2019
Annual Report
Original Article

Factors influencing volunteer coaches’ intention to continue:
A survey among coaches of community-based junior sports
clubs in Japan
Megumi,M.OHASHI（Tokyo Future University ）Etsuko TOGO（Tokyo Future University ）Yumiko IUME（Tokyo Future University ）‘Community-based junior sports clubs,’ organizations that facilitate extracurricular activities for local children duringholidays and after school, arguably play an important role in children’s physical fitness and social skills, which areessential for children’s healthy development. Many community-based junior sports clubs, however, have problems
with recruitment and retention of good volunteer coaches. The present study aimed to identify factors that increasecoaches’ intention to continue. An online survey was conducted among coaches with experience in coaching teamsports in community-based junior sport clubs in Japan. We asked their experience, confidence, satisfaction, intention
to continue, difficulties and joys in coaching. The results indicated that those who are confident as a coach tended
to feel satisfaction, which increases intention to continue coaching. Feeling joy in children’s growth also increases
satisfaction, while interference and involvement by players’ parents and inhibiting factors (i.e., practices held earlyin the morning, and cold weather) undermine intention to continue. Implications are discussed in terms of factors
encouraging coaches’ intention to continue. Through this study, we hope to facilitate community-based junior sports
clubs that are good for all children.

Keywords : junior sports, volunteer group, motivation, life-satisfaction, sports-coach

Introduction
   In many elementary schools in Japan, on theweekend and after school, the school grounds arefull of children playing baseball and football. In manycases, coaches are not schoolteachers nor professionalcoaches. We call these kinds of groups ‘communitybased sports clubs,’ organizations that facilitate extracurricular activities for local children during holidays
and after school.
   Community-based junior sports clubs provide
children good opportunities for exercise and having
fun. However, researchers have identified specificproblems these clubs face as volunteer associations.
For example, some coaches are too harsh to children
who make mistakes (Stirling, Bridges, Cruz, &Mountjoy, 2011), some parents of team members
say bad things while watching a game (e.g., Wiersma& Sherman, 2005), many clubs have difficulties
recruiting volunteer coaches (Cuskelly, 2004), andso on. The present study focused on volunteer
coaches for children under 12 who are leaders of the
clubs, and tried to explore how they can continue
contributing to the clubs.

Community-based Junior Sports Clubs

  Community-based junior sports clubs depend heavily
on volunteers (Busser & Carruthers, 2010). However,sport volunteers, especially coaches, are difficult
to find and the retention of youth coaches remains

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Annual Report 2019low (Cuskelly, 2004). The present study aimed to
explore the factors that facilitate intention to continuecoaching of volunteer youth sports coaches, because
they are vital to the delivery of youth recreation andsport programs.
  Numerous studies on sports psychology consistently
show that adult leaders play a significant role inphysical activities programs (e.g., Chelladurai,
2007; Horn, 2008). Coaches help to demonstratesportsmanship, give instruction and feedback, support
youth participants, as well as heightening the sense of
belongingness to the team.
  Coaches need to consider children’s needs. Children
in community-based junior sports clubs play mainly
for fun, not to become professionals. Hence, coaches
should provide a relaxed and interesting atmosphere.
In addition, they need to understand the physicaland psychological development of children, effectivemeans of communication, and coaching philosophy,
as well as have skills and knowledge of specific sports
and sports science overall (Busser & Carruthers,2010). Côté, Young, North, and Duffy (2007)
suggested that the ideal coach differs depending on
the age and the purpose of the players. They argued‘Athletes in the sampling years (6-12 years) need tohave fun and enjoy their sport experience.’ However,the proportion of those who have dedicated training
in coaching or child education is small, because mostcoaches of such clubs are volunteers (Wiersma &Sherman, 2005).

Annual Report 201923

   The situation is similar in Japan. A survey among
coaches of community-based junior sports clubs
found that only 13.5% had qualifications in coachingor education (Ohashi, Iume, Togo, & Kawata, 2017).
There is a gap between expected competencies andthe typical youth sports coach profile (Gilbert &Trudel, 2001).

