Analysis of the thinking coachs process and its influence on the performance in the spanish women handball team

Introduction

The most obvious task of the coach is to help athletes perform to their full potential. To reach that goal, they must be able to execute a wide range of task, including teaching skills (Côte, Salmela and Russell, 1995). We study female’s perceptions of their sports stories according to Pérez (2002); Ruiz and Sanchez; Campos (1996). The researches have explored the knowledge domain of experiences coaches using standarized questionnaires and its influence on the sport performance (Contreras, G. Ravé and Marcos, 2003).

Methods

It was analysed sixteen females of the Spanish National Women Handball Team, who compete at international levels, and their coach who has international experience, too. The collecting data was made before handball world championship, through a questionnaire consisting of open, dicotomic questions and another ones with a Likert scale. The research methodology was qualitative and quantitative. Two questionnaires were created, one addressed to the coach and another to the athletes. The aspects analysed were variables related to the coach such as his sport training, his contacts with sport, and his beliefs about a good coach among others. There were also variables related to the sportwomen such as their social relationship, the competitive level, their beliefs about how a good coach should be and their families among others.

Results

The first contact with sport was at the age of ten years approximately. Good coach’s characteristics: leadership, analytic and good planner and the sportwomen think that a good coach must have good training skills, psychology, authoritarism among other. The mental training, motivation and work are the more important factors to obtain good results. The relation between coach and sportwomen was professional; there isn’t a personal relationship between coach and sportwomen. The sportwomen blame themselves for the failure of the results. According to them, the reason for this failure is not caused by de coach. The team was cohesioned, are very competitive and the support of the family is very important related to sport practice and with academic education.

Discussion/Conclusion

The first contacts with the sport was through their families and friends, this agree with what Pérez (2002) has stated when she says that the influence towards the sport practice comes through the family. She says that the coaches´autoevaluation is really good and he points out for instance the "tenacity and perseverance", the "professionalism, motivation and enthusiasm" among others. In the handball team, there is a desire of winning which is a psichologic characteristic of the high-performance athletes (Ruiz and Sánchez, 1997). The family has a main role in the socialization of the sportmen/women among others. All this has a coincidence with Campos (1996).

References.

[1]. Campos, J. (1996): Análisis de los determinantes sociales que intervienen en el proceso de detección de talentos en el deporte, Madrid: Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia. Consejo Superior de Deportes.
[2]. Contreras, O, G. Ravé,JM, Marcos,E ( 2003) Análisis del proceso del pensamiento del entrenador y su influencia en el rendimiento deportivo en un grupo de judokas. II World Congress of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences. Granada. University of Granada.
[3]. Côte,J., Salmela,J.H., Trudel,P., Baria,A., Russell, S.J. (1995). The coaching model: A grounded assessment of expert gymanstic coaches’knowledege. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology,17,1-17.
[4]. Pérez,M.C. (2002). Estudio Cualitativo sobre entrenadores de alto rendimiento deportivo. Revista de Psicología del Deporte, 11(1), 9-33.
[5]. Ruiz, LM; Sánchez, F (1997) Rendimiento deportivo: claves para la optimización de los aprendizajes. Edit Gymnos. Madrid.