european college of sport science

Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
Hasegawa, H., Yamauchi, T., and Kraemer, W.J. (2007) Foot strike patterns of runners at the 15-km point during an elite level half marathon.
Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 21(3): 888-893.
13:00 - 14:00
Poster presentations
PP-CO02 Coaching 2
THE MEETING IN A SUCCESSFULLY COACH-ATHLETE RELATIONSHIP
JOHANSEN, B.T., SVELA, A.E.
UNIVERSITY OF AGDER
Introduction: The purpose of this study was to investigate the meeting that take place in professional coaching in a coach-athlete relationship,
all facets related to the process leading up to a successfully coach-athlete relationship (Jowett, 2008), communication in the
relationship, type of leadership, and factors related to their satisfaction with performance and instruction of their coach-athlete relationship.
Method
Due to the two different types of sports that exist, individual and team sports, two different coach-athlete relationships were included in
this study, but only results from the team dyad will be presented in this paper. The team sport coach and athlete are performing at top
national level in football, and the dyad is respectively the head coach and the captain of the team. They share a history of three years
together. The coach is 42 years of age, coaching experience from top national level for eight years with national cup trophy in 2000. The
athlete is 35 years of age and has been playing at top national and international level for more than fifteen years.
In-depth interviews were conducted and arranged to take place individually. An interview guide was used for gathering data and an
Ipod recorder was used during the interview. Both interviews lasted for approximately 1 hours and 10 minutes.
The analyses of the data obtained followed a phenomenological procedure (Aanstoos, 1983) trying to grasp and identifying meaning
units, specifying central themes, and then articulating their psychological sense or meaning in order to examine the nature of the meeting
in a successfully coach-athlete relationship.
Results: Results from interviews with both the coach and the athlete in the team sport coach-athlete relationship indicated that factors
such as social support, commitment, humor, use of time, attention, and carefulness are all important facets for the dimension building a
successfully relationship. In the dimension communication vital facets appear to be thoroughly, the frequency, the consistency between
verbal and non verbal communication, and the art of the informal communication during everyday practice. For the dimensions leadership
and performance and instruction it seems to be respectively consistency for the coaching process, and focus on the impact of intrinsic
motivation (Jowett, 2008) and evaluation of own development as most important.
Discussion: In general both the coach and the athlete underlined the significance of consistency and commitment for a successfully
relationship in order to perform in sport. The study also revealed that communication and democratic leadership is vital factors for the
meeting in the relationship for both the coach and athlete to grow and develop which is in line with former research.
References
Aanstoos CM (1983). J Pheno Psych, 14, 243-266.
Jowett S (2008). Scand J Med Sci, 18, 664-673.
LEADERSHIP BEHAVIORS AND COACH-ATHLETE RELATIONSHIPS IN SCANDINAVIAN COACHES
JOHANSEN, B.T., CHRISTENSEN, J.B., ENOKSEN, E., FAHLSTRÖM, P.G., HAGESKOG, C.A., HØIGAARD, R.
UNIVERSITY OF AGDER
Introduction: The purpose of the study was to investigate in a sample of Scandinavian elite coaches, the relationship between perceptions
of their own leadership behavior and their perception of the coach-athlete relationship.
Method
149 elite coaches (e.g. national top and/or international level) from Denmark (n=50), Norway (n=50) and Sweden (n=49) participated (134
male, mean age 38.3±9.8yrs; 15 female, mean age 39.1±8.4). 58 percent of the coaches were coaches of individual sports and 42
percent were coaches of team sports. 59 percent of the participants had at some point, undertaken academic study related to sport at
university level. A paper-copy questionnaires were distributed by post to all coaches listed in each country’s athletic federation index.
Leadership behaviour: Coaches self reported their perceptions of their own leadership behaviors using the Leadership Scale for Sport
(Chelladurai & Saleh, 1980). The Cronbach’s alpha for self reported leadership behavior was: .79 training and instruction, .59 positive
feedback, .66 social support, .78 democratic behavior, and .46 autocratic.
Coach-athlete relationship: The nature of the coach-athlete relationship was evaluated using the 13-item Nordic Coach–Athlete Relationship
Questionnaire (NOR-CART-Q; Jowett & Ntoumanis, 2003). The Cronbach’s alpha for closeness, commitment, and complementarity
was .83, .72 and .67 respectively.
Results: Positive feedback, training and instruction, and democratic behavior were the most frequent self-reported behavior subscales
amongst the coaches. Moreover, it is a positive relationship between commitment and training and instruction (r=.25, p < 0.01) positive
feedback (r= 22, p < 0.01) and social support behavior(r=.22 p < 0.01). Complementarity was positively related to training and instruction
behavior (r=.17, p < 0.01). Multilevel logistic regression analyses indicated a significant difference between coaches in Denmark and
Sweden on commitment (5.39 vs. 5.95) and complementarity (5.82 vs. 6.26) and coaches who are educated in sport use more positive
feedback (4.25 vs. 4.41). Moreover, coaches with more than 10 years experiences in coaching us significantly more training and instruction
(3.65 vs. 3.82) and social support (3.02 vs. 3.23) than coaches with less experiences. Furthermore, coaches in individual sport reported
more democratic behavior (3.80 vs. 3.23) and less autocratic behavior (2.56 vs. 2.78) then coaches in team sport.
OSLO/NORWAY, JUNE 24-27, 2009 31