The effect of the community sports leaders award on coaching efficacy - Essay Example

The relevance of the work is displayed through the fact that there can hardly be found any profound researches which confirm the relationship of the coach training and the achievements of the athletes. The fact, that coaches should understand the role of the education efficacy as well as the main measurements and requirements towards this efficacy, which will ultimately lead to the higher indices of sport achievements among students and youth athletes. Coaching efficacy is measured through the extent, to which the coaches believe their efforts will provide positive results of their training for the athletes.

Thus, it is necessary to provide the basic research in the area of possible connections between the self confidence of the coaches and the achievements of their athletes, thus giving the ground for further research in the similar areas. Youth sport coaches are expected to develop knowledge in a wide range of disciplines including anatomy, physiology, sport psychology and pedagogy (Martens, 1997), they traditionally received little formal training through coach education programmes. The effectiveness of these programmes has been questioned (Douge & Hastie, 1993; Woodman, 1993) and large scale coach education programmes have been criticised for their low ecological validity (Gilbert & Trudel, 1999; Houseworth, Davis & Dobbs, 1990).

More recently the importance of coaching to athlete development and national sporting success has been recognised (Sports Coach UK, 2002,) and as a result it has been identified that effective instruction is crucial to the pursuit of optimal sporting performance (Hodges & Franks, 2002). The more effective the instruction, the more fully the instructors role will benefit the athlete. Such instruction requires expert knowledge and a range of skills such as planning and organising in order to facilitate learning experiences and athlete performance.

Coaches must also develop a repertoire of sport specific techniques and tactics,