Effects of Joining a Sport Team   Playing sports contributes much to the positive
development of children, such as, improvements inphysical growth promotion, physical strength, andathletic capability. For example, boys and girls who
participate in sports or exercise more than 3 days aweek scored higher with physical fitness test thanothers (Nishijima et al., 2003). Moreover, the clubs are
expected to be places for socialization in a low birthrate society. Joining a sport-team increased teamwork
and learning of social skills, by strengthening one’ssocial ties (Coatsworth & Conroy, 2009). Some studies
showed that those who participated in a sport-team
were higher in social skills, self-esteem, and mental
health (Findlay & Coplan, 2008; Jarvis, 1999), andlower in problematic behaviours (Donaldson & Ronan,
2006). Community-based junior sports clubs are goodplaces to play sports.
   For coaches, too, joining a sport team has positiveeffects. They can be the player’s parents or neighbours.
For the parents, they can feel refreshed and, at thesame time, get to know their children’s friends, as wellas understand the strengths and weaknesses of theirchild by observing them interacting with many otherchildren. For young neighbourhood people, they candevelop a positive sense of self and learn how to leadchildren, which will be useful in their future careers.
For older neighbourhood people, they can have apositive sense of self and maintain health.
   Sports experiences are most likely to result in
positive developmental outcomes when they areintentionally delivered to produce these outcomes.
Difficulties occur because players are too young
to take care of themselves, so that participationof parents is indispensable in game attendance
and practice, management of tools, transportation,
payment of costs, and so on (for a review, see Smoll& Smith, 2002). The parents then become involvedin children’s sport. This indirect relationship between
coaches and parents sometimes leads to conflicts. A
typical example is in a match. Some parents become so
excited and cannot help giving suggestions about who

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Annual Report 2019

to play or how to play in a match, and some parents
may argue with the coach’s plan (Smoll, Cumming, &Smith, 2011).
   Other difficulties lie in the fact that communitybased sports clubs are usually volunteer associations.
Most coaches are volunteers with little formal training(Conroy & Coatsworth, 2006; Gilbert & Trudel, 2001).
That is, neither specific qualifications nor training
is required to become a coach in most clubs. Some
problems have been reported in community-based
sports (Busser & Carruthers, 2010). Some coaches are
so passionate they make reckless remarks or commit
sports harassment (Stirling et al., 2011).

Community-Based JuniorSports Teams in Japan

  Now we would like to discuss Japanese communitybased junior sports. In the United States, juniorsports teams are divided into two categories. One
is competitive, in which players play through theyear; these are intense and expensive. The otheris recreational, in which players play for a season(i.e., some months per year); these are relaxed andvolunteer-based. These two types of teams are
sometimes related, as some coaches of competitive
teams give advice to coaches or the board ofrecreational teams. Children start playing in arecreational team in many cases. After some seasons,some children move to competitive teams, some quit,
and some continue in recreational ones.
   On the other hand, in Japanese communitybased clubs, children often perform a single sport
throughout a year. Moreover, the distinction between
recreational teams and competitive teams is vague,so that any teams can join tournaments and can enter
prefectural tournaments if they are strong. Most
teams are drawn from 3rd to 6th-grade, although evenyounger children may be involved. Other aspects
resemble the situation in the United States, They
mainly play team sports, such as, football, baseball, orbasketball.

Coaches’ Motivation
  Many sports organizations suffer from a lack ofvolunteers, and the retention rate of volunteers,
especially coaches, in community-based juniorsports clubs is low (Cuskelly, 2004). In Japan
as well the lack of coaches is one of the mostfrequently mentioned problems of communitybased junior sports clubs (Ohashi, Togo, & Iume,
2018).
Annual Report 201924

