Coaching behaviors and the type of feedback they provide to young volleyball athletes

The purpose of the present study was to examine the coaching behaviors based on youth sport context through systematic observation. Verbal and nonverbal behaviors were video recorded during two practices for each coach. Coaching behavior was evaluated using the instrument of Pereira, Mesquita and Graca (2009). Results showed a large proportion of reported coaching behaviors, specifically 14.015 comments, 537 comments were recorded for “task explicitness”, 590 comments were for “exigency type in presentation”, 785 comments about “exigency type during practice” and the most comments 4844, about coach “reaction of accomplishment task”, especially in “encouragement”. About the coaches’ “instructional tasks” the most were for “informing” the athletes about the tasks (475) and regards “the nature of information” the majority of comments were for “general comments” (3216) and for “technique” (2288). Mann-Whitney analysis revealed that there were differences between coach comments and the athletes of U12 and U18, at “task explicitness” especially in “criteria form” and the “exigency type on tasks presentation” especially in “performance quality” with coaches of the U-18 group presenting significantly higher values. Differences also found in between the athletes’ age group and “exigency type during practice” especially in “participation/effort” and “coach reaction of accomplishment tasks during practice” differences also were found in “punish” and “no reaction”, with coaches of the U-18 group presenting significantly higher values. Referred on the nature of the coach’s instruction during practice there were differences between age groups and comments in “technique”, in “individual” and “team tactics” with coaches of the U-18 group presenting significantly higher values in all three instruction variables. These results may help create environments that foster positive psychosocial development of young athletes in Greece.