Jesús Viciana and Daniel Mayorga-Vega
Department of Physical Education and Sport, University of Granada, Spain
Citation
Viciana, J., Mayorga-Vega, D. (2015). Influence of the pre-service training program on coaches’ instructions delivered to youth soccer players. International Journal of Sport Psychology, 46(1), 18-38. doi:10.7352/IJSP.2015.46.018
Abstract
The aim of this study was to verify the differences in the instructions delivered by university and non-university degree soccer coaches within youth sport, and secondly between coaches with and without the title issued by the soccer federation. Ten volunteer Spanish soccer coaches participated in this study. One regional competition match for each coach was recorded. Qualitative (a thematic system of 23 categories from the transcribed instructions was created) and quantitative (comparing the frequency of categories) methodologies were used. Eleven categories were found statistically different (six from seven within the emotional dimension, two from eight within the tactic dimension; and one from two within the technique, official references, and other aspects of the game dimensions, respectively), the emotional dimension being the most influenced between university and non-university coaches. Only three categories were found different between coaches with and without the federative title (one from each emotional, technique, and official references dimensions), reflecting the low impact of this training on the coaches’ instructions. This study contributes to clarifying the impact of different training programs on the behaviour of coaches in the youth soccer setting. Recommendations to improve the pre-service training are suggested.
Keywords: Communication, Content analysis, Physical education, Sport coaching, Sport violence