The Effect of Taekwondo Coach-Athlete Interaction on Perceived Performance: The Moderating Effect by Two Taekwondo Styles, Gyeorugi and Poomsae

Abstract

Background and Objective This study aims to provide fundamental knowledge on approaches to enhance the performance of Taekwondo players by validating how the coach–athlete interaction affects perceived performance, and how its effect varies between gyeorugi (sparring) and poomsae. Materials and Methods A survey was conducted on 394 Taekwondo players from universities located in Seoul, Gyeonggi, Incheon, and Chungnam, all of which are official members of the Korea Taekwondo Association as of 2016. Participants were selected through purposive sampling, a type of non-probability sampling. Subsequently, 382 of 394 respondents, excluding 12 respondents who did not return the questionnaires, were selected for data collection (gyeorugi: n=180 and poomsae: n= 202; 230 [60.2%] men and 152 [39.8%] women). Results Coach–athlete interaction had a statistically positive influence on perceived performance of University Taekwondo players (p < 0.05). Furthermore, coach–athlete interaction showed a greater impact on perceived performance in a group of gyeorugi players than in their poomsae counterparts (19.6% vs. 6.5%). The result of pairwise parameter comparison exceeded the critical value (±1.96: α = 0.05; ±2.58: α = 0.01), suggesting that the effect of coach–athlete interaction was statistically significant at a 99% confidence level. Conclusion These results indicated that in Taekwondo training, coach–athlete interactions including instruction on technique, faith, encouragement, and passing on know-how were more effective in enhancing the performance of gyeorugi players than Poomsae players.