Student-athletes’ Evaluation of Coaches’ Coaching Competencies and Their Sport Achievement Motivation

Chiu Khong Lim,Hua Poy Khor,Nor Idayu Mahat,Najib Ahmad Marzuki

doi:10.5539/res.v6n2p17

Abstract

The primary concerns of this study is whether universities’ sport coaches possess good coaching competency skills in bringing up potential athletes for the country. What are coaches’ coaching competency levels? Do their competencies capability able to contribute significantly to sport achievement motivation of student-athletes? Thus, this study was designed to evaluate the competency level of coaches and student-athletes’ achievement motivation at the Higher Educational Institutions (HEI) in sports competitions. A total of 322 student-athletes were participated in the questionnaire survey. Researchers have adapted the Coaching Competency Scale to measure four different dimensions of coaching competency and Sport Orientation Questionnaire to measure achievement motivation of student-athletes. Validity and reliability of the instrument were found to be satisfactory.The results of this study indicate that the coaches’ competency levels at the HEI were not differ significantly by gender and performance of student-athletes, but it was differed significantly by type of sport, between team and individual sports. In addition, this study showed that there was a moderate relationship between the competencies of sport coaches and achievement motivation among student-athletes. However, among the coaches’ coaching competencies, motivation competency of coaches was found to be significant contributor to student-athletes sport achievement motivation. The study provides important insights from the perspective of sport development programme at the related organizations which can be valuable in identifying and recruiting suitable coaches; and helping coaches to some extent in planning strategies for coaching athletes to ensure the effectiveness of its role as a coach.

Highlights

Coaching is a complex task and required the use of different strategies and behaviours to fulfill many expectations
Validity and reliability of the instrument were found to be satisfactory.The results of this study indicate that the coaches’ competency levels at the Higher Educational Institutions (HEI) were not differ significantly by gender and performance of student-athletes, but it was differed significantly by type of sport, between team and individual sports
The student-athletes chosen to participate in this study were identified by an athletic administrator at their respective universities located at the northern Peninsular of Malaysia

Summary

Introduction

Coaching is a complex task and required the use of different strategies and behaviours to fulfill many expectations. Sports coaches must have good knowledge, need to develop competencies or skills and high motivation in carrying out responsibilities to produce quality athletes (Fouss & Troppmann, 1981). In Asia countries, China, Japan and South Korea are good exemplary due to accelerate performance in world class tournaments. These countries have minimum dependencies on foreigners’ experts in producing world class athletes. Malaysia possesses some world class athletes especially in badminton, squash and cycling but they face some difficulties to maintain such reputable position due to (a) lack of replacement athletes, (b) incompetence coaches and (c) internal issues arose in the sports body.

Methods

Results

Conclusion