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In nowadays we can observe a tendency of more and more young people to be involved with sport activities. This tendency is due to the fact that people recognize that they can gain helpful experiences through their participation in sports. That kind of experiences will be quit influential for the further development of their personalities. For example, the relationship that exists between the coaches and the athletes is quit influential. It is a strong, interrelated relationship. The coaches are giving the instructions that must be followed by the athletes. But coaches are also having another important role to play, a pedagogic one. In other words, coaches are not only responsible for the athletes improvement in terms of performances but also in terms of their personalities development. In order of these two to be realized, coaches must secure a healthy and appropriate climate for the athletes.
Motivation climate is one of the most vital objectives that coaches have to deal with. For the most of the coaches, motivation appears to be something too complex to be understood; therefore it is extremely difficult for them to motivate their athletes. Some other coaches, since motivation is complex, have the tendency to simplify their coaching techniques by latching on to one particular approach. Any response from the performers on training session or on a competitive event will be strongly linked with the motivational environment that coaches have provide. As a sequence motivational background and athletic performance are strongly linked.
Most of the athletes and particular young athletes have experienced motivational climates before their first contact with sports. At the age of five-six most of the children experience their first competitive and goal achievement involvement, through school environment. Ames (1992) examined the effects of motivation on the goals structure, of a school class. He suggested that classroom conditions lead to different kinds of achievement goals. According to his findings half of the students provided an ego goal behavior and the other half provided mastery goal behavior. Through ego goals perspective, the primary motivation for the students was to win and avoid failure rather than to learn. Furthermore, students did not analyze the outcome of their effort and thereby they did not learn from their efforts. That arises when winning became more important than learning. On the other hand, students that provided mastery goals behavior worked together to reach a common goal; the aim of their effort was not only to complete their task successfully but also to gain experiences through the task. Last but not least the final suggestion from Ames, based on that experiment, was that the disposition to learn, rather than to compete or to win, is affected by the way that teachers define the goals of the class.
The role of the teachers is to define the goals of the class. The same is for coaches. Coaches, on a sport perspective, are these who must define the goals of the team. The relationship between school class and sport team is very similar and close (Walling & Duda, 1992). In both cases, instructors must provide the appropriate motivational climate to achieve the best performance from their learners. Furthermore, through the appropriate motivational climate that the instructor provides, learners must expand their experiences and therefore their knowledge on the specific task. A research from Roberts et al (1991) focused on the relationship of goal perspectives to achievement strategies of young athletes. The research was based on practice sessions and competitive situations. The adults that provided ego orientation focused mostly on the competitive situation. They believed that by winning a competition they could improve their personal image. Furthermore, since ego oriented athletes prefer to compete, their interest for the training sessions were low. As a result, they did not reach any improvement though their training sessions. In contrast, the aim for the athletes that provided mastery orientation was to gain social approval from the coach in practice. Their intention was to improve their skills through the training sessions. Mastery oriented athlete seemed to be more satisfied with sport experiences. A further research on high school athletes was made from Lochbaum and Roberts (1993). Their findings accomplish the Roberts et al (1992) conclusions. They found that mastery-oriented athletes improved their skills through training sessions, while ego athlete through training session tried to demonstrate personal skills against other athletes. Furthermore, for mastery-oriented athletes training tasks was vital, because according on their believes, knowledge and experiences are gained through the participation in training sessions. On the other hand, ego-oriented athletes believed that coaches are the key-person for successful competitions. According to ego-oriented athletes believes, coaches are the only responsible for the outcomes of a competitive situation. That way of thinking makes the athletes less responsible and also makes them unable to react autonomously on specific competitive situations. According to Ames, (1992) instructors define the goals of the performers. As a sequence, instructors through their teaching methods provide ego or mastery climate that will guide the performers to adapt a mastery or ego goals.
