A Master

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In What Ways Do Different Coaching
Styles Impact the Motivation of Female High
School Varsity Basketball Players?

• A Masters Action Research Thesis
• By Elisha De Jesus
• To
• New England College
• April 2009

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Research Question

• In What Ways Do Different Coaching Styles Impact
  the Motivation of Female High School Varsity
  Basketball Players?

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Purpose

• As a coach I want to know if I am doing my job as
  a motivational leader. I have always wondered how
  much influence a coach can have on their players
  during practices and games.
• The purpose of this action research was to find
  out how my style of coaching had an impact on my
  Female Varsity High School Basketball Players.

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Background

• WHERE Morristown Central School Gymnasium.
• WHO 2008 2009 Morristown Lady Rockets Varsity
  Basketball Team. (2 Sophomores, 4 Juniors, 4
  Seniors, 1 Female Head Coach, 1 Male Assistant
  Coach)
• RESEARCHER Head Coach

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Important Definitions

• AUTOCRATIC COACH A style of coaching also known
  as the command or dictator style because the
  coach is always the one to make all the
  decisions.
• SUBMISSIVE COACH A style of coaching in which
  the coach makes as few decisions as possible,
  offers little instruction, provides little
  guidance, and solves few problems. The coach lets
  his/her players do what they want.
• COOPERATIVE COACH A style of coaching that
  allows athletes to give input into decisions
  which affect the team. This style is known as the
  teacher.

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Assumptions

• The more a coach motivates through a cooperative
  coaching style, players will perform at higher
  levels.
• The female basketball athletes in this study will
  be motivated more through the use of positive
  feedback, and a more team geared approach to
  coaching.
• These female athletes will benefit from a coach
  who has high warmth and who promotes learning and
  growth of the athletes by listening to their
  ideas and providing a role model for well
  informed decision making.

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Methodology

• At the beginning of the season, permission was
  granted by all ten of my female athletes with the
  use of a consent form signed and turned in by
  each athletes parents/guardians.
• Data was collected during the 2008-2009 winter
  basketball season, which was approximately 4
  months.

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Data Collection Tools

• Athlete and Coaches Pre and Post Surveys
• - Surveys based on a likert scale given at the
  beginning and end of the research project.
• Attendance Chart
• - Players were held accountable for being at
  practices, games and team events.
• Athlete and Coaches Practice/Game Journal Entries
• - Daily journals were kept by players and
  coaches after every practice and every game.

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RESULTS

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Athlete Pre-Survey
Key 1 Disagree 2 Somewhat Disagree 3
Somewhat Agree 4 Agree
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Coaches Pre-Survey
Key 1 Disagree 2 Somewhat Disagree 3
Somewhat Agree 4 Agree
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Practice Attendance Record
Student-Athletes of Practices Practices Attended of Practices Attended
1 40 40 100
2 40 39 97
3 40 30 75
5 40 38 95
6 40 40 100
7 40 35 87
8 40 40 100
9 40 39 97
10 40 35 87
12 40 39 97
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Game Attendance Record
Student-Athletes of Games Games Attended of Games Attended
1 22 22 100
2 22 22 100
3 22 19 86
5 22 22 100
6 22 22 100
7 22 22 100
8 22 22 100
9 22 22 100
10 22 22 100
12 22 22 100
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Athlete/Coach Practice Question 1

• Coach/I used an authoritarian style of coaching
  today

Key 1 Disagree 2 Somewhat Disagree 3
Somewhat Agree 4 Agree
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Athlete/Coach Practice Question 2

• Coach/I used a submissive style of coaching
  today.

Key 1 Disagree 2 Somewhat Disagree 3
Somewhat Agree 4 Agree
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Athlete/Coach Practice Question 3

• Coach/I used a cooperative style of coaching
  today.

Key 1 Disagree 2 Somewhat Disagree 3
Somewhat Agree 4 Agree
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Athlete Practice Question 4
Key 1 Disagree 2 Somewhat Disagree 3
Somewhat Agree 4 Agree

• I motivated myself today.

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Coaches Practice Question 4

• I felt like I motivated my players today.

Key 1 Disagree 2 Somewhat Disagree 3
Somewhat Agree 4 Agree
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Athlete Practice Question 5
Key 1 Disagree 2 Somewhat Disagree 3
Somewhat Agree 4 Agree

• I was motivated by my coach today.

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Athlete/Coach Game Question 1

• Coach/I used an authoritarian style of coaching
  today.

Key 1 Disagree 2 Somewhat Disagree 3
Somewhat Agree 4 Agree
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Athlete/Coach Game Question 2

• Coach/I used a submissive style of coaching
  today.

Key 1 Disagree 2 Somewhat Disagree 3
Somewhat Agree 4 Agree
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Athlete/Coach Game Question 3

• Coach/I Used a cooperative style of coaching
  today.

Key 1 Disagree 2 Somewhat Disagree 3
Somewhat Agree 4 Agree
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Athlete Game Question 4

• I motivated myself today.

Key 1 Disagree 2 Somewhat Disagree 3
Somewhat Agree 4 Agree
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Coaches Game Question 4

• I felt like I motivated my players today.

Key 1 Disagree 2 Somewhat Disagree 3
Somewhat Agree 4 Agree
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Athlete Game Question 5
Key 1 Disagree 2 Somewhat Disagree 3
Somewhat Agree 4 Agree

• I was motivated by my coach today.

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Athlete Post Survey
Key 1 Disagree 2 Somewhat Disagree 3
Somewhat Agree 4 Agree
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Coaches Post Survey
Key 1 Disagree 2 Somewhat Disagree 3
Somewhat Agree 4 Agree
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Observations

• It was very common in practices for coaches to be
  frustrated with how the team performed during
  drills and frustrated with how they acted and
  reacted to simple requests from the coaches.
• The coaches frequently agreed on expecting the
  most out of their athletes even though it was
  quite often the female athletes didnt always
  agree or didnt always know how to expect a lot
  from themselves.

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Observations (continued)

• On the other side of the spectrum, the coaches
  frequently observed that they felt like they were
  enthusiastic during most practices and games.
• During games some common themes were that the
  coaches yelled and felt frustrated 80 of the
  time while they also felt like they gave a lot of
  positive praise and acted enthusiastically.
• From what the data shows, the coaches were
  dedicated and committed to the improvement of the
  basketball team.

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Conclusions

• At the beginning of this project it was assumed
  that the more a coach motivates through a
  cooperative coaching style, players will perform
  at higher levels.
• Unfortunately, there was no indication that a
  cooperative style of coaching was demonstrated on
  a consistent basis during games and/or practices.
  Therefore, the team could not be motivated by a
  behavior that was not seen.
• From the data collected it seemed that sometimes
  the coaches were not aware of the style they were
  using and reverted to more of the authoritarian
  style even when they wanted a more collaborative
  style.
• The athletes often identified that authoritarian
  style rather than any other.
• Although the coach believes that a democratic
  style of coaching will impact motivation and team
  climate for the enjoyment of the game of
  basketball, it is concluded that more research
  needs to be done on this phenomenon.
• The results stand as inconclusive given the
  limitation on players, coaches and coaching
  styles.

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Limitations Challenges

• The limited number of participants.
• Limited number of coaching styles.
• Athletes missing practices due to sickness or
  injury.
• Athletes failing to fill out journal entries at
  appropriate time.
• Next time the pre and post surveys will be
  identical to each other.

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Questions???