  Why do people coach? A survey found significant
differences between first-year coaches andreturning coaches for youth football teams (Busser& Carruthers, 2010). They found that first-year
coaches were high in all kinds of motivation, while
returning coaches reported lower levels of selfserving and personal growth motivations, thatis, they put less value on learning, developmentof personal strength, and feeling good about
themselves. The returning coaches were motivatedby values and social factors, that is, they havestrong compassion toward youth and value
volunteering. Thus, there is a need to understandhow volunteer coaches can maintain theirmotivation to participate. The longer they coach,the better their understanding of coaching wouldbe, so the number of troubles will be less.
   Research on volunteerism has found thatsatisfaction with the volunteer experience increases
commitment to the volunteer agency and volunteer
retention (Clary et al., 1998). Satisfaction can be
maximised when volunteers’ initial motivations
to join a volunteer agency are met through theirvolunteer experiences. It was also suggested that
motivations of volunteers vary by gender, life stage,
and types of activities (e.g., Clary, Snyder, & Stukas,
1996).
   In which situations can sports coaches besatisfied? Furthermore, does satisfaction also
help maintain motivation in sports coaches?
Although there are many studies on the efficiency,
satisfaction, and motivation of sports coaches, mostof them concern professional coaches. Only a few
have investigated volunteer youth sports coaches.
   Among them, Paiement (2007) surveyed 512
volunteer hockey coaches in the United States andreported that coaching efficacy strongly predictedsatisfaction in volunteer youth coaches, whichaccords with previous studies on professionalcoaches (e.g., Feltz, Chase, Moritz, & Sullivan,1999).
He also showed that coaching and playing
experience, as well as social support, predictedsatisfaction to some extent. This study, however,examined the factors predicting coaching efficacy
and coaching satisfaction only, and the factors
predicting motivation were not investigated.
Another study examined factors that motivate
volunteer youth sports coaches in the United States(Busser & Carruthers, 2010). They summarizedthat volunteer coaches are motivated by factors
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Annual Report 2019such as pure altruism (values), personal growth(learn and develop competence), and co-production(a child in the team).
   What kind of experiences during coaching
increase coaches’ motivation? Ohashi et al.
(2017) asked about situations that coaches findunpleasant or uncomfortable and situations
where coaches feel joy or fulfilment to Japanesevolunteer coaches. Team victories and goodgames were big factors related to feeling joy or
fulfilment (21.1%). However, the best source of
joy or fulfilment they reported was the children’s
growth and improvement (35.1%). Children’s joy
and liveliness was also listed frequently (18.9%).
As for difficulties, it was found that coaches also
had difficulties with the relationships with players’
parents (22.7%), which was most frequently
mentioned. Children’s difficult personalities andlack of motivation were also mentioned frequently(16.2%), such as ‘some wayward child disturbs
the team’, ‘there are many children who are notwell disciplined,’ ‘children lack seriousness.’ On
the other hand, physical situations, such as, ‘haveto get up early in the morning,‘ ‘freezing weather,’‘picking-up and dropping-off of children can bea lot of work’ were rarely listed (2.7%). Although
their study provides insight into the origin ofcoaches’ motivation, the causal process regarding
motivation was not examined, and the number of
respondents (N = 148) was small.
  Life satisfaction would influence their motivation,
too. Business psychology has shown that life
satisfaction at home increases work motivation(e.g., Edwards & Rothbard, 2000). As for sports
coaches, their life satisfaction in general apartfrom community-based junior sports clubs would
influence their motivation on coaching.
Purpose of the Study

  The present study attempted to identify the factorsthat encourage coaches’ continuation, which isassumed to be a reflection of their motivation. We
believe that the progress of community-based juniorsports depend on coaches. It is thus important todetermine factors that maintain their motivation tocontinue supporting the teams as volunteers. ManyJapanese community sports teams consist of first to
sixth-grade children. A team meets and practices notseasonally but all year round. Therefore, the burden
would be higher once a coach takes their job in Japan

Annual Report 201925

than in the United States. On the other hand, volunteer
coaches can exchange opinions among themselves andlearn coaching skills in a team. Through this study, we
hope to facilitate community-based junior sports clubsthat are beneficial for children playing sports just forfun.
   We dealt with team sports like football, baseball,and basketball because they are common in
Japanese community-based junior sports clubs. We
hypothesized that confidence as a coach, especiallyself-esteem, leads to satisfaction as a coach, whichleads to motivation which can be measured aswillingness to continue (e.g., Bandura, 1991). We also
predicted that experiences during coaching would
influence satisfaction and motivation. To measure
the experience of joy and difficulties, twenty items
on situations when coaches experience joy anddifficulties were sampled from a small survey using
free-responses (Ohashi et al., 2017).
   We analysed those who have their own child in
the team and those who do not separately because
satisfaction depends on their initial motivations asprevious research on volunteers’ motivation suggested(Clary et al., 1998). These two groups should differ
in their initial motivations to start volunteering: The
former has private reason to coach, but the latter
seems to start coaching from genuine altruistic
reasons.

