Effects of a Mentor Program for Coaches on the Coach-Athlete Relationship.

Jan Arvid Haugan,Frode Moen,Frode Stenseng,Maja Olsen Østerås

doi:10.3390/sports9080116

Jan Arvid Haugan, Frode Moen + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/sports9080116

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Journal: Sports	Publication Date: Aug 23, 2021
Citations: 3	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Abstract

The present study was designed to explore the effects of a one-year coach education program on coaches’ perceptions of their communication skills and co-orientation of their coach-athlete relationships. The study was designed with an experimental group and a control group. The experiment group consisted of 66 coaches (and 295 athletes) who received formal mentoring and the control group consisted of 41 coaches (and 148 athletes) who did not receive any mentoring. Data were analysed using structural equation modelling with autoregressive cross-lagged analysis. Results from the self-reported questionnaire at pre-test and post-test showed that the reciprocity of the coach-athlete relationships was not statistically significant. However, coaches’ experience of change in attention skills from the pre-test to the post-test positively predicted changes in their own perception of the coach-athlete relationship, whereas this association was not significant in the athletes’ perceptions. Moreover, the coach education programme increased coaches’ perception of their relational bonds with their athletes, but this increase did not correspond with an increase in athletes’ perception of the relational bonds with their coach. Practical implications and suggestions for further research are discussed in light of these findings.

Highlights

The primary goal of the current study was to explore possible effects from the one-year coach education program based on formal mentoring of coaches’ and athletes’ perceptions of their relational bonds, and if they agree on their perceptions of their relational bonds
The results in the current study indicate that the coach education program had positive effects on the coaches’ perceptions of their relational bonds with their athletes, but no positive effects were found among the athletes’ perceptions
The results found that there were no significant associations between changes in the coaches’ perceptions of their attention skills and influencing skills and their athletes’ perceptions of their relational bonds with their coaches at the post-test

Summary

Introduction

The overall purpose of sports coaching is to facilitate athletes’ performance development and successful outcomes seem to be considerably dependent on the knowledge, skills and competence of the respective coach in specific domains [1,2] In their in-depth analysis of what constitutes coaching effectiveness, Côté and Gilbert [3] pointed out three knowledge domains that constitute coaching expertise: (1) Professional (content knowledge of sport science and how he/she teaches sports skills), (2) Intrapersonal (knowledge of how a coach becomes aware and reflective) and (3) Interpersonal (knowledge of how to connect to others such as players, the media and other coaches). It is the last domain, interpersonal knowledge, and how a one-year coach development program impacts the coach-athlete relationship that is of special interest in this article

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