility were significantly related to athletes’ evaluations of coaching behaviors. Compatibility and state cognitive anxiety significantly predicated athletes’ evaluations of coaching behaviors. A stepwise multiple-regression analysis showed that coach-athlete compatibility and athlete’s cognitive anxiety were the best predictors of how an athlete perceives coaching behaviors. These findings suggest that an athlete’s appraisal of coaching behaviors is associated with positive compatibility between the coach and athlete and a reduction in an athlete’s cognitive anxiety. The relationship is important because a worsening of these two factors will reduce an athlete’s responsiveness to a coach’s program.
Another study by Solomon and company (1996) sought to investigate the implications for effective coaching. The college basketball coaches and players participated in a study that examined the relationship between the self-fulfilling prophecy and effective coaching. The variables analyzed were coach feedback, including differences between high- and low-expectancy players, and player perceptions of feedback. The Coaching Behavior Assessment System and J. L. Cole’s (1979) Descriptive Analysis System were used to record coaching behavior during practices. The findings stated that the head coaches offered more mistake-related feedback while assistant coaches offered more reinforcement and encouragement. Head coaches provided more of all types of feedback to high-expectancy athletes. Results from a 28-item questionnaire indicated that high-expectancy athletes perceived their coaches more positively than did low-expectancy athletes. Overall, the findings suggest that college routines may not parallel effective coaching techniques as defined by the self-fulfilling prophecy. This indicates that it is disturbing that head and assistant coaches react differently to players within the same team. Such a difference will divide loyalties and produce preferences for particular associations. Favoritism toward high-level performers is not new in sports but in college environments is cause for alarm. The researchers stated that it is regrettable that in institutions of higher learning such fundamental behavior errors as stressing mistakes, favoring some players over others, and performing different behaviors when part of the “same” coaching staff occur.
And lastly, the study of Amorose and Wiess (1998) sought to examine the effects of the coaches’ reaction to the performance of young children. According to the study, boys and girls, comprising age groups of 6-8 years and 12-14 years, viewed videotapes of youth athletes attempting to hit a baseball or softball. A coach who provided evaluative, informational, or neutral feedback followed trials. Ss rated each observed athlete’s ability, effort, and future expectancy of success. Following successful attempts, both age groups rated praise higher than neutral and informational feedback as a source of ability information. When informational feedback followed unsuccessful attempts, athletes were rated highest, followed by neutral feedback and criticism. Based on open-ended questionnaire responses the found out those older respondents used their own evaluation of skill levels more than a coach’s response to form an opinion about an individual’s performance competency while the younger respondents used both self-evaluation and coach’s responses as cues to infer competency. Generally, younger respondents used a wider variety of cues to infer performance characteristics and quality while older Ss used more of their own decision-making qualities to influence opinions. The findings imply that the children’s perceptions of the performance qualities of other athletes are influenced as much by a coach’s reaction as their own opinions in younger individuals, but in older age-group young adolescents, personal decisions are more influential than a coach’s reactions.
THESIS STATEMENT
In the world of sports, the modern coach has become a complex leadership figure. The coach is to manage people through learning, development and opportunities for self-expression and with constant focus on each individual’s full potential in relation to the team. This requires that the coach have adequate human and psychological insight to manage and understand each person as a whole instead of placing people within narrow areas defined only by technical skills. In this way, the coach’s attitudes, values and personality become crucial for the future attraction of the best team players, which are imperative for the team’s success.
RESEARCH PROBLEM A notable number of related literatures have provided the great responsibility placed in the hands of the sports coach. The performance of the athlete is dependent to the coach. The exemplary performance and motivation of an athlete is the barometer of a coaches’ success with respect to his proper playing of his responsibilities as a coach. Nonetheless, the coach also inevitably provides psychological consequences to its apprentices. Thus it is imperative for coaches to be well aware of the specific roles that he must play to be considered as successful. OBJECTIVES The aim of the following thesis is to examine the effectivity of coaches in terms of their proper administration of their respective athletes. RESEARCH QUESTIONS This study seeks to identify the roles of being a successful sport coach. Specifically, it seeks to answer the following questions: 1. Is the coach knowledgeable in his specific sport? 2. Does he continue to pursue additional insights? 3. Does he have good organizational skills? 4. Does he have a strong work ethic? 5. Is he a good communicator? 6. Does he appeal to the human side of his/her athletes? 7. Is he honest and just? HYPOTHESIS The effectivity of the sport coaches’ roles is significantly related to his/her relationship among his athletes. METHODOLOGY
The methodology of this study should be based on the evaluation of a number of roles relevant to the coaching profession, by using of both self-administered questionnaire, and interviews. The questionnaire should contain from 18 to 20 questions used to collect information about a specific coaches as perceived by their respective athletes. The interview questions are geared towards the collating the roles of a successful sport coach as perceived by the coaches themselves.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Vealey, R. S., Armstrong, L., Comar, W., & Greenleaf, C. A. (1998). Influence of perceived coaching behaviors on burnout and competitive anxiety in female college athletes. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 10, 297-318.
Rushall, B. S. (1991). Imagery training in sports: A handbook for athletes, coaches, and sport psychologists. Spring Valley, CA: Sports Science Associates. Published in Australia by the Australian Coaching Council, Canberra, ACT.
Horn, T. S. (1985). Coaches’ feedback and changes in children’s perceptions of their physical competence. Journal of Educational Psychology, 77, 174-186.
Gardner, D. E., Shields, D. L., Bredemeier, B. J., & Bostrom, A. (1996). The relationship between perceived coaching behaviors and team cohesion among baseball and softball players. Sport Psychologist, 10, 367-381.
Allen, J. B., & Howe, B. L. (1998). Player ability, coach feedback, and female adolescent athletes’ perceived competence and satisfaction. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 20, 280-299.
Chase, M. A., Lirgg, C. D., & Feltz, D. L. (1997) Do coaches’ efficacy expectations for their teams predict team performance? The Sport Psychologist, 11, 8-22.
Sinclair, D. A., & Vealey, R. S. (1989). Effects of coaches’ expectations and feedback on the self-perceptions of athletes. Journal of Sport Behavior, 12(2), 77-91.
Bortoli, L., Robazza, C., & Giabardo, S. (1995). Young athletes’ perception of coaches’ behavior. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 81, 1217-1218.
Kenow, L., & Williams, J. M. (1999). Coach-athlete compatibility and athlete’s perception of coaching behaviors. Journal of Sport Behavior, 22, 251-260.
Solomon, G. B., Striegel, D. A., Eliot, J. F., & Heon, S. N. (1996). The self-fulfilling prophecy in college basketball: Implications for effective coaching. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 8, 44-59.
Amorose, A. J., & Weiss, M. R. (1998). Coaching feedback as a source of information about perceptions of ability: A developmental examination. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 20, 395-420.
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