MethodRespondents and Procedure   The survey was conducted in October 2015, withparticipants recruited from an online panel of aleading Japanese survey firm via email. Those whocompleted the questionnaire received points thatthey can use in stores. Online informed consent was
obtained from the participants. They had signed acontract beforehand through internet with the survey
firm that they agree to the monitor policy, clearlystating the participants’ right and treatment about
data. In addition, the first page of our survey explainedthat the data would be statistically analysed and theparticipants had the right to stop answering at any
time. Those who selected “Agree and start answering”
sent their responses.
   The respondents were those with experience incoaching team sports in community-based junior sport
clubs in Japan. We asked for people with at least one
year of coaching experience in community-based

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Annual Report 2019

Table 1 Events and Gender
The type of sport
Gender Baseball Basketball
Male
FemaleTotal

FootballVolleyball

Total

169

46

159

38

412

(98.8%)(71.9%)(95.8%)(69.1%)(90.4%)

2

18

7

17

44

(1.2%)(28.1%)(4.2%)(30.9%)(9.6%)

171

64

166

55

456

sports clubs with elementary pupils and that the teamplays one of the common team sports, that is, football,
baseball, basketball, or volleyball. A total of 463
respondents (419 males, 44 females) completed oursurvey. The number of females was very small, but
this reflects the reality of Japanese community-basedjunior sports clubs. There are far more male thanfemale coaches. Their occupations were office worker(64.6%), public service worker (16.9%), self-employed/
free worker (10.4%), part-time worker (2.2%), student(0.7%), and others (5.2%).
   Among 463 respondents, five were excluded fromfurther analyses because they were not coachingelementary school children. Two more respondents
were excluded because their income as a coachexceeded those of a volunteer coach (clearly overminimum wage, 650 yen per hour at that time).
Therefore, we analysed the data of 456 respondents(Table 1). Our respondents included both current
coaches ( n = 255) as well as non-current ones who
had been coaching the previous five years ( n = 201).

Measurements
  First, we asked (in the order presented) about theircoaching experience (the type of sports they lead,coaching year, their role in the team, their team’s skill
level in the sport with a 4-point scale), participationof their own child in the team they are coaching, andcoaching salary (monthly income as a coach). We also
asked about qualifications that they possessed related
to coaching or junior sports (free answer).

The experience of joys and difficulties. Next, we
asked to what extent they feel joy or fulfilment and towhat extent they feel unpleasant or uncomfortable incertain situations while coaching. Items were extracted
from a preliminary survey with 148 coaches (Ohashi
et al., 2017), which had collected free responses aboutsituations when they experience joy or difficulties. Scaledevelopment was reported in another paper written in
Japanese (Ohashi, Iume, Togo, & Kawata, 2016).
   As for the experience of joy, we asked ‘In which
Annual Report 201926

situations do you feel joy or fulfilment as a coach?’followed by the items in Table 2. The respondents
answered using a 6-point-scale, ranging from 1 (do not
feel at all) to 6 (feel very much). A factor analysis withpromax rotation indicated four situations for joy: Whenthey feel that they did a good job as a coach, when theysaw children enjoying the sport enthusiastically, when
they felt children’s growth, and when they felt personal
growth as a coach.
  As for the experience of difficulties, we asked, ‘When
you coach and face the following situations, howunpleasant or uncomfortable do you feel? If you havenever experienced such a situation, select no experience,’
followed by the items in Table 3 using a 6-point
scale. Some coaches may have no experience of somesituations. For example, ‘6. Selecting which children
will be playing in a game’ would only apply to the headcoach in some teams, so that an assistant coach has notexperienced this situation. Therefore, ‘no experience’ (0)was added as an option. A factor analysis with promax
rotation indicated five situations for difficulties: Whenthey had to deal with troubled children, when theyexperienced interference and involvement by parents,
when they failed to communicate well with children,when they experienced inhibiting factors (such as, cold
weather, starting early in the morning, arrangement oftransportation), and something related to the game.

