Perception Of Coaching Behavior And Its Impact On Taking Conflict Personally (2012)

The purpose of this study was to examine athletes’ perception of coaching behavior and its effects on taking conflict personally. Considering athletes’ competitive, emotional, and defensive nature and reflecting on personal experiences, it was predicted that athletes’ perception of coaching behavior would be directly correlated with taking conflict personally. Participants (N=83) completed a survey that measured direct personalization, persecution feelings, relational effects, like/dislike valence, and the effects of coaching behavior on athletes and their perception of performance. The results of the Pearson correlation analyses provided support for the hypothesized association that athlete perception of coaching behavior was correlated with persecution feelings and with a like/dislike valence. The study also found that coaching behavior was correlated with taking conflict personally. The paper concludes with a discussion of future research possibilities. Running Head: Coaching behavior and taking conflict personally 2 Introduction In order for any athlete to advance in his or her area, the athlete requires feedback from a qualified coach. Feedback, however, can be productive or destructive. Athletes use feedback to acquire the skills and knowledge of sport in order to become “champions” (Cromartie, Esposito, Foley, Johnson, Moon, Price, & Wojnar). I have been playing tennis for over 14 years and during this time I have had over 20 different coaches. They have all had their own particular coaching behaviors and unique ways of delivering feedback. However, one thing they will all tell you is to not take conflict personally. My favorite coach and the one I credit most of my success to is Waldemar Holowitzi. He had the most positive attitude of all my coaches and he taught me in a way that mirrored his positivity. Although he would constantly give me feedback, he did so in a constructive manner, never once framing the feedback in a negative light. This tactic worked very well for me as I not only trusted and respected Waldemar, but I was able to incorporate his feedback into my tennis game and it helped me improve immensely. His coaching behavior and feedback motivated me to strive to be the best tennis player I could be. In addition, because Waldemar treated me as an equal and was encouraging rather than demeaning, my self-esteem rose and my love for tennis grew. My least favorite coach was quite the opposite of Waldemar. He was forceful, negative, and always spoke to me in a degrading way. Whenever I made an error he would yell and say I was a terrible tennis player or that I was the slowest person on the court. I can recall numerous times where his behavior and feedback caused me to start crying either right at that moment on the court or later that night when I was at home. When he saw how upset I would get at his comments, he would merely tell me that I needed to learn not to take his criticism personally. This advice didn’t help and I grew really fearful of missing any shots because I could not stand Running Head: Coaching behavior and taking conflict personally 3 to have him yell negative things at me. In addition, I began to feel defensive and started trying to ignore his remarks in an attempt to save myself from the pain of his harsh comments. My tennis game got increasingly worse as a result of his coaching behavior and feedback. It eventually got to the point where I didn’t even want to play tennis anymore because it was no longer fun and my performance was becoming steadily worse. As a result of his behavior and feedback and my declining performance levels and low feelings of self-esteem, I lost all trust and respect for this coach. Finally, after three years of playing for this coach, I switched to a new one (Waldemar) and saw my internal responses and external behaviors completely change for the better. These are just two of the many examples I have of the effects coaching behavior and feedback had on my internal responses and external behaviors. Researchers are learning increasingly more about the impact of feedback and the influence that coaches have on their athletes. About twenty percent of research on feedback has focused specifically on the coach-athlete relationship (Gilbert & Trudel, 2004). Some research has focused on how coaching behaviors influence athletes’ perceptions of performance, selfesteem, and motivation. Other research focuses on the coach-athlete relationship including athletes’ preferences and perceptions, as well as behaviors that affect team cohesion. In this study I would like to explore a slightly different aspect of coaching behavior. I will examine how coaches’ feedback influences athletes’ internal responses and external behaviors.