Coaches’ Leadership Behaviors on Taiwanese Collegiate Taekwondo Competitors’ Satisfaction
Wang, Chun-Chieh, National Taiwan Sport University Wang, Yuan-Sheng, Tamkang University Henrich, Timothy, University of the Incarnate Word Liu, Hsin-I University of the Incarnate Word Abstract
The purpose of this research was to explore how the coaches’ leadership behaviors influenced Taiwanese collegiate Taekwondo competitors’ satisfaction in training or in the
competition by applying performance variables including weight division categories, training
sessions per week categories, years of experience in training categories, competition level
categories, and entrance examination level categories to this study. The Athlete Satisfaction
Questionnaire (ASQ) translated into Chinese by Wang (2004) was used to measure competitors’ satisfaction towards coaches’ leadership behaviors. Spearman’s Rank Order Correlation (rho) was used to measure this research question. There were low positive
correlations between total satisfaction score and training sessions per week categories (r
= .176). There were low negative correlations between total satisfaction score and
competition level categories (r = -.206). Taiwanese collegiate Taekwondo competitors’
satisfaction had positive relationships to training frequency and competition level of
competitors.
Introduction
Today Taekwondo competitors all around the world would make great effort to win
the victory for their own country; apparently, coaches played a critical role for competitors
to reach their common goals. Vernacchia, McGuire, & Cook (1995) defined a coach as the
instructor, creator, provider and deliverer of the sport experience and training methods to the
athlete. A coach is responsible for realizing the mental status of the competitors in training or in the competition. So the relationship between coaches’ leadership behaviors and competitors’ satisfaction in training or in the competition became an important issue that needed to be noticed. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to investigate the satisfaction
of competitors towards the leadership behaviors of coaches by adopting performance
variables to analyze the relationship between coaches and athletes.
The purpose of this research was to explore how the coaches’ leadership behaviors
influenced Taiwanese collegiate Taekwondo competitors’ satisfaction in training or in
competition by analyzing performance variables including weight division categories,
training sessions per week categories, years of experience in training categories, competition
level categories, and entrance examination level categories to this study. It should be noted
that the entrance examination is used for college admissions and placement on the
Methodology
There were 195 participants including 74 females and 121 males in this study. They
were all selected as Taiwanese collegiate Taekwondo competitors. The subjects were
competitors from 9 different universities in Taiwan. The average age of the participants was
19.86 years old. The average years of experience in training for the participants were 9.32
years and training sessions per week were 4.99 days.
Research Instruments
There were five performance variables including weight division, training sessions
per week, years of experience in training, competition level, and entrance examination. The
Athlete Satisfaction Questionnaire (ASQ) was designed by Riemer and Chelladurai (1998);
15 dimensions with 56 items were roughly developed in the questionnaire to classify the facets of athlete satisfaction reliability estimates (Cronbach's α) ranged from .78 to .95. The Athlete Satisfaction Questionnaire (ASQ) was translated into Chinese by Wang (2004) who
adapted it for studying the training environment and culture differences between Taiwan and
the United State of America. Wang (2004) eliminated inappropriate subscales such as medical
personnel and budget. Forty nine items and 13 subscales in the Athlete Satisfaction
Questionnaire (ASQ) were answered by each Taekwondo competitor. These factors were
training and instruction, team task contribution, team social contribution, ethics, team
integration, personal dedication, academic support services, and external agents.
Instrument Reliability
Athlete Satisfaction Questionnaire (ASQ)
The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for ASQ was .958. The reliability analysis in Table 1 showed Cronbach’s alpha for the previous studies by Wang (2004) and for this research. The results of the study had similar to those coefficients reported by Wang (2004).
Table 1
Cronbach’s Alpha Coefficient of the ASQ Survey Instrument
Athlete Satisfaction Questionnaire (ASQ) Wang’s study Current study
Individual performance .78 .725
Team performance .65 .733
Ability utilization .80 .767
Strategy .90 .835
Personal treatment .82 .911
Training and instruction .88 .845
Team task contribution .80 .764
Team social contribution .68 .750
Ethics .68 .553
Team integration .72 .835
Personal dedication .71 .768
Academic support services .69 .579
External agents .71 .539
Total .95 .958
Note. Adapted from Wang, 2006, p. 55
Results
What are the relationships between the total satisfaction score among performance
level categories of Taiwanese collegiate Taekwondo competitors?
We first hypothesized that there were no relationships between the total satisfaction
score and performance variables of weight division categories, training sessions per week
categories, years of experience in training categories, competition level categories, and
entrance examination level categories of Taiwanese collegiate Taekwondo competitors.
Assumption testing. The relationship between the total satisfaction score among
performance variables of weight division categories, training sessions per week categories,
years of experience in training categories, competition level categories, and entrance
examination level categories of Taiwanese collegiate Taekwondo competitors were evaluated using Spearman’s Rank Order Correlation (rho). There were low positive correlations
between total satisfaction score and training sessions per week categories (r = .176). There
were low negative correlations between total satisfaction score and competition level
categories (r = -.206). Table 2 showed the competitors’ total satisfaction score and
performance variables data. Table 2
Spearman’s rho Correlation between the Total Satisfaction Score and Performance Variables Data Measure Weight division category Training sessions per week category Years of experience in training category Competition level category Entrance examination level category Total satisfaction score .088 .176* -.057 -.206** -.016
Discussions Conclusions
The researcher found low positive correlations between total satisfaction score and
training sessions per week categories; low negative correlations between total satisfaction
score and competition level categories were also found in the research. There were few
relative researches which focused on studying training sessions per week categories in the
sport of martial art. Most researchers preferred to investigate the technical phase instead of
psychological phase of martial art sport; thus, this research attempted to investigate the relationship between the competitors’ performance and their psychological factors. This argument was different from the results of the present study. Hsu (2004) supported the
correlation between satisfaction and competition level, and there were no correlations
between weight division and years of experience in training in the 2003 Taekwondo National
games in Taiwan. Also, Chang (2003) presented different findings in which there was no
significant correlation between satisfaction and performance levels in middle school track
and field players in Taiwan. In contrast, the present study found that collegiate competitors’
performance had relationship to their satisfaction. It was because middle school players did
not necessarily have plans for their future; they just followed their coaches’ instructions
without having too much independent thinking. Compared with middle school players,
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