  Confidence as a coach. We then asked about theirconfidence as a coach, satisfaction as a coach, andintention to continue coaching. The respondents
answered with a 6-point scale, ranging from 1(do not feel at all) to 6 (feel very much). As forconfidence as a coach, we intended to measure not

Table 2 Factor Ladings for Promax Four-factor Solutios for Joy
Factor1

2

3

4

did a goodjobchildrenenjoyingchildren's
growthpersonal
growth

15. When children's parents express gratitude for what I do

.776

.049

-.116

.074

.615

18. Receiving compliments about my team from other teams

.670

-.083

.266

-.030

.618

20. Having casual conversation with parents

.655

.080

-.038

-.046

.410

19. Receiving compliments about performance of our players
from other teams

.632

-.074

.280

-.058

.557

14. When children expressed appreciation for what I do

.517

.241

-.146

.248

.565

17. Realizing my coaching skill has improved

.498

-.077

.048

.246

.453

8. When children are enjoying playing sports

.027

.903

-.013

-.081

.745

9. Seeing children playing sports full of life and lively

.028

.901

.023

-.057

.807

4. Seeing children smile

.041

.665

.059

.025

.547

2. When my team is having great game

.175

.024

.736

-.195

.578

Items

Communality

5. Sensing children's athletic growth and improvements

-.168

.147

.665

.132

.589

3. When children have good / better teamwork

.106

.154

.621

-.085

.562

6. Sensing children's mental growth and improvements

-.099

.198

.600

.159

.633

1. Winning a game

.117

-.158

.588

.017

.328

7. When children show enthusiasm for practice and game

-.120

.255

.507

.179

.574

11. Knowing I gave good advice to children when asked

.091

-.097

.067

.815

.744

12. When children asked me for help and support

.163

.021

-.068

.779

.748

.404

.549

.629

.687

.544

Inter-factor correlations factor1
factor2
factor3.535

Excluding factors:
10. When found out that children continued to pursue the sport they played after graduation.
13. When knowing he/she gave good explanation.
note. Translated from Japanese article (Ohashi, Iume, Togo, & Kawata, 2016).

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Table 3 Factor Ladings for Promax Five-factor Solutios for Difficulties
factor
1

2

3

4

5

Items

troubled
childrenparentspressuremis-commu
nication

inhibiting
factors

about games

Communality

8. When children lack seriousness and/or ability to focus

.982

-.064

-.157

-.006

.010

.731

10. When children lack manner (no greeting, handling tools roughly, etc.)

.672

.079

.261

-.031

-.264

.667

9. When there is dispute or competition between children
7. When there are children who cry easily, are self-centered,or not disciplined (acting out).

.582

-.031

.130

.018

.087

.514

.565

-.080

-.076

.131

.160

.420

5. When a child gets injured

.458

.068

.067

-.165

.087

.261

4. Not getting the expected results or losing game despite practice

.440

.020

-.041

.096

.203

.355

16. When parents are giving instruction from bench or cheering section

-.027

.888

-.092

.004

-.040

.692

17. When parents are involved thinking only about their own children

-.115

.831

.054

-.015

.072

.679

15. When parents interfere in member selection process or practicestrategies

.147

.686

-.043

.050

.050

.602

-.135
.115
.129

-.121
-.007
.141

.820
.755
.540

.003
.064
-.037

.164
-.075
.074

.588
.703
.537

-.025

-.050

-.015

.854

-.049

.657

.008

.131

.089

.580

.009

.468

11. When I have to scold children
12. When children do not listen to me
13. When I cannot convey my thoughts well to children
2. When I have to secure transportation and/or negotiate with otherorganizations
1. Practicing under physically challenging conditions such as cold or
hot weather, or very early morning
14. When parents hardly come to see practices or games for support

.053

.116

.031

-.060

.497

.315

6. Selecting which children will be playing in game

.091

-.052

.182

.012

.447

.350

.463

.696

.562

.418

.464

.242

.259

.463

.420

Inter-factor correlations factor1
factor2
factor3
factor4.333

Excluding factors
3. Children cannot spend enough practice time
18. When parents are watching game or practice
19. When coaches do not share the same coaching instructions or policies
20. (Some) parents are overconsiderate toward coaches
note. Translated from Japanese article (Ohashi, Iume, Togo, & Kawata, 2016).

