The perception of athletes from different soccer categories of coaches’ behavior: perceived and ideal behaviors

Abstract

The objective of this work was to investigate how soccer athletes from the Sub-15, Sub-17 and Sub-20 categories analyze the profile of their coach (the coach's perceived behavior) and how they would expect him to behave (the coach's ideal behavior) . Seventy-four Brazilian athletes took part in this study. They answered the Coach Behavior Scale - athlete's version - indicating the coach's perceived and ideal behavior. Results suggest that perceptions of the coach's behavior or of how they want the coach to behave do not change with respect to the age groups. Although the evaluation of the athletes about their coach was positive, average values of the coach's perceived behavior was always lower than the coach's ideal. Furthermore, there results showed no significant differences between answers related to perceived behavior and ideal behavior in regards to negative personal reward. Despite of the interesting aspects discussed in this article, the results indicate the need for further investigations.