Are There Differences in Styles of Coaches’ Work in Individual and Team Sports?

Abstract

The paper presents the results of studying the style of coaches working in team and competitive sports. In this regard, the research intended to identify differences in coaching styles depending on specific features of sports. 45 coaches participated in the study. During the research, we used the combination of theoretical (systemic, comparative, logical analysis of psychological, pedagogical and method literature, studying and generalizing practical psychological experience) and empirical (observation and self-observation, polls, surveying) research methods. The specially developed questionnaire and methods of mathematical statistics yielded novel results. The emotional method-based style turned out to be the most typical one for coaches in both individual and team sports. However, there are some differences, too, associated with the fact that coaches in individual sports have a powerful direct relationship between emotional improvised and emotional methodbased style, while team sports feature a direct relation between emotional methodbased and reasoning method-based styles. The practical significance of this research lies in developing the strategy of training coaches for individual and team sports. Our further research will be associated with studying personal traits determining coaches’ style taking into account gender features.