only global self-esteem (e.g., Rosenberg, 1965) but
self-confidence in a particular domain. Therefore,
we avoided using an established scale, and usedoriginal items. We asked, ‘How much do you thinkthat you are a good coach?’ ‘Do you think yourknowledge (including exercise methods) and sporttechniques are sufficient to coach?’ ‘Do you thinkthat you have enough knowledge and leadership tocoach and lead the players?’ ‘Do you think that you
are communicating with parents of the players of
the team enough?’  Satisfaction as a coach. To measure satisfaction
or fulfilment as a coach, we asked two originalquestions. We asked, ‘Do you feel worthwhile
coaching community-based junior sports clubs?’
and ‘Do you feel that your life was enriched by

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Annual Report 2019

coaching community-based junior sports clubs?’
   Intention to continue coaching. We measured
willingness to continue coaching the team. We
asked, ‘Do you want to keep coaching communitybased junior sports clubs from now on?’ For those
who had already quit coaching at the time, we
added ‘For those who have already quit coaching,please answer remembering your feeling when you
coached.’   Life satisfaction. Lastly, we measured life
satisfaction. Job satisfaction, ‘Are you satisfied
with your work (for students, with campus life)?’and family happiness, ‘Are you satisfied with yourfamily?’ were measured using a 6-point scale,ranging from 1 (not at all) to 6 (very much).
   Trap questions. Some respondents in online
Annual Report 201928

qualifications. Coaches with qualifications (M = 2.82,
SD = 1.28) led teams that were significantly higher incompetitive level than coaches without qualifications( M = 2.54, SD = 1.31; t (454) = 1.941, p <.05). A
significant difference related to the type of sport
was shown (χ2 = 32.979, df = 3, p <.0001). Coaches
of baseball (8.8%) were significantly less likely topossess qualifications than those of football (33.7%),
basketball (28.1%), and volleyball (30.9%).

surveys are insincere or careless when they fillout questionnaires. Survey satisficing, grudging
cognitive efforts required to provide optimal
answers in the survey response process, poses a
serious threat to the validity of online surveys andexperiments (e.g., Berinsky, Margolis, & Sances,
2016; Miura & Kobayashi, 2016). We then set two
trap questions (we instructed to choose atypicalresponses) to distinguish between those who pay
close attention and those who did not. Those who
failed to follow the instructions for at least one
item were excluded from the sample.

Scale Development

   Confidence as a coach. Descriptive statistics
and internal correlations of four items measuringconfidence as a coach are shown in Table 4. While thetotal reliability coefficient alpha was high enough ( α= .802), a correlation of the total and one item (Do you
think that you are communicating with parents of theplayers of the team enough?) was low (r (456)= .427,

Results
Respondents Information

   The mean age of the participants was 45.08 years(from 18 to 69, SD = 9.34) and their mean coachingp <.01). We therefore summed the rest three items tocalculate the confidence as a coach score ( α = .845).
   Satisfaction as a coach. The two items used formeasuring satisfaction were highly correlated (r (456)=.755, p <.0001). We therefore summed the two items
to calculate the satisfaction as a coach score.
   Life satisfaction. Job satisfaction and family
happiness showed a positive correlation, but thecoefficient was small (r (456)=.393, p <.0001).
Therefore, the two items were used independently infurther analysis.

experience was 6.18 years (from 1 to 30, SD = 5.70).
Among them 91.0% were male. A significant difference
due to gender was found for the type of sport (χ2 =73.296, df = 3, p <. 0001, Table 1). That is, the ratio of
female coaches was larger in basketball and volleyball(about 30%) than in football and baseball. We
excluded gender as a factor in the following analysis
because the number of female coaches was too small
to analyse.
   Half of them had their own child/children in theteam (57.2%). The ratio of those who have a childin the team was not significantly different between
specific sports (χ2 = .155, df = 3, n.s. ).

