Coaches’ Coaching Competence in Relation to Athletes’ Perceived Progress in Elite Sport

This article looks at whether higher levels of perceived coaching competencies focusing on relational issues,were associated with higher satisfaction among elite athletes with their progress in sport. In order to explore this,we investigated elite athletes’ perceptions of their coaches’ coaching competence (CCS) and how theseperceptions related to their own satisfaction with their progress in sport during the last year. The CCS measurescore competencies for coaches as defined by the coaching profession (Moen & Federici, 2011). Our hypothesiswas partly confirmed as the results revealed that higher perceived coach competencies were associated withhigher athlete satisfaction with their progress in sport. This result applies for all the five dimensions of the CCS.However, the group of athletes who are most dissatisfied with their progress in sport do not follow this trend, asthey in general score higher on the different dimensions of the CCS compared to the nearby levels.