<b> Comparing club level rugby coaches and players’ perceptions of coaching effectiveness</b>

Abstract

The objective of this study was to compare players’ and coaches’ perceptions on coaching effectiveness. A total of 155 participants from the Puk Rugby institute (PRI) were available for this study (players, n = 142; coaches, n =13) (age: 18-55 years). Coaches completed the Coaching efficacy scale (CES) and players completed the adapted CES. The CES consists of 24 items measuring four constructs namely motivation, game strategy, technique and character building. Each item was rated on a 10 point Likert scale ranging from 0 (not at all effective) to 9 (extremely effective). High Cronbach alpha values were established for all four constructs on this specific population. Mixed models results indicated a statistical significant difference (p ≤ 0.05) on all four constructs measured when the perceptions of coaches and players were compared. A statistical significant difference exists between the coaches and players’ perception regarding the respective coaches’ total coaching effectiveness. In view of the inconsistent pattern found between the coaches and players perceptions on coaching effectiveness, coaches and clubs need to be more aware of the impact that players’ perceptions have regarding the outcome of coaching effectiveness.

Keywords: Coaching effectiveness, players’ perceptions, CES.