Model Evaluation

   An analysis of the covariance structure wasconducted by the participation of one’s own child. We
made a model as follows. First, was a model in which
confidence as a coach increases satisfaction, which
increases intention to continue. Experiences of joy anddifficulties, then, have some effects on satisfaction andintention to continue. Life satisfaction and coachingsalary as well have some effects on satisfaction andintention to continue. We tested the model with AMOS

  The respondents were varied in competitive level ofthe teams. In total 23.2% had qualifications related
to sports instruction for children. The qualifications
include a coaching license for the specific sport,
sports instructor, and a teaching certificate inphysical education. Some who listed referee orumpire qualifications, which are not qualificationsin instruction, were categorized as having no

Table 4 Confidence as a coach: Descriptive statistics and internal correlation

1. Think oneself is a good coach
2. Knowledge and techniques of the sport

2Ｍ( sd )

3.41(1.11) .588*** .649*** .417***

3.51(1.19)

3. Knowledge and leadership to coach

3.61(1.07)

4. Communiation with parents

3.93(1.00)

2.

3.

4.

***

.708

R withtotal

α withoutthis item

.496

.711

***

.532

.721

***

.584

.705

.182

.845

.316
.306

* p < .05, *** p < .001

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Annual Report 201929

18 and initially included in it all possible relations. The
model had good fit ( χ2 =73.50, df = 36, CFI = .937,

30

child in the team, family happiness also increased
their confidence as a coach. Coaching salary had onlya small effect, and the effect was restricted to those
who have own child in the team.

RMSEA = .048). To ease presentation, only significant
paths are shown in Figures 1 and 2. As predicted,
those who were confident as a coach tended to feelsatisfaction, which increased intention to continuecoaching. Among four types of experiences of joy,
only one (children’s growth) increased satisfaction
as a coach. It suggests that coaches feel joy andsatisfaction when they can sense children’s athletic
growth and improvements and when children havegood/better teamwork.
   Among the five types of experiences of difficulties,
only two, physical challenge and interference
and involvement by parents (parents’ pressure),
influenced satisfaction and intention to continue.
Physical challenge consists of two items describing
organization of transportations and practice underphysically challenging conditions. Physical challengesignificantly undermined intention to continue
through lowering satisfaction, among those who haveown child in the team. On the other hand, its negative
effect was direct among those without a child in theteam. In addition, parents’ pressure also undermined
intention to continue coaching among those whohave own child in the team. This means that theytend to quit coaching when other parents start giving
instruction from the bench or cheering section or get
involved while thinking only about their own children.
   In addit ion, life sat isfact ion, especially job
satisfaction, had positive effects. Those who weresatisfied with their job had more confidence and felt
satisfaction as a coach. Those who were satisfied with
their family were shown to be higher in intention tocontinue coaching and among coaches who have a   The present study aimed to explore conditions inwhich people continue working as volunteer coaches
in community-based junior sports clubs. The survey
among 456 coaches indicated that self-confidence
as a coach, feeling joy in children’s growth, and life
satisfaction outside community sports were facilitating
factors. Life satisfaction includes both family
happiness and job satisfaction. Family happiness
was found to increase intention to continue, while
job satisfaction was found to increase confidence
and satisfaction as a coach. The coefficient of job
satisfaction to satisfaction as a coach was higher
among those who do not have a child in the team,which may be due to the reason they started coaching.
They may start coaching because they can grow orthey want to be some help, while those with their own
children in the team may start coaching because of
their family’s need.
   Among four kinds of experiences of joy during
c o a c h i n g , o n l y ‘c h i l d r e n ’ s g r o w t h’ i n c r e a s e dsatisfaction as a coach, and indirectly, motivation tocontinue coaching. That is, when they feel children’s
growth, which includes athletic improvement,
mental improvement, and better teamwork, theytend to be satisfied as a coach. ‘Did a good job’ and‘personal growth’ seem to increase self-confidence,but they were found to be unrelated to confidenceor satisfaction as a coach. ‘Children’s enjoyment’ was

Figure 1. M odel among coaches with own child in the
team.

Figure 2. M odel among coaches without own child in
the team.

