The Coach-Athlete Relationship and Expectations

This study explores coaches’ and athletes’ subjective views about what they think are expected fromcoaches in sport. A Q-sample of 36 different opinions about different expectations about coaches’ behaviors, and how these expectations affect their athletes’ motivation, performance, focus and emotions, was presented to 23 coaches and 59 athletes at a Norwegian high school specialized for sports. The coaches and athletescame from different sports such as cross country skiing, biathlon, track and field, football, volleyball, and handball, and they were asked to consider and rank-order the statements (Q-sample) through a Q-sorting procedure. The findings from the Qfactor analysis showed three different factors: (A) A democratic coach, (B) An autocratic coach and (C) A personal coach. Furthermore, the authors will discuss their analysis and how the coaches and athletes believe the different coach behaviors affects motivation, focus, emotions and performance.