High School Volleyball Coaches Instructional Approaches and Perceptions to using Athlete Created Pre-competition Warm-up Music

Abstract

High School Volleyball Coaches Instructional Approaches and Perceptions to using Athlete Created Pre-competition Warm-up Music Research has shown psychological, psychophysical, and physical effects of music in sport (Bateman & Bale, 2009). However, music has received little attention among sport scholars. The purpose of this study was to examine high school varsity volleyball coaches' pedagogical assumptions and practices of allowing female high school volleyball teams to create and play their own pre-competition warm-up music. Eleven head coaches of female high school varsity volleyball teams who employed athlete created pre-competition warm-up music were interviewed (minimum 45 minutes). All interviews were transcribed then analyzed using open and axial coding (Corbin & Strauss, 2008). All 11 coaches believed that having athletes create and develop pre-competition music positively impacted athlete performance. Analysis further illustrated the coaches believed a connection exists between the use of music and athletic performance across three themes, increased motivation, mood, and team cohesion. Coaches interviewed in this study believed that music provided a consistent and inspirational routine. A limitation of this study is that actual performance was not measured, so future research is needed to examine the actual impact of music on athletic performance, as well as the impact of warm-up music in other sport settings.