The effects of coaching behaviors on motivation in handball players - An analysis of the effects of verbal and non-verbal coaching behaviors on motivation on the grounds of self-determination theory

Background and Purpose: Using self-determination theory as an analytical framework, the present study investigated the influence of coaching behaviors in handball on different types of motivation of the players. As several authors have outlined the importance of the coach as a social factor which has an influence on motivation and its mediators, the three main goals of the study were to (1) analyze the correlation between observed coaching behaviors and motivation of athletes based on self-determination theory, (2) analyze the perceived coaching behaviors and their relation to motivation, and (3) compare the observed coaching behaviors with the coaching behaviors as perceived by the players. Method: Three different instruments were used in order to assess the relationship between coaching behaviors and motivation. An observational design of two observers was used to count every displayed coaching behavior of seventeen coaches during one game observation and one training observation according to an assessment system with ten categories, the Coaching Behavior Assessment System (CBAS). The perceived coaching behaviors were measured by a questionnaire, the Coaching Feedback Questionnaire (CFQ). The different types of motivation were assessed with the sport motivation scale (SMS). Results: One hundred seventy-seven handball players of seventeen teams returned their questionnaires (response rate 99.44%). The results indicated few significant relationships between coaching behaviors and motivation and they were weak and insignificant for most items. Exceptions were mostly related to the coaching behavior Reinforcement and different types of motivation. Conclusion: The results indicate that for the present sample a relationship between coaching behaviors (perceived and observed) and athletes‟ motivation was not present. Different levels of assessment of the study design, i.e. observations on the situational level and questionnaires assessing motivation and perceived coaching behaviors on the contextual level, may have had an influence on the results. Further research is needed on other social factors that may influence the different types of motivation as proposed by self-determination theory.