Coach Roles

The roles and responsibilities of a coach are much more complex than the average person might think. Aside from being a supervisor and teacher, coaches serve as role models, mentors and friends to their athletes. The coach/athlete relationship is unique and multidimensional, with the potential to positively or negatively affect an athletes performance. Interactions of coach/athlete relationships are mainly based on the coach and players performance, age and gender. Throughout every level of athletics in society today, the gender of a head coach plays a significant role in the development and mindset of his or her players and their skills overall.

Frankl, Daniel, and Donald G Babbitt. “Gender Bias: A Study of High School Track & Field Athletes'

The study population included 112 males and 104 female high school track participants aged 15 to 18 years old. The purpose was to test the effects of the athletes gender, and their actual coaches gender on their judgement of a new, equally qualified, hypothetical male or female coach. Respondents were first split into two groups based on the gender of the athlete. The athletes were instructed to react to the ten questions based on how they felt about a hypothetical coach. Both the hypothetical male and female coach are described as very successful, recent college track competitors with Masters degrees specializing in coaching. In a hypothetical analysis, athletes of male coaches responded more positively to a new coach as compared to athletes who were coached by females. The gender of the athlete and the gender of their real life coach showed that there was a notable effect with their interactions. The first interaction effect revealed that male athletes coached by males were more receptive of being told that they had done something wrong than females coached by either a male or a female. A second interaction effect revealed that male athletes coached by females were less receptive of being told they had done something wrong. Only one question in the questionnaire, referring to a hypothetical coach, demonstrated significant differences for male and female athletes. The

Closeness was defined by Kelley's definition of relational interdependence and this states that closeness between two people may be assessed by the frequency, diversity, strength, and duration of their interactions. Participants were asked to evaluate a member of the strength and conditioning staff at their college. Coach and athlete gender, ethnicity, and age, and athlete self-efficacy were all examined and taken into account in the strength and conditioning domain. Athletes also took the Strength and Conditioning Self-Efficacy Scale, which determined the level of efficacy in the strength and conditioning department. While male and female athletes equally described strength and conditioning coaches as either supervisors or friends, male athletes scored significantly higher than female athletes on all modified RCI sub-scales, expressing greater behavioral closeness to strength and conditioning coaches. In addition, athlete age and length of the relationship all correlated positively with the self-efficacy measure. Results suggest that male athletes are more likely to engage in close associations with strength and conditioning coaches than females and that these close relationships both contribute to enhanced athlete self-efficacy. Coach ethnicity, age, and athlete ethnicity were not significant factors, though coach gender