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Discussion

Annual Report 201930

also unrelated. Studies on volunteering suggest thatpeople tend to be satisfied when their initial reasons
to start volunteering are met (Clary et al., 1998). Ourdata imply the initial reasons of volunteer coaches
to be mainly for the players’ growth, not their selfconfidence or own growth. The fact that the players
were elementary school children, who are in an earlier
stage of development, would be related to this. It
is interesting to find ‘children’s growth’ increased
satisfaction as a coach, but ‘children’s enjoyment’
did not. In sports education, it is argued that playing
sports has two purposes: One involves practical goals(such as, growth, development, health) and the otheris for fun. This data may suggest practical goals ofsports are emphasized in Japan. On the other hand,‘children’s enjoyment’ may be larger in Westernculture where playing sports is mainly for fun.
  Among five kinds of experiences of difficulties duringcoaching, interference and involvement by parents,
as well as inhibiting factors, decreased intention tocontinue coaching among those with children in theteam. One of the coaches’ jobs is encouraging parents
to have good parenting styles, such as promoting
personal autonomy, providing choice, and supporting
decision-making. Those with their own child in theteam may understand this well but have difficulties
explaining it because they are both coaches andparents of the players. Japanese community-based
sport clubs typically consist of 1st (sometimes 3rd)
to 6th-grade pupils at one or two public elementary
schools. Living in such a small area, the coaches
and players’ parents are both parents at school, andneighbourhood members. Therefore, relationships
with other parents would be more important forcoaches with their own child in the team.
   Inhibiting factors directly decreased intention tocontinue coaching among those without a child in
the team. On the other hand, these decreased theirsatisfaction, which decreased intention to continue
among coaches with their own child in the team. In
other words, there was only an indirect path. Thisdifference may be due to the length of observation
before becoming a coach. Coaches with a child in theteam took the coaching job after watching the teamas parents for some time. In Japanese communitybased junior sports clubs, parents need to help andsupport the team. Therefore, they would understandhard situations, such as, practice starting early in themorning, and coldness in the field when they decided
to become coaches. Their intention to continue would

31

Annual Report 2019not decrease after start coaching. This difference
would be higher in Japan than in the US. While in
the U.S. a coach takes care of one small team aroundten children of the same age, a typical Japanese clubconsists of one big team, which includes children ofvarious ages. Once their child gets started, he or she isalso involved in the club for long time. Therefore, theycan easily understand the role of coaches and scarcity
of coaches.
  This study has some limitations. First, this study used
a questionnaire, so we are not sure if motivation wasmeasured correctly. The pattern needs to be examinedwith observations and interviews within communitybased junior sports clubs.
  Second, the kind of sport was not considered. Somestudies have shown that coaching style and problems
observed in the teams differ depending on the kindof sport (Chelladurai, 2007). Difficulties coaches feel
would differ, although age and the ratio of coacheswith a child in the team were similar; however,
because the number of the respondents was notenough to analyse by specific sports, the present
paper could not examine this point.
  Lastly, motivation to lead the team may differ before
they become coaches. Some may like to teach, some
may want to be a help with children, and some may
want to exercise. The present study only focused on
intention to continue, and could not cover various
motivations as such. Who takes the role of coach ina shortage of coaches and why is another question
to explore. The process of continuing coaching needs
to be explored with continuous observations or
successive interviews.
   There are many studies on competitive sports but
young recreational sports have not been focused
upon. It has been shown that those who tend toplay sports at a young age tend to continue playing
sports after becoming adults (Japanese Ministry of
Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology,2015). Community-based sports are the starting point,
so that this is worth noting while the importance ofsports to people generally is currently of considerable
interest.

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Acknowledgments

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日本語まとめ
放課後や休日に地域の子どもたちを集めて行われる地域スポーツは、子どもたちの心身の成長に重要な役割を果たすと考えられている。しかし、多くの地域スポーツはボランティアベースで運営されており、それがゆえに、指導者不足の問題を抱える。本研究は、指導者の継続意図を高める要因を探すことを目的として、指導経験者を対象にオンライン調査を行った。その結果を、子どもが地域スポーツを始めたことをきっかけに指導を始めた指導者（パパコーチ・ママコーチ）と、自分の子どもとは関係なく指導を始めた指導者に分けて分析した。両者に共通して、指導者としての自信があるほど満足を感じ継続意図が高く、子どもたちの成長に喜びを感じるほど満足度が高く、保護者の介入と物理的な困難（朝早い等）は継続意図を低めた。
キーワード：ジュニアスポーツ、ボランティア、生活満足、指導者―2018.12.14受稿,2019.2.5受理―

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