The aim of every athlete that involved in a sport situation is to improve his/her performance. The duration of the training sessions that is needed before every competitive situation is mush greater than the duration of competition it self. As a result, athletes must improve their technique and skills during the training periods. Through training periods athletes and coaches must collaborate to draw up the appropriate tactic that it must be followed during competition. Furthermore, the best result will be maintained easier when there is a harmonic relationship between athletes and coaches. During training session individuals must focus on developing new skills, trying to understand their work and improve their level of competence. On the other hand, during competitive situation athletes must enjoy the experience to compete someone else and additionally to seek new acceptable methods to predominate against their opponents. Their concentration must be focalized upon effort within the context, and persisting in the task over time. By doing that they are going to improve their personal skills, abilities and as a result to ask for more challenging tasks. After the end of any competition coaches and athletes must evaluate the experiences that they gained through contest duration. Win or loss is a part of the contest and as a result is a part of their training. They must gain experiences not only from wins but also from losses and that will make them stronger and more competitive for the next challenges. Athletes can gain positive experiences when they are influenced by the appropriate motivational climate. That climate is the mastery-oriented one, which is the way that leads the athletes to gain positive experiences not only on the particular sport that they involved but also for their entire social life.
Coaches, through their training sessions must utilize specific strategies to provide mastery-oriented motivational climate for their athletes. The role for every coach is getting harder -according on researches that have been done within school environment-. Those researches suggest that students who received mastery motivational climates displayed more adaptive behaviour than those students who received ego-oriented motivational climates. (Ames & Archer, 1988; Ames & Maehr, 1988; Powell, 1990). Additionally, according to Nicholls (1998) and Roberts (1992) coaches are not the only responsible for the establishment of the motivational climate, but also two other social institutions play an important role, the school and the family. In other words, motivational climate does not depend only on the motivational strategies that coaches provide, but also on the motivational climate that parents and teachers provide. Independently of the motivational strategies that parents and teachers provide, coaches must build their instructional methods on the achievement of mastery-oriented motivational climate.
First of all, when coaches work with an instructional group, interruption or interaction by athletes from other groups should not be allowed. In addition athletes with similar learning needs must brought together and through group training sessions to improve their skills. Every athlete must have equal opportunities as his/her teammate. Therefore, coaches treatment towards their athletes must be equal and fair. Parallel, coaches must be definite on the determination of their ambitions on the task that provide to their athletes. Moreover, independently on the result of a game or a training task coaches must encourage their athlete and reward them continuously. Through the training sessions coaches must provide their athletes with new challenging tasks and new techniques that will motivate and help the athletes to develop new skills. When the athletes start to recognize their true ability and progress in the sport that they participate, they begin to establish mastery-oriented behavior towards their goals and objectives.
In conclusion, a mastery-oriented climate fosters social responsibility, develops lifetime skills, encourages a willingness to learn from practice, and the desire to persist (Roberts & Ommundsen, 1996; Solmon, 1996). That is the role of sport. Sport is a part of our life, therefore through sport experiences people form their personalities. Through a proper participation at any kind of sport, participants will gain experiences, which are going to influence their personality. Coaches must provide the appropriate motivational climate to the performers. So the gaining experiences for the performers to be useful not only on a specific event but also for their entire social life.
REFERENCES
F. C. Bakker et al, 1995. Sport psychology concepts and applications. England: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Thelma .S. Horn, 1992. Advanced In Sport Psychology. USA: Human Kinetics Publishers.
Rainer Martens, 1987. Coaches guide to sport psychology. Champaign,
Illinois: Human Kinetics Publishers.
Glyn C. Roberts, 1992. Motivation in sport and exercise. Champaign,
Illinois: Human Kinetics Publishers.
Glyn C. Roberts & Treasure, D. C, 1995. Achievement goals, motivational climate and achievement strategies and behaviors in sport. International Journal of Sport Psychology, vol.26, pp. 64-88.
Robert A. Paulson [1999]. A comparison of the coal orientations and perceived motivation climates of NCAA II basketball players and cross-country runners. Available from: http://www.puc.edu/Faculty/Bob_Paulson/Thesis/thesis.htm [Accessed: 13 March 2001].
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