Coaching the coach: Intervention effects on need-supportive coaching behavior and athlete motivation and engagement

An experiment on the impact of coaches’ and athlete leaders’ competence support on athletes’ motivation and performance

“…This leads us to the conclusion that coaches can adopt two strategies to improve sport teams’ motivational functioning. Coaches can either follow an intervention program to learn how to provide competence support more effectively or they can use the power of their athlete leaders more effectively by encouraging them to provide competence support.…”

“…This leads us to the conclusion that coaches can adopt two strategies to improve sport teams' motivational functioning. Coaches can either follow an intervention program to learn how to provide competence support more effectively 24,62 or they can use the T A B L E 5 The results of analyses of covariance (ANCOVA) fitted with the latent change score (LCS) specification. Figure 4 provides a visual scheme of these analyses…”

Basic psychological need theory: Advancements, critical themes, and future directions

“…These studies indicate that socializing agents can be trained to adopt a more need-supportive style and to move away from a need-thwarting style. Effective intervention programs for teachers (e.g., Cheon and Reeve 2015), parents (e.g., Joussemet et al 2014;Moe et al 2018) and coaches (e.g., Reynders et al 2019) are now available, showing benefits for both the persons being motivated and for the socializing agents themselves.…”

Athlete autonomy, supportive interpersonal environments and clinicians’ duty of care; as leaders in sport and sports medicine, the onus is on us: the clinicians

“…While coaches are expert change facilitators for their athletes, a major performance influencer may be a capacity to change themselves. Coaches’ ability to successfully incorporate ‘need supportive coaching’ suggests that coaches can change and thereby improve athlete’s performance 6…”

“…Competency, relatedness and autonomy are important concepts to adolescent athletes as well and contribute to their retention in sport 3. Significantly, youth coaches are more likely to identify with and emulate elite coaches within their sport,6 emphasising the need for role models at all levels.…”