An analysis of coaching dimensions and their impact on athlete motivation and affective learning

This study examined the relationship between coaching behaviors and traits and their impact on athlete motivation and affective learning in a collegiate coactive team setting. By conducting in-depth interviews with NCAA Division I men’s tennis players at a Midwestern, mid-sized University it was discovered that Coach Craig Keller’si credibility and caring behaviors had the most salient impact on athlete intrinsic motivation, his use of mild verbal aggression and his career record had the most salient impact on athlete extrinsic motivation, and his extreme verbal aggression and lack of feedback/praise significantly decreased their levels of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Moreover, the athletes noted that Coach’s credibility and caring behaviors increased their levels of affective learning, his will to win and desire to be professional increased affective learning through trait modeling, and his inability to follow through with claims decreased their affective learning. The most significant finding was that Coach’s dynamic leadership had the most positive impact on player intrinsic motivation while his mild verbal aggression had the most positive impact on player extrinsic \nmotivation. However, it was discovered that this type of leadership ceased being motivational when the sentiment of the messages became negative and singled out individual players.